The S rank journey

[gildedtalon]

I got A rank on Mido Shallows just now and lost against Martin as well. I loaded state, S rank the Mido Shallows, then S rank against Martin
What a turn of events

[gildedtalon]

And you can clear Rage and Flowing without going through the ruins again and again, so that helps a bit.

Are you referring to the fight against the Mercenary in Rage Chamber? That was hell. I just take the Rage Dragon Egg and leave. The dragon is far too annoying to fight

[Wolkendrache]

Impossible to keep the main characters below enemy levels, I need to use those main characters to survive Obel ruins
I just have to rely on the power of 'terrain condition' as you put it
I use the unkillable and secondary characters all the time except hunting monster outside Obel Ruins

These are the characters I often use for the elemental chambers…

Flowing Chamber: Flare + Corselia, Sigurd, Wendel, Jewel, Eugene, Simeon, M. Leader, strong fighter with Mermaid Robe, Mizuki, (Lalacle), Yu, Noah (switch), Rene (switch)
Rage Chamber: same as Flowing Chamber but without Yu
M. Earth Chamber: Lazlo + Kika, Dario + Nalleo, Frederica, Corselia + Flare, Akaghi + Mizuki, Ameria, Paula, (Lalacle), Noah (switch), Rene (switch)
Cyclone Chamber: Kika + Lazlo, Seneca, Roget, Paula, Ameria, Dario (Windspun Armor) + Nalleo, Simeon, Jewel, (Lalacle), strong fighter with Windspun Armor, Noah (switch), Rene (switch)
Thunder Chamber: Andarc + Seneca, Kate (+ Akaghi + Mizuki), Ornela + Busk, Trishtan + Jeremy + Millay, Noah (switch), Rene (switch)

For Obel 1-5 I don’t use Kyril, Lazlo, Kika, Corselia, Flare, Andarc, Seneca, (Lalacle), Akaghi and Mizuki at all (only if they’re heavily underleveled or I want to S-rank). These are the characters I use for story battle S-ranks, but there are some exceptions like Kate for Obel Palace etc.

Is it possible to not fight at all on the 5 floors of Obel Ruins and reach the elemental chamber?
Has anyone done it?

I’m doing this as soon as I’m tired of the Obel levels and as soon as I’ve got owls. I only use Frederica, Ornela and Flare (all unkillable) on owls and fly to the exit. You could also use Busk or Lino, but they’re slower. Give these guys the best armor, you only need defense and speed, and maybe a salad.
Obel 1 & 2: Just fly to the exit. Put to sleep by lizards is the worst thing that could happen.
Obel 3: Fly along the wall over the rubble. Maybe 1 character will be put to sleep and/or defeated, doesn’t matter.
Obel 4: Move all 3 either down and left or up and left. Sometimes the reinforcements won’t arrive, I don’t know why. Maybe 1 character will be defeated.
Obel 5: This is more difficult, and I actually don’t do this because I usually want to steal from the golems. I’ve done it only 4 or 5 times and it worked, but 1 or 2 of the owl fighters were defeated. It should be safer if you additionally use the earth rune protection spells.

[gildedtalon]

S rank the Graska city, your strategy worked perfectly
Equip all magic boost items on Corselia, her MAG becomes 97. Kika advance together with Lazlo, her job is to spread the elemental beads for both of them
Lazlo and Corselia did all the damage like 90%

Got Roget as well so now I have all the recruits. Wow, I didn't know Kate can mount a Kangacorn like Sigurd. I thought she's ninja like Akaghi and Mizuki

[gildedtalon]

S rank Mother Earth Chamber, Wizened Arm, Ancient Sword, Ancient Vestment. Wow I S rank on the hardest configuration, first try was horrible but then second try I only got damaged once or twice by the spider. Even the dragon never gets to attack

[gildedtalon]

Graska Palace battle is easy, but I have to spend turns on my element killing 2 fishman every turn checking everytime if I get S rank or not Have to wait for a long time

So remember people, if you only got A rank and finished the battle so fast that just means you have to stand on your element for a long time to get S rank. Lucky I play this on emulator otherwise I would have given up on Haruna

These people who don't get a second rune slot, I wanna give them Kangacorn and Gozz rune. Hervey, Trishtan, and Dario that's why they are really behind on level

I kinda miss my favourite strategy, Unicorn everything Anyone else use those overpowered spear users?

[Antimatzist]

I never use weapon runes at all (except for Kite), I never saw how they are useful (except for 100% accuracy, which you get late in the game anyway with the third Elemental Sword spell)

[gildedtalon]

I only use it when the lvl 2 MP becomes 2, it's not worth using early in the game unless it's Falcon rune
What carries over in new game+? Equipment that is not equipped will be carried over? Like that Hand of God on the final battle

[Antimatzist]

Every equipment will carry over (even the one that is equipped, I think). DOn't know if there are some pieces of equipment that don't carry over.

[gildedtalon]

S rank Graska City again without trying to. Andarc, Akaghi, Nalleo, Lalacle, Dario the ones worth equipping Hand of God early on
For now, I'm gonna get Hand of God from Rage Chamber

[Wolkendrache]

Here’s what I think about the Lv3 elemental sword rune spell:

It is a good spell because of the 100% hit and the bonus damage based on Mag. The bonus damage isn’t much (even with high Mag), but it’s better than nothing. On top of that, the users will end their turn on their terrain for the next 3 turns. But…

- Only late game: Needless to say, but it will become relevant only after your fighters actually get a Lv3 spell. This will happen in their 20s or 30s. So the earliest story battle where some of your characters have a Lv3 spell is the one at Small Border Village. This means late game. I’ve checked one of my saves before the battle at Small Border Village. I had recruited all possible characters, done all possible quests, and even explored the Obel ruins a little bit, up to that point. My fighters were all still Lv17-20. Only Kika had a Lv3 spell, no other fighter. So only after the battle at Haruna you need to think about it.

- One time 100% accuracy, and then? At about Lv34 (shouldn’t be much higher for the characters you use to S-rank the Patr. Facility) most characters will have 1 Lv3 spell, a few will have 2, and a few will still have none. What if the characters don’t level up after using their 3rd lv spell? I’ve been in the Obel Ruins: most of the characters missed their normal attack after using the spell (mainly because of their berserk belts), luckily no cross-counter, so if you still want 100% accuracy you still need weapon command runes.

- The terrain feature, good or bad? Both. It depends. The entire terrain of the user’s route will change for the next turns. This can help those characters of the same element, but it can be dangerous for those of the opposite element, and it can mess up the terrain that any other character has prepared. From another perspective you could say, it can restrict the movement routes of the user. If you use Dario and Nalleo because of their unite attack, and have Nalleo use the spell (Dario can’t use it), you must move carefully with Nalleo.

- When is the best time to use it? Any time you can do more damage using it. The problem is that this doesn’t happen too often, at least the way I play. The enemy mostly attacks in waves of about 4, so mostly you have 2 characters to defeat 1 enemy. If you use a character to prepare terrain, and then kill the enemy with Eagle Rune (2nd), Falcon Rune (any), Gozz Rune (1st or 3rd), Hawk Rune (2nd), Lion Rune (2nd or 3rd), Shrike Rune (2nd or 3rd), Swallow Rune (3rd), Titan Rune (2nd or 3rd), Unicorn Rune (2nd or 3rd), White Tiger Rune (3rd), you’ll inflict more damage. Usually I only use the 3rd elemental sword spell only for 1h sword users, Reinbach, Charlemagne and Rita, as well as in rare cases where you don’t have a “support” character to prepare terrain and the eventual user doesn’t have time to prepare it by him/herself.

- Speed delay: I’m not sure about this. I don’t know whether the 3rd level elemental sword spell has the same delay as the weapon command runes 3rd level spells. If the delay is the same, then that’s even one more drawback. As you can see above, most characters do more damage using other attacks and their delay would be even smaller.

Summary: If you are careful and skilled with your movement after the use of the spell, it is very useful, at least for 1h sword users and a few others. However, most characters can do more damage using weapon command runes (some can even hit several enemies), and you mostly have enough characters to get the same terrain results. When you’re overwhelmed with enemies, so you don’t have time or enough characters to prepare terrain, this spell might be useful for everyone, but you’ll rarely be overwhelmed by enemies unless your strategies are bad.

[gildedtalon]

3 dragons on Rage Chamber, how do you win or even S rank it?

C: 3 Dragons, 3 Spirits, 2 Swords, 1 Bow, 2 Elementals
chest on far island: Hand of God
dig (platform across bridge): Ogre Mail
dig (island just north of bridge): Flame Force Mirror

[Wolkendrache]

I'd rather S-rank on another version with fewer dragons. Not because of difficulty issues, but whenever I'm lucky to get the set containing 3 dragons, I go for their elemental mirrors.

If you wanna S-rank, try some of these guys: Flare + Corselia, Sigurd, Wendel, Jewel, Eugene, Simeon, M. Leader, any strong female fighter with Mermaid Robe, Mizuki, (Lalacle). They are all water element, so they can all support each other with their element. Many of these have long range attacks/spells/unites. You don't need to use more than 2 mages, better spread your Mag boosting stuff on 2 mages, so you have 2 strong mages instead of 3 weaker ones. When on water terrain, 2 ice breaths should kill a dragon, and Lalacle's 3rd level weapon command spell might even 1-hit-kill a dragon (I know you don't have Lalacle).

I actually had this set when I was checking the Legendary Hammer issue. I had Corselia, Flare, Andarc, Seneca, Lazlo, Kika, Lalacle and someone else. 90% of the enemies were killed by Corselia, Flare, Lalacle and Andarc. The others were nearly useless and almost died. Everyone survived luckily, but I got a lot of damage. I waited on my terrain and sent Lalacle to get the hammer (I didn't have owls). Then I killed the last elemental and was pretty surprised to get S-rank. I mean I could have done a lot better with Sigurd, Wendel and M. Leader instead of Kika, Lazlo and Seneca.

Btw, Sigurd is another good Hand of God user.

[gildedtalon]

I just checked, 1 Breath of Ice by Corselia on water terrain is enough to kill the dragon. Corselia's MAG is 115
Okay, Sigurd, I missed him just now

I can always get the enemy configuration that I want with save states. No matter which of the 3 exits you go for, you will get the same enemy configuration for the next floor. So just try again on another person's turn

[Antimatzist]

Interesting view on 3rd level Elemental Sword. I don't use it often, but it can be really useful if your enemy is of the opposing element and/or your frontline has another character of the same element (Kika and Hero IV come to mind). This is also when I often use Etxra Move with fighters (which I normally don't do), because it does damage and lays the Elemental terrain int he same turn.

I mostly avoid attack rune sbecause of the unbalancing effect. If they level up after the attack it doesn't matter, but still. And especially the Viper Rune is pretty bad. I never encounte rproblems with accuracy, I never attack an enemy upfront (also because of the lower damage) and except for Spirits, nothing really avoids that much.

I need to start recording a run.