Summary: The final cactuar gatekeepers are assembled. Cactuar Hollow. Angra Mainyu.
Kilika
-YAY!!! Bartschella is here. With Dona. I totally misread things – I assumed the whole “she loves money, wants a man-of-means” thing was “she wants to marry a dude for his money.” Maybe it’s simpler, more playful. Maybe she just likes the idea of money.
[Later edit: I also just remembered that the cactuars are all considered kids still essentially. Though old enough to travel, so perhaps the cactuar is the equivalent of like her early 20s in human years? I dunno. I’m stretching a bit because I like the idea of Dona having a fling with a cactuar as the first instance of queer representation that I’ve seen in the FF series.]
-Also, her cact-war friends are magic pots, so perhaps she became friends with fiends that basically are currency.
-Whoa! Accidentally hitting the pots gives me stuff. Mega-Phoenix and Mega-Potion.
-Got obliterated in the shooting game there.
-hee! Dona looks smug af about her friend winning.
---
Bikanel Desert
-I can’t remember if this is the last gatekeeper or if there’s one more.
-One more. Frailea.
-The “gist of it” is that Frailea might not have traveled at all and falls in with the wrong crowd. I’m gonna guess he’s in the rogue cactuar den nearby.
-Hm. I’m still getting the message when I approach it that it’s sealed and I shouldn’t get too close.
-I talk to Marnela, and she assembles the other nine gatekeepers.
-Just like in FFX, the final cactuar to find is nearby.
-Yup, it is the rogue cactuar den indeed. The gatekeepers unseal it.
---
Bikanel - Cactuar Hollow
-Mostly standard enemies, but we reach a large helm on the ground.
-A trio of what I assume are rogue cactuars shoot spines into it, whipping it into a frenzy. Boss time.
-Many of the enemies in here are what I saw in the 60-80 cloisters of Via Infinito. Stuff like Sahagin Chief, Heavy Sallet.
-We come to a sandy area that is rising quickly.
-I got to the end but couldn’t figure out how to exit. Had to skip the last few chests. It sent me back to an earlier point in the dungeon.
-Made it! And the second time, I picked up the treasures I missed the first time. I’m surprised they didn’t reset the chests, or lock them for failing once.
-came across another li’l cactuar.
-SO CUTE THEY”RE SO CUTE!!
-Oh, it’s Frailea! The Frailea gang.
Kilika
-YAY!!! Bartschella is here. With Dona. I totally misread things – I assumed the whole “she loves money, wants a man-of-means” thing was “she wants to marry a dude for his money.” Maybe it’s simpler, more playful. Maybe she just likes the idea of money.
[Later edit: I also just remembered that the cactuars are all considered kids still essentially. Though old enough to travel, so perhaps the cactuar is the equivalent of like her early 20s in human years? I dunno. I’m stretching a bit because I like the idea of Dona having a fling with a cactuar as the first instance of queer representation that I’ve seen in the FF series.]
-Also, her cact-war friends are magic pots, so perhaps she became friends with fiends that basically are currency.
-Whoa! Accidentally hitting the pots gives me stuff. Mega-Phoenix and Mega-Potion.
-Got obliterated in the shooting game there.
-hee! Dona looks smug af about her friend winning.
---
Bikanel Desert
-I can’t remember if this is the last gatekeeper or if there’s one more.
-One more. Frailea.
-The “gist of it” is that Frailea might not have traveled at all and falls in with the wrong crowd. I’m gonna guess he’s in the rogue cactuar den nearby.
-Hm. I’m still getting the message when I approach it that it’s sealed and I shouldn’t get too close.
-I talk to Marnela, and she assembles the other nine gatekeepers.
-Just like in FFX, the final cactuar to find is nearby.
-Yup, it is the rogue cactuar den indeed. The gatekeepers unseal it.
---
Bikanel - Cactuar Hollow
-Mostly standard enemies, but we reach a large helm on the ground.
-A trio of what I assume are rogue cactuars shoot spines into it, whipping it into a frenzy. Boss time.
-Many of the enemies in here are what I saw in the 60-80 cloisters of Via Infinito. Stuff like Sahagin Chief, Heavy Sallet.
-We come to a sandy area that is rising quickly.
-I got to the end but couldn’t figure out how to exit. Had to skip the last few chests. It sent me back to an earlier point in the dungeon.
-Made it! And the second time, I picked up the treasures I missed the first time. I’m surprised they didn’t reset the chests, or lock them for failing once.
-came across another li’l cactuar.
-SO CUTE THEY”RE SO CUTE!!
-Oh, it’s Frailea! The Frailea gang.
-good lord. In this gun game, I have to pinpoint Frailea over the other cactuars. No chance of winning.
-y’know what? I ALMOST won. Two hp away. I could tell the difference because of where the cactuars were standing. Frailea was the one with the light on the left side.
-crap it’s a TON of rogue cactuars!
-they’re forming gigantuar, aren’t they?
-YES THEY ARE
-I haven’t fought a boss yet with a special dressphere. Let’s try it, Floral Fallal Yuna.
¡Hola, Grande GraciaLsgc!
-She took Jumbo Cactuar down pretty quick. Nice going!
-I backtrack and we’re out.
---
Bikanel Desert
-Time to summon! Let’s see this Great Haboob.
-The cactuars do their captain planet summoning thing, making a cactuar stone light up.
-A sandstorm appears, sucking in the attacking basilisks.
-And then… a calm. Have the gatekeepers become cacti?
[Later edit: still not sure what the Great Haboob was. Perhaps it’s the term for that special sandstorm, or perhaps it’s a friendly fiend that lives under the sand that created the sandstorm.]
-NO!!! MARNELA!!! She died saving the Cactuar Nation. :(
-No time to mourn. Fiend attacking the camp. The main fiend.
-I save, heal, and head back to the desert. Nhadala is shaken, the camp is wrecked.
-The Demon of the Desert is here. Angra Mainyu?
-Yup. Angra Mainyu. I’ll bet if I had killed it before in the digging game instead of running each time I would’ve avoided this.
-THIS THING IS NOT FUCKING AROUND – JESUS. I didn’t think it was this painful when I fought it earlier.
-The special dresspheres aren’t helping. Perdition’s Flame takes massive chunks of health based on percentage it seems.
-ruh oh…. 100k hp down, but I died. Take two, new set-up.
-Ok. Perdition’s Flame does HP based damage, so I won’t worry about tons of HP.
-HOLYF DJKSLFH FUCKING SHITTTTTJKTLDSHTDJKLSHFRDJKLSFHDJKLSFH
I DIDDDDD ITT HDJKLSFHDSKL HAHAHAHAHAHA THAT TOOK FOREEVERRRR
-y’know what? I ALMOST won. Two hp away. I could tell the difference because of where the cactuars were standing. Frailea was the one with the light on the left side.
-crap it’s a TON of rogue cactuars!
-they’re forming gigantuar, aren’t they?
-YES THEY ARE
-I haven’t fought a boss yet with a special dressphere. Let’s try it, Floral Fallal Yuna.
¡Hola, Grande GraciaLsgc!
-She took Jumbo Cactuar down pretty quick. Nice going!
-I backtrack and we’re out.
---
Bikanel Desert
-Time to summon! Let’s see this Great Haboob.
-The cactuars do their captain planet summoning thing, making a cactuar stone light up.
-A sandstorm appears, sucking in the attacking basilisks.
-And then… a calm. Have the gatekeepers become cacti?
[Later edit: still not sure what the Great Haboob was. Perhaps it’s the term for that special sandstorm, or perhaps it’s a friendly fiend that lives under the sand that created the sandstorm.]
-NO!!! MARNELA!!! She died saving the Cactuar Nation. :(
-No time to mourn. Fiend attacking the camp. The main fiend.
-I save, heal, and head back to the desert. Nhadala is shaken, the camp is wrecked.
-The Demon of the Desert is here. Angra Mainyu?
-Yup. Angra Mainyu. I’ll bet if I had killed it before in the digging game instead of running each time I would’ve avoided this.
-THIS THING IS NOT FUCKING AROUND – JESUS. I didn’t think it was this painful when I fought it earlier.
-The special dresspheres aren’t helping. Perdition’s Flame takes massive chunks of health based on percentage it seems.
-ruh oh…. 100k hp down, but I died. Take two, new set-up.
-Ok. Perdition’s Flame does HP based damage, so I won’t worry about tons of HP.
-HOLYF DJKSLFH FUCKING SHITTTTTJKTLDSHTDJKLSHFRDJKLSFHDJKLSFH
I DIDDDDD ITT HDJKLSFHDSKL HAHAHAHAHAHA THAT TOOK FOREEVERRRR
So my strategy here was built around two concepts:
1)I wasn’t going to have any mana because of that frigging mana destruction attack.
2)I wanted to set up a somewhat sustainable pattern given its attacks.
3)Extra health didn’t matter because of Perdition’s Flames percentile chunking.
Only used one job per character, all on the Downtrodder garment grid. That grid granted Gravity Eater, so it negated Angra Mainyu’s demi and gave me a bit of a heal. I got reflect, shell, and protect up (with rings so that when his Flare wiped me out I wouldn’t always be fucked).
Rikku was my healer as alchemist, with stashed Mega-Potion primarily. Paine was the main damager, a berserker, though I never used the Berserk ability. Yuna was a songstress, playing Dirty Dancing so that all the hits were guarantee critical. I always killed the physical attacker on Angra Mainyu’s right and ignored the caster on Angra’s left.
Oh, and I removed all my +60% HP gear and didn’t use Berserker!Paine’s Howl. That was just making the Perdition’s Flame hit harder.
And that was it! It was touch and go often because of that frigging Flare and some scarily timed Perdition’s Flames, but after a while (I dunno, 20 minutes? Something like that? It felt like forever) I got him.
I know in the grand scheme of things it’s not super impressive, and thanks to my time in Via Infinito I’m pretty high level in the high 70s, but I don’t care. I feel proud of tinkering with different strats, adapting, and finding a way to beat him that worked.
*dances*
-The Al Bhed compare this a bit to the wreckage wrought upon Home.
-lolol the al bhed made a meal while we fought. There is, in fact, life after war.
The victorious Gullwings.
-Got another Ribbon and the Mercurial Strike garment grid.
---
Next time: Luca! The Celsius mission thing said that blitzball season was starting up, so I want to check that out.
1)I wasn’t going to have any mana because of that frigging mana destruction attack.
2)I wanted to set up a somewhat sustainable pattern given its attacks.
3)Extra health didn’t matter because of Perdition’s Flames percentile chunking.
Only used one job per character, all on the Downtrodder garment grid. That grid granted Gravity Eater, so it negated Angra Mainyu’s demi and gave me a bit of a heal. I got reflect, shell, and protect up (with rings so that when his Flare wiped me out I wouldn’t always be fucked).
Rikku was my healer as alchemist, with stashed Mega-Potion primarily. Paine was the main damager, a berserker, though I never used the Berserk ability. Yuna was a songstress, playing Dirty Dancing so that all the hits were guarantee critical. I always killed the physical attacker on Angra Mainyu’s right and ignored the caster on Angra’s left.
Oh, and I removed all my +60% HP gear and didn’t use Berserker!Paine’s Howl. That was just making the Perdition’s Flame hit harder.
And that was it! It was touch and go often because of that frigging Flare and some scarily timed Perdition’s Flames, but after a while (I dunno, 20 minutes? Something like that? It felt like forever) I got him.
I know in the grand scheme of things it’s not super impressive, and thanks to my time in Via Infinito I’m pretty high level in the high 70s, but I don’t care. I feel proud of tinkering with different strats, adapting, and finding a way to beat him that worked.
*dances*
-The Al Bhed compare this a bit to the wreckage wrought upon Home.
-lolol the al bhed made a meal while we fought. There is, in fact, life after war.
The victorious Gullwings.
-Got another Ribbon and the Mercurial Strike garment grid.
---
Next time: Luca! The Celsius mission thing said that blitzball season was starting up, so I want to check that out.
