從低通角度感覺這代可操作性比12代還是多不少的.就是最開始幾場戰(zhàn)斗比較難受,作者也是第一章放棄了困難模式,速通視頻也是要么先練級要么卡bug過.后面就很好玩了,可調(diào)整操作的地方非常多

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/357204-xenoblade-chronicles-3/80158125

Finished my first playthrough on Hard a little while ago. I struggled through most of the game until I figured out (and looked up) some of the optimized setups, and I was surprised at how easily the game basically fell over after I got two Ogres with Break arts.

In the vein of the XC1 low level game, I thought it would be neat to test a replay with the goal of intentionally keeping level low.

Here's the rules I'm following for now:

• New Game. (I know NG+ allows you to level down, but there's no way to ditch your class EXP/inventory effectively. Monolith, please allow NG to level down after clearing the game!)

• DLC allowed.

• Hard mode, except for Chapter 1.

• No BEXP usage.

• Chain Attack overkill turned off.

• No EXP-boosting food. (CP boosts are fine if they don't boost EXP.)

• Limit EXP when possible. For the most part, this means "Mandatory Battles Only".

There are a couple of problems that come with playing on NG and trying to limit EXP. For one, if you fight a multi-enemy battle and die after killing one of them, you keep the experience gained. In other words, you would have to reset from a save upon losing. This is such a pain that I've opted to just keep the EXP from fight attempts (on this playthrough, anyway) unless I conclude the fight is impossible without additional Nopon coins/accessories/etc. Once I've finished a run, I'm probably going to try and optimize for the minimum EXP possible.

I'm not totally sure if the game can be beaten with this ruleset without access to all of the optional stuff which makes optimized setups good. Level 20 Ogre, Signifer, FMJ, Ultimate Qigong, Soaring Tempest/Mighty Beat, etc. Additionally, the Hero quests all have their own interesting boss fights which would be fun to fight at lower levels. I'll see how far I can get without optional classes.

I don't think the EXP formulas have been datamined yet, but I did some labbing on my main save to get a feel for how EXP is scaled according to level differences.

• Level 3 party vs. Level 13 enemy: 96 EXP

• Level 13 party vs. Level 13 enemy: 48 EXP

• Level 23 party vs. Level 13 enemy: 17 EXP

Here's some of what I've noticed so far...

• If someone gains a class rank during battle, they are instantly healed to full HP.

• Fights with a single enemy are very doable if you control Zephyr Mio.

• Make sure you run around collecting Nopon chests from optional areas in order to get silver coins for class upgrades. I traveled to upper Aetia as soon as I got out of Colony 9, and went to Elaice Highway/Dannagh Desert as soon as Chapter 3 started.

• To avoid encounters near important chests/examine points: aggro the enemy, run out of range, then immediately run back towards them. Enemies which have lost aggro will idle for a little bit, then vanish and respawn. In most cases, you can run past their respawn point before they respawn and grab the chest they were guarding.

and here's a short catalog of my experience:

• I think Chapter 1 on Hard is humanly impossible with this ruleset (I could not beat Drifter Ropl at LV5), unless someone comes up with a game-breaking AI exploit. Without being able to control Eunie, you have to employ Nopon Strap strategies which require TAS-level luck in order for her to get Regenerate off before the entire party crumbles. If you could control Eunie, I think Chapter 1 could be beaten on Hard.

• I lost to the Wolffs several times midway through the battle when entering Alfeto Valley (while I was still playing on Hard), which gained some EXP for me, so I ended Chapter 1 at LV9 or so.

• The Aspar which grants Chain attack access is the first real boss. I was LV10-11 here and the damage he puts out is silly, even when you only need to get him to ~80% HP. The key for this fight is to control Noah and Break him on his first use of Snake Eyes. He has extremely high Break resistance (like 80% IME) so you'll have to reset until the Break hits. After that, I controlled Mio, got aggro, and turned him away from the rest of the party, then evaded his Arts until the HP barrier was hit. This took tens of retries.

• The Colony 4 sequence is brutal. You're forced to fight the Levnis/Keves Blaster pair near the boulder you need to move - their aggro range is so long that you cannot pass their trigger before they despawn.

I was LV11 reaching the Ethel fight. I retried so many times that I was LV13 after beating her.

This fight is tough for a lot of reasons - there's 4 enemies, and all of them can mess you up. Ethel with Power Charge is so strong that Mio needs to be taking her aggro at all times, but the Keves Blocker can Target Lock you, and the Keves Sniper can inflict Evasion Down. If the Blocker Target Locks more than half your team before the Rescuer and Sniper are dead, reset.

I had everyone on their default classes except for Eunie/Taion, who were swapped. I'll use acronyms for classes - Z/Zephyr, HG/Heavy Guard, MG/Medic Gunner, T/Tactician. I think this was the strategy which finally worked for me on this fight:

1. Control HG (with Variable Turret and Crash Out set).

2. Draw your weapons. Target the Keves Sniper, set tactics to Focus on Target.

3. Use Crash Out on the Keves Sniper to distract him and Ethel.

4. Switch to Z. Target Ethel and use Butterfly Blade and Speed Demon. Target the Keves Sniper again.

5. Switch to T. Dash to Z and place an Evasion Up field with Stormy Skies.

6. Switch to MG. Dash to Z and place an Attack Up field.

7. Control whichever tank has Ethel's aggro. Prioritize the Sniper, then the Rescuer. It's likely HG will die during this sequence if he has Ethel's aggro. If so, allow T to revive HG and swap to controlling MG. If T gets aggro and dies after reviving HG, don't revive T. If MG dies at any point before Ethel's support is killed, reset - Z/HG will not last long enough for MG to get their Talent Art.

8. Focus on Ethel for a bit to draw some more aggro, then kill the Blocker.

9. At this point, if T and HG are dead, revive them with MG. If MG takes aggro, kite Ethel around the field until a tank regains aggro - your dash is faster than Ethel's running speed.

10. Control whichever tank has Ethel's aggro. HG will eventually die if aggro'd, so you'll end up controlling Z after some point, which you'll need to do for the remainder of the fight. Swap to MG/T sometimes to place fields. Keep Speed Demon and Evasion Up fields on. Use Wide Slash when Ethel uses Cross Impact, and Gemini Strike on Million Flash/Silver Cyclone. If Ethel lands a Cross Impact and uses Silver Cyclone, you might be boned. Otherwise, evade tank to victory.

• The Colony 4 Consul is trivial if you control Z, albeit extremely long - stay focused. Make sure you swap to the Nopon Doll accessory. If you don't and Z dies, the fight is effectively lost. Unlike Ethel, the Consul has a massive attack range and he will one shot your healers from across the field if they ever take aggro. Use Wide Slash on the fireball attack that inflicts Shackle Block, and save Gemini Strike for Muscle Knockout. Stay inside HG's field effect at all times.

• Explore Ribbi Flats for lots of Nopon coins.

I'm now about to fight Valdi for his Hero quest on Elsie's Spout at LV15 or so.

Valdi's Hero Quest

--------------------------------
Valdi on Elsie's Spout: (Equites LV20, Velitas LV20, Valdi LV21)
--------------------------------

Noah LV16 - SF
Mio LV15 - Zephyr
Eunie LV16 - MG
Taion LV15 - MG
Lanz LV16 - HG
Sena LV15 - SF

Before this battle, I went chest hunting in Dannagh Desert and Elaice
Highway to get lots of Nopon coins and SP. Interlinks are now available
and they're going to be a very important mechanic from here on out.

Don't forget the Tool Belt on one of your SFs to get a massive damage
boost.

This is basically a battle of attrition. If you can kill the Equites
before one of the tanks croaks, you're golden.

1. Control HG. Target Valdi and use Crash Out. Hopefully all the enemies
aggro you. Then use Variable Turret to tank for a bit.

2. Control both MGs and set Attack Up fields. Target the Equites and
set tactics to Focus Target.

3. Swap between the MGs and the current tank in order to place Attack Up
as soon as the art is refreshed. Make sure the tanks stand in each others'
barriers. If one of the healers takes aggro or the tanks get low on HP,
interlink both Noah and Eunie. Control Eunie and spam Feather Typhoon/
Raptor Raid while Noah spams Glorious Wing.

4. After Equites, the Velitas should be targeted. If none of the MGs died,
you should have Regenerate charged, so use it.

5. Valdi alone isn't a threat as long as you take aggro with/control Z.
Beware - his Trickshot/Surprise Beat WILL one-shot a party member given
the chance, and he will murder the MGs if they aggro him, so swap as
needed to prevent the MGs from getting aggro.

-------------------------------------------
Velitas LV21

This is free EXP/CP.

-------------------------------------------
Unfinished Siege-Lev LV22
-------------------------------------------

Noah LV16: Flash Fencer (FF)
Mio ?LV16: Z
- Defensive Soul for +12% Phys Def (Use Silver coins to rank up to LV5 HG)
- Nopon Doll accessory
- Tailwind III (obtained via Gold Nopon coins)
- Crash Out/Wide Slash, Butterfly Blade, Speed Demon
Eunie LV16: MG
Taion LV16: MG
Lanz LV16: HG
Sena LV16: MG
Valdi LV16

All Healers have Soothing Breath I gems.

This fight is a massive sandbag-fest and an endurance test - thanks to
Siege-Lev's innate defense, Defense Up from Energy Charge, and my
low level, he took close to an hour to bring down on the final attempt.

I think this comp (3 Healers + Valdi, HG, Z, FF) is probably
mandatory to win. (You might be able to swap one MG with a Tactician
to improve evasion reliability). There are a couple of reasons:

- Siege-Lev's autoattacks deal probably ~1k at base to a Zephyr, and
it has a crit rate around 50% from my experience, which is enough to
OHKO Zephyr Mio.
- Siege-Lev has like 90% Break resist normally, and is immune to Break
during Energy Charge, so Break strats are worthless.
- With HG's defensive aura, Defensive Soul, and Valdi's Defense Up
field, his auto attacks get reduced to approximately 550, 800-900 on
crit. This makes Z a 3HKO instead of a 2HKO.
- Even with all this defense, 550/hit is still too high to facetank.
3 Healers + Valdi still can't keep up with the healing, but what they
can do is sandbag by reviving each other.
- With a Nopon Doll equipped, Z immediately regains aggro upon reviving.
With Soothing Breath, Z gets revived with close to full HP.

All this text and I haven't actually talked about the fight or Siege-Lev's
arts... Obviously, getting hit by any art is instant death, no exceptions.
Here's its art list and strategies:

- Energy Charge: This is basically a nice break. Relax, charge your evasion
arts.
- Humbling Smash: Evade this preferably with Wide Slash.
- Heat Exhaust: This art must be diverted away from the party. Valdi
simply cannot remove Blaze before everyone dies, so don't even run Cure
Bullet on him. The key to surviving this art is that its AoE is calculated
according to the target's position when the art goes off. In other words,
you can dash to the other side of the field when this art comes up, and
it will only hit the target.
- The laser beam thing: This is only used under ~60% HP, and immediately
after Energy Charge. The AoE is (seemingly) not like Heat Exhaust -
it seems to hit the target and then a cone-based area in front of the
beam cannon, as you'd expect. You need to maneuver to avoid this before
Energy Charge is finished.

With all that said, here's the fight:

1. Control Z. Stand next to HG, take aggro, and evade arts as needed.

2. Siege-Lev should start with Energy Charge, then Humbling Smash and
Heat Exhaust. I believe the art order is random after the first loop, but it
does cycle between all arts before repeating.

3. Avoid interlinking with Z - they need to moving constantly, and
interlinking removes dashing.

4. When Chain Attack is up, use it as a get-out-of-jail-free card. There
will be many times where Z is dead and the medics are sandbagging to revive
each other. Should prioritize Valdi, Mio, Lanz, and FF's chain orders
in order to reduce aggro to medics and get some damage in.

5. When the laser cannon is used, immediately move everyone out of the AoE.
The medics tend to congregate around the tanks, so everyone needs to move
ASAP. The cone AOE doesn't follow the target after it's set, so if you move
everyone behind it before the cannon fires, only the target will take damage
(regardless of where the target is).

It took probably 7 or 8 chain attacks for it to go down for me. Several
hours of attempts, but man, it was pretty satisfying to see that final
chain attack end.

Evasion luck plays a pretty big role in this fight.
Speed Demon makes a massive difference, and not having Speed Demon up
can result in a sandbag death spiral of evasion failures, where Z is revived
only to instantly die to a ~1500 crit autoattack or a ~4000 damage art.
With this setup, Z's evasion is high enough that it can be relied on.

Entering Rae-Bel Tableland at LV17. The level gap is starting to widen
substantially, and IIRC there's not many forced fights left until the
end of Chapter 3, where the opponent will be the infamously OP Consul J.

Next up, revisiting Aetia and Elaice Highway now that I have the ability
to climb.

-------------------------------------
Auto-Lev LV24 (Old Kana Battlefield)
-------------------------------------

Party is LV17.

Visited upper Aetia, Elgares Depths, and revisited the climbing
spots. Unfortunately, Zeon and Teach's hero quests both start with combat, and
you can't even get up Melnath's Shoulder/Yzana Plains without progressing
past those points, so those are out of bounds for now.

Pretty much the same deal as the Siege-Lev - slow but extremely powerful
auto-attacks and some arts to watch out for.

More notably, the normal AoE attack this boss regularly uses is much more
dangerous than Siege-Lev's Heat Exhaust. This is mainly because:

- it has extremely fast startup
- the healer AI in this fight REALLY likes to congregate around the tanks,
so if you let the AI handle healing, they will all die.

I wanted to get CP on off-classes, so I didn't use an optimal setup here, but
you should be golden if you use the same setup as Siege-Lev and sandbag to
victory. I did use Tactician Sena to set Evasion Up fields, while War Medic
Lanz and Valdi handled the rest.

-------------------------------------
Gem-Crazy Spiders (5 LV24 Spiders + Princess Arachno LV26)
-------------------------------------

Party is LV18.

Unfortunately, this fight is kind of a wall for several reasons:

- The spiders are very tanky, and Prince Arachno actually **infinitely**
spawns them. In other words, a speedkill is required to reduce XP...
- ... but the only way to effectively kill the spiders is to use AoE...
- ... and my only source of AoE damage currently is Interlink...
- ... which is pretty weak until charged up with Fusion Arts...
- ... which I only have one of, since I'm <LV20.

All of these things mean that attempting this battle will mean I'll gain
several levels on a winning run, even if it is winnable. Because of this,
I'm going to start doing the optional Hero quests. The XP gains should be
minimal, the additional options will be fun to play around, and the optional
fights will still provide interesting challenges.

However, labbing this battle out did help me come up with a strategy that
I'll be using for several of the upcoming early-game multi-enemy battles
until I have AoE arts.

I dub thee, "MGMGMG" strats. Here's how it goes:

Set up the party for one tank, two attackers, and three Medic Gunners.

1. Manually control the tank (for me, Zephyr with max Agility setup). Set
party to "Gather around Leader".

2. As the enemy approaches, use a stance (Speed Demon).

3. When the enemy starts their first attack, use an attack which draws aggro
or evades (Wide Slash)

4. **Immediately** after launching the attack, manually select your Medic
Gunners and place Attack Up fields in the same location.

5. Interlink the entire party. While interlinking, disable
"Gather Around Leader".

6. Position the party in the fields and spam AoEs.

With that laid out, here are the optional Hero quests currently available,
listed in order of difficulty...

- (Alexandria) LV21-22 Alexandria's lackeys at Dies Arch
- (Teach) LV24-25 Keves enemies battling Kyrie in Alfeto Valley
- (Zeon) LV22 Colony 9 Squad
- (Gray) LV28 Gray

-------------------------------
Alexandria's lackeys - 5x LV21-22 soldiers
-------------------------------

Party is LV18.

The first debut of MGMGMG strats. Fortunately, this fight is a cakewalk
if the fields are placed correctly:

- there's only one enemy tank
- the enemies tend to congregate because they use melee weapons
- they're not that bulky

Eunie's interlink should blow these guys up if Noah's Glorious Wing is
well-timed. If you can kill a couple before interlinks run out, you're
golden.

Of course, the actual Alexandria quest fight is impossible at this point,
they're all LV40+. However, it does give you access to all chests near Colony
Iota - you don't need to fight Alexandria to get them.

-------------------------------
LV24-25 Keves enemies (Teach's Hero Quest)
Blocker x1, Warrior x2, Sniper x2, Rescuer x1
-------------------------------

Party is still LV18.

This fight is far more brutal than Alexandria's mooks. It's basically
Ethel's support on steroids, and this time you don't have the numbers
advantage. There is absolutely no margin for error.

Here's the party setup:

LV18 Noah: Flash Fencer LV5
LV18 Mio: ?Zephyr LV10
- Max agility setup (117 Agility).
- Crash Out, Butterfly Blade, Wide Slash, Speed Demon
LV18 Eunie: Medic Gunner LV10
LV18 Taion: Medic Gunner LV10
LV18 Lanz: Medic Gunner LV5
LV18 Sena: Ogre LV10
LV17 Valdi

By completing every available sidequest at this point which doesn't require
battle and obtaining every available chest:

- Noah's Soul Tree: 35%
- Eunie's Soul Tree: 32%
- Lanz's Soul Tree: 26%

All healers have Soothing Breath I gems.

MGMGMG strategy is still being employed here, but with some modifications.
The exact positioning of the party and enemies is very important.

1. Start the battle and control Zephyr Mio.

2. Immediately, make a beeline towards the enemy **without** taking out
your weapons.
- If you let the enemy come to you, they will spread out and ruin the AoE
setup. There is no positioning you can take to keep them together other
than to run at them.

3. Once you get about two dash-lengths from the enemy, take out weapons and
immediately use Speed Demon. Set party to Gather around Leader.

4. Use Wide Slash on the nearest enemy. If the Keves Blocker taunts you and
inflicts Target Lock, reset.
- The Target Lock itself actually doesn't matter. What does matter is that
his Target Lock range is **insanely** long (like 4 dash-lengths) and it will
mess up the enemy's positioning.

5. Immediately after using Wide Slash, manually control the MGs and place
3 Attack Ups on the same location.

6. Interlink **only Eunie and Taion**. Unset Gather Around Leader.

7. Alternate between controlling Zephyr and Eunie/Taion. Make sure that
Eunie/Taion's first art is Typhoon Field, and that you alternate between
Raptor Raid and Typhoon Field.
- Eunie/Taion's hit rates are very unreliable. If they miss too many enemies,
the tank will die and you have to reset.

8. When Eunie/Taion's interlink ends, one of the squishy enemies should be
dead. If not, reset.

9. Control Zephyr and continue to gather aggro. If there are enemies which
have low HP, use Focus on Target to get rid of them.

10. If the MGs set down some Attack Up fields on their own, interlink Lanz
and Sena to take advantage of it. Alternate between Ray of Punishment and
Burning Rain. Make sure Zephyr stands in their field to reduce incoming
damage.

11. If Mio gets low on HP, interlink her and spam Glorious Wing/Dragon Tail.
Ideally, this is done during Lanz/Sena's interlink so Noah/Mio have time to
gather aggro before Lanz's interlink wears off and their aggro vanishes.
Otherwise, the healers may be targeted.

12. If the whole party is alive at this point and at least three enemies are
dead, you should be able to sandbag your way to victory. Chain Attack the
Blocker just to seal the deal.

This strategy is painfully unreliable, but it's the only one I could get
to work. Unreliability is due to:

- every enemy is extremely dodgy/bulky/tanky - hit rates are in the 60s
- they all hit like trucks, especially the Warriors which have an AoE
art which will one-shot non-tanks from full HP
- if the tank dies and there are more than 3 enemies alive, their auto
attacks are strong/fast enough to murder every healer before than can
rez you

Here are the requirements for this strategy to work:

- The Blocker needs to not use Target Lock at the beginning of the fight
- Mio needs to survive for 3 Zephyr-arts worth of incoming damage before
Eunie/Taion get Typhoon Field off
- this is completely down to Agility/block luck
- The enemies need to be positioned for Typhoon Field to hit 4-5 of them
on every usage
- Typhoon Field needs to land and not miss
- Mio needs to continue dodging during Lanz/Sena's interlink
- No healers can die until Lanz/Sena interlink (or a revival chain will
aggro enemies and kill off all the healers)

Not good odds.

This took probably a couple hundred attempts of refining the
strategy (thankfully most were quick), and the actual execution is
mechanically difficult - I physically could not move my hands fast enough
to consistently set up the Attack Up fields correctly on my Switch joycons.
(Dualshock 4 FTW.)

And after all that, the party is *still* LV18. Great.

-----------------------------
LV26 Inscrutable Teach
-----------------------------

This fight is pretty easy. The fight ends when Teach hits 50% HP, and
he has no AoE attacks, so you can sandbag to victory with 3 Healers + Valdi
as long as you perform a Chain Attack when he buffs himself with Awakening.

No EXP for this.

-----------------------------
LV27 Moebius G
-----------------------------

Party is LV18.

When I said Teach was easy, I meant it in a relative sense.

Because this guy is **legitimately** trivial. Like, so absolutely braindead
that the AI auto-battle would win this fight for you 9 times out of 10. You
could pit a level 1 AI party against this guy and still probably beat him,
even though it would take 3 days. Just bring 3 Healers + Teach and you win.

He has one AoE move to watch out for, Calamity Charge, but it's extremely
telegraphed and its AoE is decided when the art is first launched. You can
call your allies away from the AoE and the art will only damage the
original target. It's actually pretty comical to watch the intended target
get launched into the air from across the map.

With this guy's defeat, we get Teach, Thaumaturge, and the party jumps from
LV18 straight to LV20, and we also get access to the rest of Dannagh Desert.
A welcome reward for spending hours on a painful battle full of... random
Keves soldiers.

Unfortunately, since Mio is the inheritor of Thaumaturge, someone else is
gonna have to take over Zephyr duty so others can unlock it. That'll probably
be Taion for me, since I already Nopon-coin'd him to level 5 for some other
strategies.

Next stop is probably to go beat up Zeon and his buddies. MGMGMG Interlink
strats won't work on them since they have the bulk of boss enemies, so we'll
see how things play out.

I did try out Gray for about an hour, but there's really no way to get
around Violent Streak and simultaneously deal with his massive Art damage
with the tools I have right now. I think he'll be completely doable once
I'm near the end of C3 and have access to an Ogre Breaker.

-------------------------
Zeon's Squad (Zeon's Hero Quest)
LV21 Eilis, LV21 Fox, LV21 Roald, LV22 Zeon
-------------------------

Party is LV20.

At level 18, this fight was pretty brutal - the enemies were so tanky and
DPS was so bad that they'd quickly overwhelm you.

With the extra gem, Master Skill, and Master Art from reaching level 20, this
fight went from a struggle into a cakewalk. I guess it doesn't help this quest
opened up a long time ago, so enemy levels aren't on par.

Either way, no need to Interlink. Thurmaturge Mio made her debut in this
battle for me, and her Armor Veil field seriously comes in handy. With a good
Zephyr tank, you should be able to manage.

-------------------------
Agnus Strike Force
LV23 Agnus Soldier x15
-------------------------

These guys are made of glass, so throw out AoE Master Arts ad infinitum for
an easy win.

Party is now LV21.

-------------------------
Agnus Strike Force
LV23 Agnus Bomber, LV23 Agnus Duoblade, LV23 Agnus Medic, LV23 Testudo
-------------------------

Another fight with not too many issues. Again, everything except the
Testudo is made of glass. Just watch out for the Testudo's cannon AoE art.

-------------------------
LV24 Moebius B
-------------------------

Party is LV21.

The infamous newb killer.

Now here's a nice challenge. This is a pretty fun fight - he's not nearly as
tanky as Moebius G from Teach's hero quest, and his Art patterns force you to
think quickly.

Moebius B doesn't look very threatening at first glance. His auto-attack is
**extremely** slow, and while it inflicts Blaze, that can be dealt with
if you have 3 healers in the party.

The real danger in this fight is the combination of Blaze Party and Blast
Wave. At LV21, the entire party can survive Blast Wave from full HP - it deals
around 800 damage. However, it's difficult to heal off the damage from
Blaze Party before he next uses Blast Wave, and if you fail, the party will
immediately be wiped out. The fight can be going well one moment and
looking at the retry screen 10 seconds later.

Add in the Healer Bind art and he gets quite dangerous.

His enrage art is a beam attack which is basically identical to Moebius G's
Calamity Charge, with identical AoE behavior. If you call the team to one
side, he will only damage the intended target.

The key to surviving this fight is proper healer setup.

One healer needs to be a War Medic. For me, this is Lanz since nobody else
has it unlocked yet. Equip the War Medic with Lifesaving Expertise, Soothing
Breath, and a Wing Necklace (recharges 40% arts after reviving someone).

If you control the War Medic and save your Cure Bullets for when he uses
Blaze Party, you should be able to survive. Make sure you stand outside his
line of sight to avoid damage from Blaze Party.

Make sure you save your Chain Attacks for legitimately hairy situations -
if the team isn't healthy, be prepared to immediately Chain Attack when
Blast Wave is used.

You'll have to adapt to the situation a lot. Near the end of my winning run,
I had Noah/Mio (healer)/Zeon alive at one point, and I just barely got a
Chain Attack off before Blast Wave, which saved Mio's life and the run.

I should mention a couple of observations about his grab move, Power Hold:

- Ouroboros forms are immune to it.
- The grab can miss/be evaded, but the startup on the art is so fast that
evading it with Wide Slash is close to frame-perfect.
- The second hit (the throw) can be nullified by fields/Armor Veil. Running
a Thaumaturge is a good idea.

No levels from this fight.

With Teach and Zeon obtained, it's back to the main show:

----------------------------------
LV26 Princess Arachno, x5 LV24 Worker Arachnos (Riku's Hero Quest)
----------------------------------

Now this is much more reasonable. With more Master Art and gem slots, Zephyrs
can tank and accumulate aggro much more easily. As long as dodge luck is
decent, the adds fall quickly, and the Princess will only be able to spawn
a couple of sets with Battle Pheromone across the fight.

That doesn't mean you can auto-battle though - if you don't Chain Attack on
Queen Bomb, you instantly lose. Pay some attention after the enrage point.

Party levels to LV22 after this fight. Yumsmith is now available, and I
immediately put her on it to get a head start on CP.

-----------------------------------
LV28 Lambda Ferronis
-----------------------------------

Pretty easy if you pay attention. Lambda does not auto-attack - you only have
to watch for arts. Here's the list:

- Fire Blindly is an AoE that hits random party members. It's not that
strong, but RNG can easily bone you, so make sure you evade it. The number of
shots appears to increase as the battle continues.
- Dust Sweep is a very slow single-target, but it appears to have a 100% hit
rate, so you need to evade it with an art or you will immediately die.
- He can summon two Agnian auto-levs (Avis, Testudo), but it's pretty rare.
I actually saved my chain attacks for one of these so I could get rid of
them faster. He summoned 3 sets for me.
- Lambda Cannon is like the Moebius enrage AoEs - frontward AoE set on the
target's location at cast-time, so move your party to the side accordingly.
The startup is surprisingly fast, so pay attention. Obviously, this is a
OHKO on any hit - I used my tank's interlink after moving my party to negate
the damage.

Party levels to LV23 after this fight. With the CP from the
Lambda battle, Sena got to rank 3 Yumsmith - I have just enough coins to
level her to rank 10 for Flashback access, which gives her an acceptable
Break chance if classed back to Ogre. It's not 100%, and her hit rates in
general are not ideal, but it works well enough.

I'm going to go back and do Gray's hero quest now that I have reliable
reaction combos.

----------------------------
LV28 Gray (Gray's hero quest)
----------------------------

With a consistent Ogre Breaker, this battle is no problem. Gray's AoE damage
is still pretty dangerous, but if you control the Breaker and get acceptable
Break luck, you can stop him from murdering the whole party.

----------------------------
LV25 Keves Soldier x5 (Gray's Hero Quest)
----------------------------

Nothing to report here.

----------------------------
LV26 Keves Soldier x3, LV26 Levnis x2 (Gray's Hero Quest)
----------------------------

A bit more dangerous because of the Levnises, but still not too much of
a problem. With three tanks (Zephyr, Guardian Commander, Zeon) standing in
each others' fields, the incoming damage can be outhealed with 3 healers.

And with that, Gray's hero quest is complete. I probably won't be using FMJ for a little while, since I still need to decide who's going to be its primary user. (Debating between Noah and Eunie - Noah's stats are optimal, but Eunie's chain attack synergy with FMJ is godlike)

Consul J is the next roadblock. The party is LV23. As expected, his DPS is absolutely ridiculous - tanks cannot hold out for more than 15 seconds or so before they crumple. Sena's Break chance is unfortunately not that great right now, and she misses probably 30% of her hits outright.

I don't have a Break Brooch for her, which I think I'm going to need to make this fight consistent. Does anyone know the earliest source of Break Brooches? Is it on the airdrop loot table anywhere before Great Cotte Falls?

Still on Consul J right now. I've been driving across the USA this week, so haven't had time to put in serious attempts.

Based on the labbing I've done so far, he's absolutely beatable at LV23. If I somehow beat Princess Arachno at LV18, I would have been forced to go back and do the hero quests at this point anyway. I believe Guardian Commander and Thaumaturge are absolutely mandatory for this fight.

Here's the strategy I'm using right now.

------------------------------------
LV29 Consul J
------------------------------------

Party is LV23.

Here we are, the end of Chapter 3, and the infamous Consul J.

Why is he so infamous?

- He has probably the highest enemy attack speed in the game, attacking about
once every 1.5 seconds.
- His arts have very quick startup and cooldown.
- He has several frontward AoE arts.
- He has **extremely** high Attack. Like, bonkers high. He hits 1000 on
a rank 10 Zephyr with **auto-attacks**. His arts are nearly a OHKO.
- He's very accurate.

You can't cheese this guy by sandbagging - his AA speed means he'll just
wipe out the healers if the tank dies. Gotta do it the hard way.

I expected this would be the hardest battle in the early-game, and I've made
several preparations for it in advance:

- Sena was Yumsmith for the Lambda Ferronis battle, and I saved ~30 Nopon coins
to immediately level her to R10 Yumsmith so I could set her up on Ogre with a
Break art for this fight. Combos are a hard requirement in this battle because
they're the only way to control J's DPS. Without them, he **will** overwhelm
the party.
- Mio has been spending as much time in Thaumaturge as possible. A Thaumaturge
is **absolutely** required for several reasons:
- Thaumaturge has a Burst talent art. J's DPS is impossible to manage if he's
enraged.
- Thaumaturge has an Armor Veil field. At LV23 with R7 Thaumaturge, Mio sets
a ~1300 HP Armor Veil. Depending on the tanks' block and evade luck, this can
nullify several of J's auto-attacks, which can make a big difference.
- Thaumaturge has an art which clears debuffs and grants Attack Up to the
entire party. More on this later.

With that said, let's get into J's arts...

- Whip Crash: Small AoE centered on the target, deals ~1500 damage and applies
Daze.

This art is pretty dangerous because the healers tend to group up around
the tanks, and its startup is fast enough that if you use an unfused Art as it
comes out, you will not be able to escape damage. Try to stay aware of J's
art rotation and run out of the AoE, then do damage control after the art lands.

- The stabby art - Frontward AoE, deals some mild damage and inflicts Bleed.

This Bleed *must* be cleared ASAP - any non-tanks caught in the art will die
within 10 seconds from the combined Bleed + art damage. This is where
Thaumaturge's debuff clear art comes in. (Have a War Medic with Cure Bullet as
well in case Thaumaturge's art is on cooldown.)

- Valiant Deed - grants Attack Up and Critical Rate Up.

Surprise - J has a self-buff that makes him OP. Nothing you can really do but
hope Sena breaks him before it activates. As long as you pull off a Daze combo
sometime during this buff's runtime, you should be good, but if you get bad
Break luck, you're probably dead.

- The long talent art - deals AoE damage and Blowdown.

This art is a joke, and it's kind of hilarious. The startup is like 20
seconds long, and it doesn't even deal enough damage to OHKO healers. Plus J
sits down for another 5 seconds after the art goes off before he actually
attacks again. Treat this as a nice break - set up an Armor Veil field, heal up,
and get ready for the fight to restart.

Here's my setup:

Noah LV23 - Guardian Commander
Mio ?LV23 - Thaumaturge
Eunie LV23 - War Medic (Advanced Cooldown)
Taion LV23 - Zephyr
Lanz LV23 - War Medic (Cure Bullet)
Sena LV23 - Ogre
Zeon LV23 - Guardian Commander

The goal for this fight is to combo J as much as possible and survive while
he's not stunned.

Break: Sena
Topple: Noah, Zeon
Launch: Sena
Daze: Mio, Sena, Taion
Burst: Mio

With a 1/3/3 party setup like this, the vast majority of the damage is going to
come from Ouroboros Orders in Chain Attacks. The optimal Chain Attack includes
Noah, Zeon, Eunie, Taion, and Eunie/Taion OO, but you're unlikely to get it
because this is a bad party for TP building. When in doubt, forget about
Noah's order and just try to get Zeon/Eunie/Taion.

Eunie/Taion is the best OO for this fight because:
- it fully heals the party
- Eunie's Ouroboros is extremely strong when the party is buffed

As for when to use Chain Attacks, prefer to use them only when the party is in
danger. It's very easy for J to put you in a situation where the whole party is
about to fall apart, like if they're all grouped up and he uses Whip Crash or
the Bleed art.

Beat Consul J after a few hours of attempts at LV23.

Unfortunately, I couldn't make many strategy improvements past the previous post. The fight was pretty much up to RNG on a couple of different things:

• J's arts - if he used an art on the wrong person at the wrong time, reset

• Sena's Break luck - missing a break at the wrong time, or hitting a break at an amazing time

• Blocking and evasion luck for the tanks

• TP swings in chain attacks preventing you from getting the Bravo threshold

Not fun, but it's all done now. The party is now LV24 and Chapter 4 begins.

------------------------------------------------------------
Dragon guy LV30 @ Great Cotte Falls
------------------------------------------------------------

Party is LV24.

Put 3 healers in the party, control an attacker, walk behind him, and AFK for 20 minutes and he should die. Seriously, it's that easy. Like Consul B, you could probably beat him at LV1. A nice reward for beating Consul J, at least.

On another (important) note, the airdrop immediately after this fight gave me a rare Break Brooch, which appears to be the earliest Break Brooch in the game. That will seriously come in handy, but it would have been nice to have it earlier... with a Break Brooch, I think Consul J would have been 100% consistent.

Decided to do Isurd's hero quest immediately for reasons which will be explained
later.

---------------------------------------------
LV27 Scorpox x6 (Isurd's Hero Quest)
---------------------------------------------

Party is LV24.

This would actually be a tough fight if they all came at you at once, but they're
actually considered normal, roaming monsters. In other words, you can bait them and
fight them one by one, which makes them trivial. I put people on other classes
to get some extra CP.

Party levels to 25 after these fights.

---------------------------------------------
LV29 Auto-Lev x2 (Isurd's Hero Quest)
---------------------------------------------

Party is LV25.

This fight isn't too difficult - the Auto-Levs are quite weak on their own. However,
as a pair, they do put out quite a bit of damage, and their AoE art will obliterate
the party if it's in the wrong place.

I did have to bring back Zephyr Mio for this fight, but after that, it was no big
deal thanks to Sena's extremely high Break chance with the Break Brooch. Just control
Zephyr Mio and survive until you get a Chain Attack off - an optimal CA will kill
an Auto-Lev, and once one is dead, the fight is pretty free.

And so, Isurd's Hero Quest is complete. Strategos itself is not a very good class
in a Hard mode LLG because of enemy debuff resistance, but Isurd is a decent
support Hero with Counter Heal, and No Love Lost is an excellent Ether Master Art.
I might find a use for the class at some point.

---------------------------------------------

I was hoping not to do Isurd's Hero Quest before continuing with the story, but
this next fight unfortunately required it. Enter:

---------------------------------------------
Agnus Ninja Squad: LV32 Juniper, LV31 Agnus Soldier x4
---------------------------------------------

Party is LV25.

This fight is a lot like the fight at the beginning of Teach's hero quest, and
as such, MGMGMG strategies are the way to go here. There's too much incoming
damage from the adds to let them live, so they need to be burst-DPSed with
LV0 Ouroboros.

However, there's one *big* difference between this and Teach's hero quest -
Juniper.

Juniper is seriously OP in this fight. Their damage output competes with Consul J's
damage - they put out about 1k damage on auto-attacks to tanks, and their single-target
arts are OHKOs on the entire party. Effectively the only way to mitigate their damage
is to tank them with a max-agility Zephyr Mio - Juniper's not nearly as accurate as
Consul J, so evasion is semi-reliable.

LV25 Noah - R8 Guardian Commander
LV25 Mio ?- R10 Zephyr (144 Agility)
LV25 Eunie - R10 Medic Gunner
LV25 Taion - R10 Medic Gunner
LV25 Lanz - R5 Medic Gunner
LV25 Sena - R10 Ogre
LV25 Isurd

Now, you can actually use Isurd in your party as soon as you start his Hero Quest -
no need to actually complete it. However, I found that this strategy was extremely
inconsistent at LV24, and after a few hours of attempts, I only got two runs which
made it to the point where Juniper and Soldier C (the tank) were the only enemies
alive. One attempt died to Juniper killing all healers, and the other died to
Liberation Arrow because I didn't understand its AoE at that point. It's totally
possible at LV24, but I wasn't willing to keep going with attempts after that.

The fight is much more consistent at LV25, and you can actually kill an enemy before
Interlinks disengage. I recommend doing Isurd's Hero Quest first.

While upgrading the Ouroboros skill trees, I prioritized Art Cancelling ASAP. This
is the point at which I unlocked Art Cancelling for Mio, which I Soul Linked to
Noah.

Here's the basic run-down.

1. Start the fight controlling Mio. Immediately set tactics to Focus and Follow Leader.

2. Immediately rush forward to the enemy's left side (to keep them grouped),
then Wide Slash one of the squishy targets (Soldier B or Soldier E)

Soldier B is the healer, while Soldier E can Break you. They're equally high
priority targets.

3. Swap to your medic gunners and place Attack Up in the same location quickly.

4. Interlink the party in Keves form (Noah, Eunie, Lanz)

5. Unset Follow Leader on tactics.

Just like Teach's hero quest, these inputs need to be performed extremely quickly.
By the time the enemy party gets their second auto-attacks off, the party needs to
be interlinking, or someone will almost certainly die. I was physically unable to
perform the inputs on my Switch joycons, and once again had to take my Dualshock 4
off its charger to consistently start this fight.

6. Control Noah and spam Dragon Tail/Glorious Wing while standing in the
stacked Attack Up fields. If enemies are positioned favorably, you should be
able to get two enemies to low HP before Interlink wears off.

7. Control Zephyr Mio and gather aggro from enemies using fused Crash Out/Butterfly Blade.
Try to use evasion arts on Juniper's arts.

Bad evasion luck and Target Lock from Soldier C can screw up the strategy
and require a reset.

Mio will die at some point. If two enemies are dead by the time Mio dies (ideally B/E),
the fight should be winnable - with 4 healers, you can heal and revive quickly enough
to handle the rest.

After Mio dies, prioritize gaining aggro again. If you charge Chain Attack, use it
on the highest-HP add when the party is all alive, which will usually be Soldier C.

Juniper on her own isn't much of a threat if you know how to deal with their arts.
The biggest danger from her in this fight is Liberation Arrow, which is a semi-circle
AoE which *will* wipe the party if it hits. The AoE is decided at Art use time -
move behind Juniper ASAP to prevent the AoE from damaging healers.

Refreshing Rain can be out-healed with 4 healers, but if you're low on HP, you should
interlink the whole party or Chain Attack to survive it. If there's no healing,
it does do enough damage to wipe the party, and its AoE is not avoidable.

Party levels to LV26 after this fight.