[Guide] Getting S Ranks

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gildedtalon
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Re: [Guide] Getting S Ranks

Post by gildedtalon »

Wolkendrache wrote:17a) Graska Gates
Make sure you get the S-Rank item on this first battle. Before going to Graska, I prepared my party: Kyril, Corselia (flowing rune + magic boost rune), Mizuki and Akaghi (both strength enhancing stuff), Kika, Lazlo, Flare and Sigurd. Kika starts in the upper left, Akaghi below her, Lazlo upper right, Mizuki below him. Make sure Mizuki is faster than Akaghi, so on the first turn she can kill the fish closest to Akaghi, who then can kill 2 more fish using the lion rune. When all 5 fishmen are dead, switch the ninja for Flare (owl-mount her) and Sigurd (kangacorn-mount him), and head for the others.
Kika and Lazlo should run to support the others by the gate right away, I didn’t lay terrain on their way there. When Lino arrives, just let him stand on his element and wait for the rest of the battle.
As for Kyril, go to assist the NPCs. The mage behind the gates will come close to the gate and prepare their terrain, so have Corselia both lay her own and destroy those of the mages in one turn using the flowing rune. On the next turn the mages begin to cast powerful spells against Corselia, but her ice breath spell is faster and will kill them. Then have Kyril destroy the gates (they are immune to magic damage).
And now for the key to victory and Rank S: move Corselia forward, so that on the next turn she can move right next to the barriers and cast silent lake. Try to hit all mages and blue fishmen. This will totally cripple the enemy. Now you can slaughter them with ice breaths and your other characters as soon as they arrive, but have Kyril move towards Roget to talk to him (before killing the last enemy). I S-ranked on this first try. The dig items are not really useful, so I didn’t use Rene.
Why didn't you post your levels?
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Re: [Guide] Getting S Ranks

Post by Wolkendrache »

I know you already S-ranked it using this strategy. Nice! :wink:

Anyway: I suggested twice throughout the guide (after Collanbal 2 and in the summary) to check the enemy level beforehand to keep your story battle characters below. So my average level was 1-2 below the enemies’ average level, as always. I didn’t make a detailed walkthrough, it’s a mixture of an S-rank strategic guide and an S-rank protocol, supposed to be brief, so you have to do the work of checking the enemy levels and subtracting 1 or 2 from it by yourself. :roll:
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gildedtalon
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Re: [Guide] Getting S Ranks

Post by gildedtalon »

Yeah, I just need to give strength boosting item to Mizuki to ensure she kills the fishman and level Corselia to get Silent Lake then it's done
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Re: [Guide] Getting S Ranks

Post by KFCrispy »

yeah so i started replaying Tactics and am trying to S Rank and record the battles. Got stuck at Nest of Pirates and don't think I can do any better than A so I am currently replaying the Secret Underground Room to see if I can S rank it differently in order to allow the 3-person unite to be available in the Nest of Pirates battle..... if you become too leveled in this, it gets tough to S Rank and I never could reach Nest of Pirates in a manner where I could S Rank it :(
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Re: [Guide] Getting S Ranks

Post by gildedtalon »

Do you play on emulator?
Actually, if you are overleveled it's really easy to get S rank on that battle, you just need to wait on your element long enough. This strategy of waiting on your element long enough works for every battle unless you get way too low EXP, well you just need to switch who deals the killing blow so you can get more EXP in the battle

Do you read my S rank journey thread? Emulator made S rank easy once you have lots of party members to choose. I do have a huge problem S ranking before Nest of Pirates because I take too much damage most of the time but Nest of Pirates is pretty easy especially if you are overleveled as you said.
If taking too much damage is not the problem, it's really easy to S rank by simply waiting on your element for a couple turns(1 turn means everyone gets their turn already)
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Re: [Guide] Getting S Ranks

Post by KFCrispy »

yes i'm on emulator. i was overleveled because when i replayed Secret Room and ended up with a lot less levels, the Nest of Pirates gave me S Rank even with some mistakes. i am not sure about that "waiting on element" claim because it seems like you'll be using too many turns then.. i'll look into it if the situation calls for it...

i accidentally saved over my Secret Underground Path recording when i re-recorded Secret Room, so now i have to replay that stage :( hopefully it's quick..
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Re: [Guide] Getting S Ranks

Post by gildedtalon »

That waiting on element, you can just check on every character's turn if you get S rank or not. If you ended up getting lower rank than A, that means you haven't fulfilled the requirements for other categories

Using too many turns is usually not the problem
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Re: [Guide] Getting S Ranks

Post by Wolkendrache »

It’s worth trying out what gildedtalon said, especially if you were optimistic about getting S. If you get A or below, quickload and spend some turns on your terrain before finishing the last foe. I got some A’s although I dealt lots of damage, took almost no damage, got tons of Exp and ended most of my turns on my terrain. The problem was being too fast. Even if you’re on the right terrain most of the time, it can be insufficient if the battle only lasts 3 or 4 “rounds”. In my 2nd battle against Martin I’m sure I would’ve got S had I just spend 2 more turns with each character on its terrain. The overall-turns requirement is very generous, and this is good, because otherwise the slower characters would become even worse.

However, if you’re overleveled or didn’t meet another requirement, staying on your terrain doesn’t help, so gildedtalon described it a little confusing at first. The thing is you never know why you didn’t get S, you can only make a guess, and sometimes it’s wrong. That’s why it’s worth trying out what gildedtalon says, it’s just a matter of few minutes and can save like half an hour or more from replaying the whole battle.
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Re: [Guide] Getting S Ranks

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i had been avoiding using save states up to now (only was saving at the beginning of battle for my recordings), because i didn't want to have make sudden cuts, but i already do some cutting since i sometimes spent too much time contemplating moves... so i guess it's fine :p
but i'm happy to finally S Rank in Nest of Pirates legitimately! in my PS2 playthroughs i was most definitely always overleveled and used Code Breaker late game to give myself Edgar's Cape.
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Re: [Guide] Getting S Ranks

Post by Sasarai10 »

In order to hit S in Obel Ruins Stage #1 when it's better to go there? As soon as you have access (When you meet Lino for the first time) or later?
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Re: [Guide] Getting S Ranks

Post by Antimatzist »

I would always say later because you will deal more damage and kill more efficiently; but in the end, I don't think it matters much.
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Re: [Guide] Getting S Ranks

Post by Wolkendrache »

Look at the last page of my sheet “Items from battles” at the topic of the same name, it might help you. For S rank stage requirements, KFCrispy shared the numbers here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sb=sharing
- 50 turns or less: perhaps easier when you have an owl
- don’t take more than 100 damage in total: that probably means don’t get hit at all!
- do at least 70 damage in average: gets easier when you get stronger weapons, spells and skills (battle lust and elemental magic). You really don’t need Lazlo for this.
- end 15 turns on positive terrain: if you just kill and progress to the exit, it’ll be hard. That’s why it’s easier with an owl – 7 characters can focus on killing the first wave of foes while staying on their terrain. Magic Sword can be useful here, but most characters will get that spell very late in the game.
- 500 Exp per enemy: 6000-8000 Exp depending on the configuration. It’s hard to kill everything and reach the exit within 50 turns (plus meeting the positive terrain requirement), so only kill the first wave of foes. But then you need at least around 800 Exp per kill, so your characters should be 3 levels below the enemies. Get the rest of the required Exp by changing terrain.
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Re: [Guide] Getting S Ranks

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Antimatzist wrote:I would always say later because you will deal more damage and kill more efficiently; but in the end, I don't think it matters much.
I proceed to El-Eal battle and all enemies were around my level...but I don't care since I have Figure of Old Man already. I just don't want to overlevel my characters now. So I'm looking for a good chance to sneak in Obel Ruins get Level 1,4 and 5 S Rank Items, and leave.

Yeah you will deal more damage, but you will receive more damage too. Also you need to finish Level 1 as quickly as possible...so I dunno. It's actually harder than the chambers as it seems. :|
Wolkendrache wrote:Look at the last page of my sheet “Items from battles” at the topic of the same name, it might help you. For S rank stage requirements, KFCrispy shared the numbers here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sb=sharing
- 50 turns or less: perhaps easier when you have an owl
- don’t take more than 100 damage in total: that probably means don’t get hit at all!
- do at least 70 damage in average: gets easier when you get stronger weapons, spells and skills (battle lust and elemental magic). You really don’t need Lazlo for this.
- end 15 turns on positive terrain: if you just kill and progress to the exit, it’ll be hard. That’s why it’s easier with an owl – 7 characters can focus on killing the first wave of foes while staying on their terrain. Magic Sword can be useful here, but most characters will get that spell very late in the game.
- 500 Exp per enemy: 6000-8000 Exp depending on the configuration. It’s hard to kill everything and reach the exit within 50 turns (plus meeting the positive terrain requirement), so only kill the first wave of foes. But then you need at least around 800 Exp per kill, so your characters should be 3 levels below the enemies. Get the rest of the required Exp by changing terrain.
Oh nice. But Owls are available much later in the game, when my characters would be like 25-30 (I think).

And which "version" is more convenient? Crab/4 Skeletons in front? Or 6 Air Lizards in mid-air? (There's a 3rd one I don't remember as well).

Also right now since I'm at a New Game+ my characters are strong enough to deal 70 damage even at Level 8. But when I enter Ruins Skeletons are the same level as me. So not good for EXP,and only underleveled characters right now are Rene,Maxine and Pablo. Should I wait to get Sigurd and Hervey first maybe?
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Re: [Guide] Getting S Ranks

Post by Sasarai10 »

I managed to score "S" both in Level 1 (twice) and in Level 4. Surprisingly enough in Level 4 I didn't expect I'd do it since I wasn't much on my terrain, although I received little damage (from Elemental Spirits) and I even brought Rene to dig out Ancient Parchment. Now only Level 5 remains, but I don't know if it's possible by the first time you enter in Ruins. Although it'd be nice to do it now since I went in. I want to dig out Ancient Dish (hope it won't take many turns to find it) as well, but I have to deal with 3 Golems.

For Level 1, use someone on Kangaroon. It needs only 3 moves to reach at the end, and if you are lucky enough to not be put in sleep by the Flying Lizards then you can do it. I used Eugene or Trishtan and other 7 characters were remaining on their terrains most of the time, and they were 1-2 Levels below enemies at least. Best version to pull it through is 6 Flying Lizards and 4 (I think) Skeletons. They approach you before you reach at the end, so you can deal with them before you exit and gain lots of EXP.
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Re: [Guide] Getting S Ranks

Post by Antimatzist »

Don't bother S ranking Level 5 on your first try, the quest guild item and armor you can dig is more important. You can still S rank it on your second run.
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