---------------------------------------
LV33 Rhinon x3 (Juniper's hero quest)
---------------------------------------

Party is LV26.

Not a huge deal, but I did have to swap someone back to Zephyr for this fight
in order to survive long enough to use a Chain Attack. Once you kill one with a
Chain Attack, the enemies crumple pretty easily. Just watch out for their AoE
tail attacks.

Juniper's class is utterly useless, so I'm not even going to unlock it or use Juniper
as my hero. Sorry, Juniper. I wish your class didn't suck.

---------------------------------------
LV34 Machine Assassin x1 @ Maktha Wildwood
---------------------------------------

You just need to survive until it hits an HP threshold. Unfortunately, that means
no EXP, but this enemy isn't really a threat anyway.

---------------------------------------
LV33 Anlood x3 @ Maktha Wildwood (main quest where you're finding food or whatever)
---------------------------------------

Trivial, just lure them one-by-one.

Party levels to 27 after these enemies.
---------------------------------------
LV35 Ethel's Ferronis, LV35 Cammuravi's Ferronis
---------------------------------------

Party is LV27.

So this fight is actually the culmination of the class choices and Nopon coin
usage throughout the run so far. Here's the team setup:

LV27 Noah - R10 Guardian Commander
LV27 Mio ?- R10 Thaumaturge
LV27 Eunie - R5 Zephyr
LV27 Taion - R5 War Medic
LV27 Lanz - R8 Medic Gunner
LV27 Sena - R10 Ogre
LV27 Zeon

Doesn't make much sense that Eunie's on Zephyr, does it? Here's her full setup...
can you guess?

Arts: Quickdraw, Demolition, Butterfly Blade, Wide Slash, Speed Demon
Gems: Tailwind 3, Empowered Combo 1
Acccessory: Gear Support
Skills: Ethereal Ability, Protector's Pride

Surprise! I spent literally every Nopon coin obtainable between Consul J and now
to get Eunie R6-10 FMJ, R1-5 GC, and R1-5 Zephyr. This strategy does not work without
all three of these components:

- R10 FMJ is required to obtain Quickdraw as a Master Art, which is the first
available Master Art which grants evasion.
- R5 Guardian Commander is required for Protector's Pride, which combines with
Art of Flow to allow Eunie to survive almost indefinitely against a single target.
- R5 Zephyr upgrades art cooldowns/stats enough to make survival consistent.

If I had known Quickdraw evasion tanking was required so early, I would have changed
how I used Eunie/Taion - I used Taion as Zephyr for a good portion of Chapter 3, and
I would probably switch them.

Anyway, why does this fight require two evasion arts?

Simply put - Cammuravi's AoEs have fast startup, insane radius, and will instantly kill anyone
they hit. The only way to protect the party from them is to have a tank draw his
aggro and turn him 180 degrees from the rest of the party.

However, his normal damage is so high that no tank can survive more than two
direct hits. His AA speed is quite slow, but not slow enough that Zephyrs can
survive consistently without two evasion arts in this fight.

The other component to this strategy is reactions. Now that Sena's fully optimized,
Topple is the bottleneck for reaction locking. The only two classes we have which
can use it are GC and Heavy Guard, and Heavy Guard is garbage, so GC is the only
option here. Noah has been spending a ton of time on the class ever since it unlocked
in order to get a reliable Topple art, and this is where it pays off. Zeon brings
another Topple to the team, since other heroes aren't really that useful here.

Here's how the fight goes:

1. Control Zephyr Eunie. Immediately target Cammuravi, walk forward, and Wide Slash his
first auto-attack. Cancel into other arts.

2. Walk behind Cammuravi and start tanking solo. If Eunie dies before Cammuravi,
reset.

3. Hope your party AI hits reactions. Chain Attack when Eunie's in danger or Cammuravi
is launched by Sena's talent art.

4. Chain attack with orders Mio/Zeon/Eunie/Taion until Cammuravi's dead. Two optimal
CAs is enough to kill him.

I haven't mentioned Ethel yet. That's because she is a total joke - if you have 3
healers in the party, she literally cannot kill you on her own. She has no AoE
arts and all of her art animations are comically long. Cammuravi is what makes
this fight so dangerous.

We use Ethel to our advantage with Protector's Pride. Ethel's single-target damage
is still very high, and she will slowly mow down the rest of the party one-by-one.
She's so slow, however, that the healers will easily revive anyone who dies. While the
healers are targeted, Eunie will get a big boost to her recharge rates. This boost
is what she needs to survive consistently - without the Protector's Pride bonus, Eunie's
liable to run out of arts and die easily.

Party levels to 28 after this fight.

-----------------------------------------
LV36 Consul OP
-----------------------------------------

Party is LV28.

Another pretty difficult one, but made considerably easier by the class requirements
for the last fight. This fight is all about aggro and AoE management.

LV28 Noah - R10 Zephyr
- Protector's Pride
- Nopon Doll equipped (VERY important), Shield Bash on Master Arts
LV28 Mio ?- R10 Thaumaturge
LV28 Eunie - R10 Full Metal Jaguar
- Protector's Pride
- Arts: Overfall, Wide Slash, Quickdraw, Fatal Barrage, Demolition
LV28 Taion - R6 War Medic
LV28 Lanz - R9 Medic Gunner
LV28 Sena - R10 Ogre
LV28 Zeon

OP, as a Moebius with an 8 level advantage, is crazy strong - so strong that it's
impossible to tank them legitimately with any Defender class. They are extremely
accurate and they hit for about 2000 on AA.

As a result, aggro needs to be juggled between 3 tanks. Noah and Zeon are the
obvious choices to improve reaction combos, while Eunie is controlled and used as
the off-tank when needed. Wide Slash + Fatal Barrage fusion can tank two AAs easily.
Note that you shouldn't use Dead Set in this setup.

Once again, reactions are very important in this fight. Fortunately, Sena still has
close to a 100% Break chance, so it's rather easy to keep OP stunned for a good
chunk of the fight. However, they can't be stunlocked, so they will get attacks
off, and you will get obliterated if you're not paying close attention to their arts.

OP has a ton of arts. Here's the breakdown:

- stomp attack: Deals stupid damage to 1 target.

Not survivable without an evasion art.

- Rose Whip: 3 hits of AoE in a massive radius centered on OP.

This art has fast startup and will kill anyone it hits. The only way
to survive this is to Ouroboros parry it. To parry, Interlink the entire party
as soon as the art begins, then cancel interlink immediately after. The end-lag
on this art is long enough that parrying it won't mess with aggro, and the fight
will go on as normal.

- August Symbol: Reflect spike aura.

Save your Chain Attack for this art, because you'll probably die if you don't.
The spike damage is ridiculously high and the party AI will suicide on it.
Note that OP has reaction immunity while the art's animation plays and a few seconds
after.

- Empress Chariot: Used after enrage. 3x AoE hits in a straight line towards the initial target.

Honestly, this art's AoE is extremely inconsistent. It's a charge attack, but
OP reverses direction and hits the AoE again.
I died twice to this late in the fight and started to Chain Attack after I saw it coming
because I was tired of getting hit from way out of range.

- Berserker fists: Only used if someone's behind OP.

Deals stupid damage in a small and wildly inconsistent AoE. Don't exploit Back Attack
arts in this fight or you'll get obliterated.

- Other fist attack: Used after enrage. Fist slam in an circle AoE.

Honestly, this is used pretty rarely, and the AoE is pretty small. Not a big deal.

Three optimal Sena/Zeon/Eunie/Taion Chain Attacks will end this fight. I had abysmal
Chain Attack luck attempting this fight, and lost two attempts because I assumed
my Chain Attack would kill and got boned by horrible Chain Order RNG
(example: Noah/Lanz/Mio as final chain orders after picking Zeon/Sena/Taion).
So don't do what I did or you'll be very sad.

Party levels up to LV30 after this fight.

I start Ashera's hero quest by walking near Colony 11, but I don't progress at all
in it. Starting the quest is enough to get Ashera as a hero, and her quest would give
a ton of EXP at my current level, so I'm going to avoid it for now.

Onto Keves Castle...

-----------------------------------------
Keves Castle
-----------------------------------------

So there are several encounters in Keves Castle which are supposed to be impossible
to avoid. This is because they have very long aggro ranges, the enemies are
placed such that you can't pass their spawn point, and they usually guard something
which requires you to be out of combat to interact with.

However, there is actually a way to get around them. Save scumming.

1. Stand near the enemies and quicksave

2. Quit to title and reload

3. Walk forward for half a second while the enemies load in

4. Quicksave

5. Quit to title and reload

6. goto 3

This allows you to get around the enemies. Unfortunately, I only found out after
I had passed the first impossible corridor (the second floor, a group of 3 soldiers
between two doors), but you can avoid all the XP here.

Just thought it was worth mentioning. The enemies don't give a ton of XP even with
a 10 level gap.

-----------------------------------------
LV42 DJ Moebius @ The Annihilator
-----------------------------------------

Party is LV30.

DJ is probably the toughest enemy in the game so far. Unlike the past few bosses
which have fallen over to reactions, DJ is functionally immune to Break here
even with an Ogre Breaker. Unfortunately, a different strat will be used.

Fortunately, we just got Ashera as a hero... and she is stupid OP in Chain Attacks.
It's time to employ a speedkill setup.

LV30 Noah ?- R6 Ogre
- Accessories: Thermo Headgear, Eraser Orb
- Gems: Disperse Bloodlust I, Analyze Weakness I
- Skills: Protector's Pride, Critical Strike
- Arts: Cross Impact, Shield Bash, Giant Swing, Hammerhead, Maximum Voltage
LV30 Mio ? - R10 Thaumaturge
- All healers have Devotional Necklace and Friendship Rings for accessories,
?and Soothing Breath/Lifesaving Expertise I for gems.
LV30 Eunie - R10 Full Metal Jaguar
- Accessories: Nopon Doll, Signet Ring
- Gems: Brimming Spirit I, Analyze Weakness I
- Arts: Overfall, Wide Slash, Quickdraw, Fatal Barrage, Demolition
- Skills: Ethereal Ability, Protector's Pride
LV30 Taion - R8 War Medic
LV30 Lanz ?- R1 Thaumaturge
LV30 Sena ?- R10 Ogre
LV30 Ashera

Yup - 3/1/3 is the way to go here. Ashera's basically here for Chain Attack utility.
she, like everyone else, is totally unable to tank DJ for more than two hits.

DJ has a bunch of arts, but most of them are irrelevant (they OHKO a single
target, go figure). Here's a breakdown of the ones which aren't:

- Doom Rain: Stupid damage and Blaze in a large AoE around the target.

The AoE is not calculated until the art hits you, so you have a small amount of time
to run away. Obviously, anyone hit with this will get completely obliterated.

The only way to really deal with this is to make sure you're controlling the person
who has aggro when DJ uses this art. If DJ attacks an AI party member with it, it's
effectively a dice roll whether it'll kill the entire party or not.

- Chaos Arch: Charge attack, AoE in a straight line towards the target.

- Dread Edge

Dread Edge is the wackiest art DJ has. DJ charges for a bit, then releases
~6 projectiles which appear to target the closest enemies. In my experience, the
best way to mitigate the damage is to gather the team behind DJ with the Follow Leader
tactic, then send in a bait and wait in front of them to tank all of the projectiles.
Bonus points if you use your evasion art.

Here's how the fight went for me with this setup:

1. Control FMJ Eunie. Immediately Quickdraw -> Demolition.

2. About 50% of the time, DJ will target Eunie with Doom Rain as their first action.
If they don't, reset.

3. As soon as Demolition damages DJ, dash away from the party 3x.

4. Doom Rain kills Eunie. Eunie is revived by the healers.

5. Start DPSing DJ, saving evasion arts, until DJ aggros Eunie.

6. As soon as DJ aggros Eunie, kite him around by dashing around the arena.

Yup, DJ can be kited for a limited amount of time (about 10 seconds) before he
forcibly switches to using an art. Thankfully, this is just long enough that Eunie's
able to charge Quickdraw with Protector's Pride, so if executed perfectly, you can
kite them indefinitely (if you're always aggro'd, anyway). DJ's walk speed is fairly slow,
so dashing is enough to outspeed them.

Pay attention to DJ by always looking at him with the camera, and get ready to dash
back toward him and use an evasion art if he gets an art off.

7. Eunie will inevitably die at some point, and the healers will have to revive her.
Whether you survive after that is mostly a dice roll and depends on where DJ is
in their art cycle. If Eunie dies to one of the arts I described, the attempt is
still viable. If Eunie doesn't regain aggro before DJ reaches Doom Rain, though,
use your Chain Attack to tank it.

The optimal chain attack is Ashera/Taion/Noah/Eunie. Fortunately, you actually
only need these 4 alive to get the optimal CA - thanks to Ashera's Heroic Chain,
it's easy to build up enough TP to get Amazing/Bravo/Bravo/Bravo/Amazing, which
gives the Ouroboros Order a 800% damage multiplier. Three optimal CAs will kill.

Don't use Interlinks in this fight unless the whole party is LV2+ and you're using
them to finish the fight. Interlinking spreads Blaze to both participants. Several
times during this fight, I saw someone tank a 2500/tick Blaze debuff.

This fight is tough, but with this setup I think it's more doable than Consul J.
Since you're kiting DJ, it's much more about your execution/evade tanking than
luck, but RNG still plays a factor.

Party levels to 31 after this fight.

------------------------------------
LV43 Queen of Keves
------------------------------------

Full disclosure: once you get to this point in Keves Castle, you are actually
locked out of leaving until you beat the Queen. Your skip travel is disabled and
the elevator doesn't work.

This battle is basically the epitome of "desperately sandbag until Chain Attack".
It's probably a bit more reasonable if you do Ashera's hero quest first, but I was
stubborn (and locked myself out due to the above).

LV31 Noah ?- R1 Thaumaturge
All healers have this setup:
- Accessories: Friendship Ring, Devotional Necklace
- Gems: Soothing Breath I, Lifesaving Expertise III
LV31 Mio ? - R10 Zephyr
- Max evasion setup on both Zephyrs. Run Air Fang instead of Speed Demon since
you won't be controlling them.
LV31 Eunie - R10 Zephyr
LV31 Taion - R8 War Medic
- Wide Slash as a Master Art, linked to Multi Blast. This is actually important
because it lets Taion evade 3 AAs if he gets targeted and fuses these arts.
LV31 Lanz ?- R3 Thaumaturge
LV31 Sena ?- R10 Ogre
- Sena gets the Warrior's Armlet, and I used Nopon coins to get her Cross Impact
?for this fight, which massively increases her Chain Attack damage.
LV31 Ashera

Before this fight, I use my gold Nopon coins from exploration to get Lifesaving
Expertise III. The extra 5% revival speed made a massive difference in this fight's
consistency for me.

Anyway, there's three problems which make this fight tough:

- The Queen has very high reaction resistance. Her Break resist is lower than DJ's,
but she actually has massive Topple/Daze resistance as well, so getting reaction
combos are very rare.

- The Queen has higher single-target DPS than Consul J. Most of her arts are single-target,
but they're all very fast and one-shot any party member on hit. Her AAs can be handled
with Zephyrs and some buff fields (Armor Veil, Defense Up).

- Her one AoE skill, Mind Blast, has reasonably quick startup and massive frontal
cone AoE. It will kill anyone it hits normally, but it also inflicts Shackle Arts
on any survivors, which is absolutely crippling (and also means it's pointless to
Ouroboros parry). Mind Blast's AoE can be avoided by gathering
the party behind the Queen, but it's too usually too fast to save everyone.

There's not much actual strategy to this fight. I controlled Taion on War Medic
and abused Devotional Necklace to spam healing arts.

When Chain Attack is up, use it as soon as every party member is alive.
The ideal Chain Attack with this setup is Ashera/Taion/Noah/Eunie. With good
usage of Sena/Eunie/Ashera, you can easily get Amazing/3xBravo/Amazing to take out
about a third of the Queen's HP.

You want the first Chain Attack to bring the Queen to around 60% HP, then try to
use the second Chain Attack right before she enrages.

After the second Chain Attack, the Queen consistently used one Elemental art, then
Mind Blast. Make sure the party is close enough to the Queen that you can herd them
behind her before the attack goes off.

The hardest part of this strategy is after the first Mind Blast. You need to charge
a full Chain Attack before the Queen gets another Mind Blast off. This mostly depends
on tank evasion luck and healer aggro - the more revivals you get, the faster you
will charge CA, but if you revive too much, the healers will get obliterated.

Ideally, the third CA gets used as the Queen charges Mind Blast, and this CA
should end the fight if it's semi-optimal. If not, just use Ouroboros to finish
her. Everyone should be LV3 Interlink by this point.

Sadly, this fight has a scripted ending, so no EXP/CP. There's going to be a big
EXP/CP drought because the next story boss is all the way in Erythia Sea.

To compensate, I went ahead and did Ashera's hero quest...

-----------------------------------
Ashera's Hero Quest
-----------------------------------

...is a total joke compared to the bosses in Keves Castle. The enemies here are
pitifully weak and get obliterated by a Full Metal Jaguar. Even Consul R is
completely uninteresting. This is basically free CP to devote to any classes you want.

Party ended up LV33 after this quest.

-----------------------------------
LV42 Rhogul, LV40 Rhogul x4 ("Castle Access" quest for main story)
-----------------------------------

This fight is decidedly less easy than Ashera's hero quest. Like any multi-enemy
fight at this point, they're tough to handle.

I ended up using the Nopon coins from the city for this fight to give Sena access to
Protector's Pride and Mio access to Shield Bash.

The enemies are not very tanky, but they are tanky enough to survive MGMGMG Ouroboros LV0,
so the plan here is to live long enough to get a Chain Attack off with most of the
party alive.

LV33 Noah ?- R5 Full Metal Jaguar
LV33 Mio ? - R10 Thaumaturge
LV33 Eunie - R10 Zephyr (player controlled)
LV33 Taion - R5 Strategos
LV33 Lanz ?- R8 Thaumaturge
LV33 Sena ?- R10 Ogre
LV33 Ashera

To live long enough, the main LV42 Rhogul needs to be reaction locked. Sena can
do that with Protector's Pride, and Mio gets Shield Bash on her master arts.
As long as Eunie stays alive and gathers aggro, surviving until Chain Attack
should be doable.

As a failsafe, if the team looks like it's falling apart and you're close to
having CA (or already do), interlink Eunie and use Liberty Wing to bring the whole
team back, then launch the CA.

Once the CA brings down the main Rhogul, the rest will easily follow suit.

After this, you get access to all of Erythia Sea and its treasures. I explored
every island and grabbed every possible treasure chest immediately. I also completed
Monica's hero quest, which doesn't require combat.

The next few fights are all "lots and lots of offensively strong but not bulky
enemies" fights. Fortunately, MG stacking strategies start to become seriously
good here.

---------------------------------------
LV45 Shadow Volff x3, LV45 Keves Soldier x3 (Fiona's Hero Quest)
---------------------------------------

Party is LV33.

These guys are extremely OP, especially the Volffs. They have a high crit rate
and easily one-shot everyone except for tanks.

Fortunately, thanks to exploring all of Erythia Sea before this, we have a bunch
of SP. This is where Ouroboros starts to become pretty busted.

Specifically, Taion's Ouroboros becomes unstoppable thanks to the following:

- Shared Blessing skill from Eunie is Soul Linked to Taion
- Taion has upgraded Atomize and Attack Up +25% nodes
- Fiona is in the party

This is basically how it goes:

1. Control Thaumaturge Mio. Immediately use Leaping Current.

2. Quickly swap to Medic Gunner Lanz/Taion. Use Power Ring.

3. Interlink Noah, Eunie, Lanz. Control Eunie/Taion.

4. Spam Atomize -> Switch -> Raptor Raid -> Switch -> Atomize.

5. Depending on the enemy positioning, Fiona's initial buff luck, how long Fiona survives,
and how Noah's Power Charge lines up with Taion's Atomize, the entire enemy team
explodes before the interlink ends.

Use this fight to get some extra CP for new classes, since your actual class barely matters.

Party levels to 34 after this fight.

----------------------------------------------
LV46 Auto-Lev x2, LV45 Agnus Soldier x100000000 @ Corne Island (main story)
----------------------------------------------

I found Consul I too inconsistent at LV34, so decided to grab this story fight
real quick. Frankly, it's easier than the first Fiona quest fight - the Agnus adds
are much weaker, but there's a *LOT* of them. They're summoned at the beginning of
the fight by the Levnises.

Use the same strategy as above and it shouldn't be a big deal. Make sure to specifically
target the Agnus adds - they need to all die before the Interlink ends. After the adds
are dead, it's pretty much free.

Once again, grab free CP in this fight.

Party levels to LV35.

----------------------------------------------
LV47 Moebius I, LV45 Shadow Volff x3
----------------------------------------------

Party is LV35.

The strategy is pretty much the same as the last two fights, but there's one very
important change required - the party *must* have a R10 Full Metal Jaguar to win.

Consul I herself is a total joke with 3 Healers and Fiona in the party. Her AoE is
limited to an art which fires 3 projectiles at random enemies. Her AA speed is high,
but not high enough that it's impossible to sandbag.

The real problem in this fight is the Volffs. Just like the first fight in this quest,
they're insanely strong and have to be speedkilled.

What's more, Consul I actually summons Volffs infinitely. The time it takes for her to
do so appears to be random, which is extremely annoying and makes this fight very inconsistent.

Here's how the fight had to go for me to win at LV35:

1. Set up MGMG + Leaping Current and spam Atomize just like before.

2. By the time the interlink ends, all Volffs need to be dead. This happened maybe
1 in 10 attempts, but it's usually obvious when the attempt will fail (several misses,
Fiona dies instantly, Lanz walks into some dumb place, etc.), so the resets weren't so bad.

3. This is where the serious RNG comes into play. Consul I can summon Volffs at any
time here. If she summons Volffs before you have Chain Attack charged, you instantly
lose no matter what. I found this wildly inconsistent - probably 50% of my attempts
at this point died to early volff Summons.

4. As soon as you see Consul I using Phantom Draw (the summon art), position your
FMJ so their arts will hit both Volffs and Consul I.

5. Chain Attack Consul I and abuse FMJ to kill the Volffs with Fatal Barrage.

I was able to kill her after two summons, and ended the fight at LV37 with no
EXP. I don't think she can be killed faster at LV35, so I think I avoided extra
XP.

Signifer is going to be very useful going forward, so I immediately put Lanz on that.
I also give him Flash Fencer LV10 using ~30 nopon coins so I can Power Charge the
entire party.

-----------------------------------------------
LV40 Alexandria & Friends (Alexandria's Hero Quest)
-----------------------------------------------

Taking a detour to get access to Incursor. The actual class is pretty useless for
us - what we really need is the level 1 master art, Aerial Slash, which is another
Agnus evasion art.

Party is LV37.

Despite the minimal level difference, this fight is not complete trivial - to minimize XP gain,
Alexandria has to be fought with all of her support, and they're all very competent enemies
on their own.

At LV37, most of the fight's difficulty is actually in the party setup. You can tank all 5
enemies with a Zephyr trivially, but the real problem is getting and maintaining
aggro on the Zephyr. I needed to do some serious fine-tuning to get a workable setup,
so I'm going to make it more detailed than usual:

LV37 Noah ? - R10 Full Metal Jaguar
- Accessories: Thermo Headgear, Lunae Rings
- Arts: No Love Lost, Wide Slash, Quickdraw, Fatal Barrage, Demolition
- Skills: Protector's Pride, Critical Strike
- Gems: Analyze Weakness I, Disperse Bloodlust I

LV37 Mio ? ?- R10 Guardian Commander
- Accessories: Titanium Temple Guard, Martis Rings
- Arts: Glow Ring, Wide Slash, Noble Taunt, Shield Bash, Falcon Swoop
- Skills: Ultimate Qigong, Defensive Soul
- Gems: Steady Striker I, Brimming Spirit I

LV37 Eunie ?- R10 Zephyr
- Accessories: Jade Support, Gust Bracelet
- Arts: Quickdraw, Crash Out, Air Fang, Wide Slash, Butterfly Blade
- Skills: Protector's Pride, Ethereal Ability
- Gems: Tailwind III, Brimming Spirit I

LV37 Taion ?- R6 Strategos
- Accessories: Friendship Ring, Devotional Necklace
- Arts: Multi Blast, Myopic Screen, Hornet, Mirror Trap, Moondog
- Skills: Ethereal Ability, Split-Second Counter
- Gems: Soothing Breath I, Lifesaving Expertise III

LV37 Lanz ? - R1 Signifer
- Accessories: Affection Ring, Devotional Necklace
- Arts: Cross Impact, Advanced Cooldown, Resonant Flag, Aureole, Heal Harmony
- Skills: Ninja Healer, Defensive Soul
- Gems: Swelling Blessing I, Refined Blessing I

LV37 Sena ? - R10 Ogre
- Accessories: Break Brooch, Carbon Gloves
- Arts: Myopic Screen, Flashback, Giant Swing, Hammerhead, Maximum Voltage
- Skills: Protector's Pride, Ultimate Qigong
- Gems: Steady Striker I, Disperse Bloodlust I

LV36 Fiona

Here's what parts are most critical (in order of importance):

- Eunie needs Crash Out fused to Wide Slash.
- Eunie needs Quickdraw fused to Air Fang (specifically Air Fang, NOT Butterfly Blade.)
- Eunie needs a Gust Bracelet.
- The "Focus Target" tactic needs to be on the entire fight.
- Noah needs Wide Slash fused to Fatal Barrage.
- An Ogre Breaker needs to be in the party.
- A Guardian Commander needs to be in the party.
- At least two characters should have Daze or Launch arts.
- Noah needs the Lunae Rings.
- Fiona needs to be in the party.

With all of this, the fight is extremely consistent:

1. Control Eunie. Target any of Alexandria's friends. Turn on "Focus Target" tactic.
(Focusing a target will make it easier to hold aggro on Eunie.)

2. Perform auto-attack -> Crash Out/Wide Slash fusion - Butterfly Blade. At least
4 enemies should target Eunie.

3. Start evade tanking. You need good execution - make sure to hit every possible
cancel. Save an evasion art for Alexandria's arts - use her voice cues for timing.

4. Eventually, Fili will probably inflict Target Lock on you. Chain Attack her
once all 7 party members are alive.

5. Hopefully Noah is in a good position to blast 3-4 of the enemies with
Wide Slash/Fatal Barrage. Abuse this.

Barring a lucky crit from Alexandria's arts, the fight is pretty much won after
killing Fili. The rest of the team, bar Alexandria, is made of paper.

--------------------------------------------------
LV42 Consul E (Alexandria's Hero Quest)
--------------------------------------------------

This guy is completely free, and a nice source of extra CP. Party levels to 38.

I actually got my first Chain Attack Smash of the playthrough here for 130k damage.
Not bad, but certainly not comparable to the future.

Anyway, with Incursor access, it's time to employ more busted evade tanking.

---------------------------------------------
LV47 Basreek Feris @ Li Garte Prison Camp
---------------------------------------------

Party is LV38, but that doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is this:

LV38 Taion - R10 Full Metal Jaguar
- Accessories: Fraternal Badge, Gust Bracelet
- Arts: Wide Slash/Superstorm, Aerial Slash/Fatal Barrage, Quickdraw
- Skills: Protector's Pride, Split-Second Counter
- Gems: Steady Striker I, Brimming Spirit I

(Make sure you run Superstorm instead of Demolition, at least for this fight.
The Evasion Down matters a lot.)

Can you guess? It's the advent of the "100% evasion art uptime" setup.

Some preparations were required for this:

- I had to Nopon coin Taion from R1-R10 FMJ and R1-R5 Guardian Commander. This burned
literally all of my spare coins.
- I had to complete a Colony Tau Collectapaedia Card to obtain the Fraternal Badge.

With this setup, Basreek Feris can be tanked without taking damage if you execute correctly.
The leniency depends on how often your team gets reaction combos, which is helped considerably
by Evasion Down from Superstorm.

Without this setup, this fight is seriously impractical for several reasons:

- Feris is highly evasive and Evasion Down is required to consistently reaction combo.
- Feris's one AoE art has a massive cone AoE, so the tank has to be far away from the
rest of the party and can't use fields/auras.
- Feris OHKOs any party member. Tanks can survive only a single unblocked hit. All
arts are instant death.
- Feris has a faster AA speed than Consul J.

I attempted this at LV37 without access to Incursor, and out of a few hours of attempts,
I got one attempt that got a Chain Attack off, and subsequently died to Chain Order RNG.
Zephyr evasion just wasn't enough to survive.

----------------------------------------
Prison Escape
----------------------------------------

No trouble, they're all easy - interlinks are unlocked and they're made of paper.
These forced fights give a ton of free CP, so make sure to spend it wisely.

Party levels to 40 from all the forced EXP, conveniently just in time for a big
boss fight series.

----------------------------------------
LV48 Gyrenus
----------------------------------------

With all the neat stuff we just got from the free CP and the LV40 upgrades,
this fight isn't even worth discussing. As long as you have one evade tank, he's
a joke.

----------------------------------------
LV49 Moebius M (Phase 1)
----------------------------------------

Unexpectedly trivial, although there is a catch - you're probably boned if she gets
her mind control move off. For me, she constantly took control of Taion and obliterated
the entire team with Fatal Barrage.

I got around this by entering Ouroboros with Eunie/Taion as she used it, then Chain Attacking
before she got another off. She easily goes down in one CA, unfortunately.

Other than the mind control, she has basically no AoE, so beat her up.

Party levels to 42 after Phase 1. Moebius gives way too much EXP... Fortunately,
the game is pretty much a race to the finish after this point, so we'll see if
the level gap expands again.

----------------------------------------
LV49 Moebius M (Phase 2)
----------------------------------------

Honestly, even easier than P1 because you can actually counter the mind control.
She's considerably bulkier, but still can't really withstand a Chain Attack, and
she still has no AoE.

----------------------------------------
LV50 Consul N (Fight 1)
----------------------------------------

Low break resistance, no auto-attacks, and mostly single-target arts? More free CP.
I remember these fights being a lot harder than they were for me...

Just watch out for Glimmering Swiftblade, which can kill the whole party if they're
positioned badly.

Party levels to 43.

----------------------------------------
LV50 Consul N (Fight 2)
----------------------------------------

Basically no change from the previous battle with the team's current damage output
and defense.

Party levels to 44. Unlimited Sword is obtained. I don't see it being all that
useful, but it's nice to have.

----------------------------------------
LV50 Queen of Agnus
----------------------------------------

Now that there's basically no level difference, this fight isn't very interesting
compared to a normal run.

Party levels to 45.

Chapter 6 has begun. Nothing interesting to do for side quests, especially since
the level gap is so small right now. Do note that Agnus Castle's canteen has a 40% CP
boost food, which is the best in the game and dwarfs the boost from Colony 9. Make
sure to use that for any easy CP battles.

--------------------------------------
Colony Omega (Side Story: Mio)
---------------------------------------

There's two groups of 8 normal enemies here you need to fight on the way to the
colony. They're not a big deal - tank with 100% Evasion FMJ Taion until you run out of arts, then
abuse Atomize to melt them all.

---------------------------------------
LV53 Hackt, Miyabi, Cammuravi, Mwamba
---------------------------------------

Same strategy as usual - tank with FMJ -> Atomize. There's a little more to it than
that, since the enemies are much stronger than the last couple fights:

- Put Fiona in the party for this fight to boost Atomize damage.
- Put a second FMJ in the party for good damage. I had Eunie set up to perform
Demolition/Mighty Beat Smashes, so that's even better.
- Cammuravi needs to die ASAP. Conveniently, he's a glass cannon and he usually walks
forward at the start, causing the whole enemy team to clump up.
- If Hackt inflicts Target Lock on you before Cammuravi is down, your chances of
victory are pretty bad.
- After Cammuravi, priority is Miyabi, then Mwamba and Hackt.

Party levels to 46.

---------------------------------------
LV54 Moebius Y
---------------------------------------

...He's a joke with a good evasion tank - pretty much no AoE. If you don't have a
good Smash setup though, he will take forever to kill because his defense and HP are
pretty stupid.

Party levels to 47. Zephyr gets LV20, but I don't expect that to matter much now that
full-evasion FMJ exists. We also get Seraph and Troubadour, the latter of which I
put Mio on to get some CP - it's a good class and makes FMJ tanking easier.

---------------------------------------
LV54 Moebius J, Moebius D
---------------------------------------

Party is LV47.

This is a pretty fun fight after all of the pushovers the last couple of
bosses were. D and J are both dangerous in their own right, and it's hard to prioritize
one over the other.

It's also very fun to tank with FMJ - you have to manage D's arts and J's auto-attacks
very carefully. There's some room for error - one AA from either won't kill you.

I personally prioritized D first, since Chaos Arch can still wipe the whole party.

Fortunately, both D and J have fairly low reaction resistance. With an optimized Chain Attack,
you can kill D with one good Demolition Smash. If positioning is good, you can probably
kill both D and J, which basically trivializes the whole fight.

With D gone, the fight still isn't a pushover. J has a Blaze field and summons duplicates
of himself and D, and they are quite dangerous - they're very tanky for summon-adds
and they're nearly as powerful as D/J themselves. Managing them with FMJ tanking
is difficult, and the D puppets actually have access to Chaos Arch, so those need to die ASAP.

With Mio on Troubadour, keeping full evasion up is pretty easy if you position yourself
well and get Violent Streak off regularly.

Party levels to 48.

---------------------------------------
LV55 DJ Moebius 2 @ The Cloudkeep
---------------------------------------

Good thing I have FMJ Eunie to Smash for me, because if I didn't this fight would
take forever. Seriously, DJ has a mountain of HP this time around.

Their moveset has expanded a lot, but it's not really that big a deal. DJ has a DoT
field and a forced Topple desperation move, in addition to Doom Rain and everything else
they used to have.

Two Smash CAs will end the fight. As long as you execute FMJ tanking correctly and
position yourself to let the rest of the team avoid AoE, you'll be good.

---------------------------------------
LV58 Frog thing (Main story, origin metal fetch quest)
---------------------------------------

Party is LV49.

Not interesting, just beat him up with all your tools.

---------------------------------------
LV60 Consul C Phase 1 (Side Story: Noah)
---------------------------------------

Party is LV50.

With the tools we have, C is not particularly difficult, but it's still worth noting:

- C has significant reaction resistance on *everything*, not just Break. You will
be very disappointed when you try to Smash him in a CA and he resists it.
- C's enrage (Staccato Shock) is guaranteed instant death unless you Ouroboros
parry or kill him with a Chain Attack. It has a massive self-AoE, instagibs most
of the party, and has forced Topple on those who survive.

---------------------------------------
LV61 Consul C Phase 2 (Side Story: Noah)
---------------------------------------

It's a clone of the Queen of Agnus fight. Pretty uninteresting.

Party levels to 51.

---------------------------------------
Origin
---------------------------------------

There are a couple enemies you have to save scum past to avoid fighting, like Keves Castle.
Just keep that in mind as an option if you can't evade some foes.

---------------------------------------
LV63 Advance Scout Squad @ Origin
---------------------------------------

They're not healthy enough to put up a threat against Full Metal Jaguars.

Party levels to 52.

---------------------------------------
LV68 Moebius N (Phase 1) @ Origin
---------------------------------------

Party is LV52.

This fight is pretty much the same as the first fight with N, but his damage has gotten
a massive boost. He's hitting 16000 with Blood Moon on my healers, lol.

Anyway, Glimering Swiftblade will wipe the party, so pay attention. I went with a 3/1/3
party (Ashera as the only defender), with Eunie and Taion both on FMJ. When N uses
Glimmering Swiftblade or (later) Wraith's Swordplay EX, I usually Interlinked Taion
just in case N wiped out my healers, so I could use Liberty Wing to revive the whole party.

I didn't get a single Break in this fight, so I'm assuming N has infinite Break resist.
Two optimal CAs will still end the fight, though.

Also, if N inflicts Bleed on you while Interlinked, you'll instantly die after cancelling it,
so try to intentionally avoid his arts with Atomize/Raptor Raid instead of just spamming
those. (Hard to survive a 3600 damage bleed...)

Party levels to 53.

----------------------------------------
LV68 Moebius N (Phase 2) @ Origin
----------------------------------------

Very similar to phase 1. A couple minor differences:

- N starts using Glimmering Swiftblade EX in this fight, and its radius is way bigger
than the normal version, meaning there's no way to escape it without Ouroboros parrying
or a CA. The first GSEX has nearly instant startup, but he seems to charge it up
after that, which gives plenty of time to parry it.
- N gets an art with extremely fast startup in this fight - you only have a few
frames to react to it with evasion, so be careful.
- N also gets a hilariously strong enrage art ("Ancient Chronos" or something?).
I watch Lanz eat a hit for 80k damage at one point. It's not AoE, so it's otherwise
not interesting.

Party levels to 54.

---------------------------------------
LV68 spider things x9
---------------------------------------

The hardest part of this fight is the start, when you don't have Interlink or
Violent Streak charged. The enemies don't have any significant AoEs (Elimination Beam
will randomly hit party members, that's about it), but they have a decent AA speed
and one-shot non-Defenders, so survival is not trivial.

Since they're immune to reactions, I threw Sena on Troubadour and Noah on Signifer.
I kept Ashera, which was probably a handicap - a 2/0/5 setup with Miyabi or Fiona
as the hero would probably have made this easier.

Having two Troubadours makes FMJ tanking much more reliable when you're facing multiple
enemies. Fast Recharge is a great field and the Troubadour skill which recharges allies'
arts on death is fantastic for sandbagging.

Once one enemy is down, you should be able to survive the first wave. I was able
to build a CA by the end of each wave (as well as LV3 Interlink), so once you get
the first wave, the rest is easy if you manage your resources correctly.

--------------------------------------
LV70 Moebius Y
--------------------------------------

Party is LV55.

Just like the first fight, he's pretty easy to evade tank. However, there's one
relevant addition to his moveset, and that's Glorious Typhoon.

Glorious Typhoon is a ridiculously OP AoE that hits 3 times and inflicts both Bleed
and Break on each hit. Needless to say, it is completely impossible to survive, so
Ouroboros parrying is required to live through it. However, Ouroboros parrying
magnifies the bleed damage, so you'll likely need to use Liberty Wing to bring the
party back after their Interlinks end.

As far as I'm aware, Y only uses this once in the first half of the fight. However,
once he gets to ~1/4 HP, he puts it into his normal art rotation, and there's no way
to handle that due to the aforementioned Bleed. Save a Chain Attack for the last third
of his HP and you should be fine.

Party levels to 56.

------------------------------------------------------
Z
------------------------------------------------------

I still have Z left to beat on my current file, but I don't know if I'm going to finish the run on
this file for a couple of reasons:

- The Z fight is a good 1 1/2 hours long, and if you die you have to go all the way
back to the beginning.
- Now that I've done the whole game and figured out what was good/not good, I want
to go back and optimize my setups (and level)
- The DLC just came out, and I'd like to see if Noponic Champion is good enough to
get rid of some of the unreliability in the early-game.

I did attempt Z a few times, so here's what I've observed:

Z, theatre (Phase 1)
--------------------

- Use a 2/0/4 setup with Fiona as hero. You need two FMJ tanks on opposite squads (Keves/Agnus)
for this fight because of the party split. I used Eunie and Taion, as expected.
- The first part of the fight is easy, just hit him. He has barely any AoEs.
- Once he invokes the blizzard, Z gets a large self-AoE art which will kill
anyone around him. The best way to deal with it seems to be to gather the party
at maximum FMJ range, which should prevent most of the party from being hit.
- The blaze phase is pretty dangerous because of the fires that spew under you.
Z's target will periodically take damage from a lava flare that spits up underneath
them. It's telegraphed on the ground, so make sure to evade it. This is an AoE,
so you have to manage this cycle with Z's self-AoE as well, which is very inconsistent.

Z, face (Phase 2)
-------------------

- Z's main AoE is an attack which visually flies down the middle of the arena, but
actually hits Z's aggro target. Just stand far away from the team with your FMJ tank.
- From Phase 2 and onward, be careful of auto-attacks. The visual cue is X/Y/Z opening their
mouth, but their voice lines are actually lip-synced and can override their auto-attack
animation, so pay attention.

Not much advice for further in the fight - my furthest attempt made it to X.

-----------------------------------------
The Verdict
-----------------------------------------

Here's some of my thoughts:

- Full Metal Jaguar is easily the MVP class of the run. Great damage, defense-piercing
arts, and easily the best tank for this run thanks to the 100% evasion uptime setup.
Medic Gunner is a close second for combining with Ouroboros to make certain
fights feasible.

- Reactions really fell off once the level gap increased. Like someone said earlier
in the thread, it seems like this game, just like XC2 and XC1, gives a massive penalty
to Break resist as the level gap increases.

In terms of optimizing EXP:

- Zeon, Grey and Alexandria seem to be absolutely mandatory. Depending on how Ino's class
performs in mob fights, I think Teach might be skippable - Ino's quest gives way less
EXP than Teach.

Technically, Ghondor's class also grants a second Agnus evasion art, but Chapter 6
is unfortunately too late - I doubt the Volff in the prison can be beaten
without 100% evasion uptime. If that Volff wasn't such a problem, Alexandria might
not be required, and you'd probably want to invest in FMJ/GC for Sena for the late-game.

- Ashera and Fiona's hero quests definitely weren't needed. Lone Exile was pretty
much useless as a class, and more than one Signifer wasn't really needed. Ashera
and Fiona can both be obtained as heroes with no effort or EXP.

- Of course, save scumming could be used to avoid the couple of normal enemy fights
that I did before knowing about it.

- For CP routing, I definitely would have put a lot more Nopon coins and CP into
Guardian Commander and Full Metal Jaguar early. I probably would have tried harder to
beat Grey before the spider fight in Urayan Tunnels.

- Despite reactions falling off hard in midgame, I think investing hard into them
for Consul J was the right call. I'm not sure if he can be beaten any other way
(unless someone finds a way to beat Alexandria at LV20).

- Smash was not as useful as I expected. Partly due to reactions falling off, but even
when I did get a Launch, the fully optimized damage was still lacking compare to the
investment I put in. I don't think it was really needed for any fight, and trying to
level up Lost Vanguard made several fights more difficult, especially Consul I. (Not
that Consul I is required, anyway.)

- Accuracy became a serious problem as time went on. Sena needed Carbon Gloves to
hit enemies, and even early-game, Zephyr's fairly low DEX made charging Wide Slash a
complete crapshoot.

All-in-all, I think this is a fun way to play. FWIW, I don't think the datamined DLC difficulty (Very Hard) will change much about the strategies for this run. I think the most relevant nerfs, according to the datamine, would be the healing and talent art build-up changes. But aside from perhaps the very early game, these strategies should still work.