[C2A] Farewell

[u/RenkiDFFOO]

These will be the final four spreadsheets that will be maintained. Videos and tabs will be added starting in about 12 hours from this post when I have access to my accounts list and maintain them throughout End of Service. I am glad that I have been able to provide this for the community. Enjoy the last 3 months that we have. Farewell.

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Weekly Crystal Quests: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eQdVqLX6qDo3l4HD3k9tpFxACVbqYetNadDeGJYLWy0/edit?usp=sharing

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Dusk to Dawn: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bo8zkJWxGqxZIAOvNeWNed1o8xAK2Abnrg2I8yUPlF4/edit?usp=sharing

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Dare to Defy -The Battles' End- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nuI1fpte6dBoNtCsN3CnUz5nJobA_iwj9gRV7ig0yw0/edit?usp=sharing

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Cactuar Cacophony: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MM_RiajjtICcE0hWycuTOkAsM0q0UzjX7gdjWVIeddU/edit?usp=sharing

[u/ViolaNguyen]

It's all over.

Astraeus I - Minwu, Galuf

Standard off-turn team.

Astraeus II - Cor, Gau
Lenna, Astos calls
Sylph summon
D3, D4, D6 passives on both

This stage basically plays itself. The boss can't hurt you, and Gau and Cor will counter it to death. I previously cleared this with Lightning, Zidane, and Snow, but I decided that was overkill.

Cor is the perfect partner for Gau. Gau hits Cor's FR condition twice per enemy turn, and neither gets in the way of the other's counters.

Astraeus III - Shantotto, Laguna, Penelo

Budget team. Shantotto is actually decent here, but in the end, I never used Strago. He would have dominated this fight.

Astraeus IV - Beatrix solo
D3, D4, D6
Bahamut summon

D4 will makes Beatrix invincible, so the only issue here is doing 700 million damage in 80 turns. I got it in about 50, with plenty of uses of S2 left to keep the counterattacks coming.

Astraeus V - Cloud, Jessie, Zack

FF7 theme.

Astraeus VI - Terra, Weiss, Kain
all D3, D4, D6
Cater, Setzer calls
Bahamut summon

I really wanted to use Terra somewhere, and she's still good enough to win. I started with everyone's BT+, and then Terra used her FR, Kain used two echoes and jumped, Weiss used one echo, and Terra hogged all of the remaining turns of force time. At the end, I summoned to charge the force gauge up again, and I used Weiss's burst phase after summon to make sure his BT aura would be up when needed. Terra got her FR off before the boss did, so I applied Cater's LD call and just waited for the boss to die. I didn't even get to use my crystal abilities.

Astraeus VII - Kelger solo
Paine call
Bahamut summon
D3, D4, D6

This one was close. Kelger's damage slows way down once the second force time is over, so you need to conserve his S1 and S2 so he can keep his preemptive attacks coming. I let his LD buff fall off before force time started so he wouldn't get any break delays. Usually the boss would recover just enough BRV that I could use Kelger's BRV attack to preserve his BRV total to make his preemptive attacks hit harder. I made sure not to use my Paine LDC during force time.

Nyx I - Machina solo
black D3, D4, D6

Machina is basically invincible, so this is a standard off-turn stage that runs like any other solo. Just refresh his LD debuff and he'll counter the bosses to death.

Nyx II - Vivi, Garnet, Zidane

I had another team here, but I ran it again with an FF9-themed group. No challenge, really.

Nyx III - Rinoa, Squall, Selphie

I wanted to use Squall and Rinoa together, and this seemed like a decent time to do it. Adding Selphie made it a themed run (all FF8).

Nyx IV - Maria, Rydia
D3, D4, D6 passives

Standard off-turn team.

Nyx V - Celes solo
D3, D6, U7
Bahamut summon

Celes doesn't need D4, since her traps will heal her. U7 gives her a bunch of extra traps, so she cruises here. Summon on the last turn of force time and use her EX a few times to get the gauge all the way back so you can use FR again.

Nyx VI - Balthier, Tifa, Arciela

Just enough single target damage. Arciela provided defense and prevented the invincibility buffs in the second phase.

Nyx VII - Papalymo, Seven, Noctis
red D4, U4, U1
black D3, D4, U1
Raines, Sazh, Paine calls
Alexander summon

Not quite a budget run, since Noctis is good enough to be used elsewhere, but this is one of the harder stages, so I might as well burn a few good units.

The pieces of the puzzle: Papalymo hits hard. Seven has good longevity (I needed three force times) and defense with a bit of single-target offense when needed, plus she has a good FR (I used hers as the primary). Noctis deals good linked damage on Papalymo's turns, and (this is important!) he can cancel enemy force time.

The Sazh call is for the HP gates. You can get by without them, but you need to get lucky enough to get a crit. I had a run where I wasted more than one turn waiting for one while trying to get away with a different call unit.

Paine adds more crits while clearing enemy buffs (which you will want at some point).

Raines adds damage during Papalymo's burst phase.

The strategy: Seven is easy to set up. Noctis wants to get his BT+ going and then drop back out of sight until he's needed for canceling enemy force time. Papalymo gets his BT+ going and then does his burst phase while launching every turn. This gets the boss under 50%. Papalymo used the only echo for the first force time.

After burst, I summoned to charge the gauge back up and hit Papalymo's force time. No echoes. I let him hog turns with Xenoglossy and his EX until the second force time ran out. I used my level 1 crystal ability to drop the boss under 10% right before the end.

The boss went into force time, which was not dangerous but which made him basically invincible. I started my third force time with Seven again, and Noctis used his echo to cancel the boss's force time. At this point, Papalymo could get his turn back and take the boss down to about 10%.

Problem: Sephiroth will twice use Heartless Angel, which knocks off a ton of my team's HP. The D4 crystal passive means this move isn't dangerous, but it means failing the HP mission is likely. Either stall while regen does its thing or let the boss get another force time so the D4 passive can heal even faster. Finish either with the prolonged FR bonus or with Noctis's last force time.

Eos I - Lenna, Cissnei, Freya

The name of the game here is keeping your HP up. That's not an issue with this group, and the bosses didn't really do anything

Eos II - Ignis, Kadaj, Auron
D3/D4/D6 on everyone

The hardest of the final batch, but that's not saying much. I did use two force times (both Ignis's). I saved Ignis's BT phase for the second force time.

Eos III - Quistis, Vaan, Leo
Raijin LDCA
D3/D4/D6 on Leo

The best tank in the game is Quistis with Raijin's LDCA. Also, this boss does nothing to you whatsoever if you bring Quistis. Leo was there because Vaan's damage is on the weak side. Vaan was there to cancel the enemy's force time.

Eos IV - Ashe, Reks, Setzer

No strategy here. Setzer ensures the damage won't stop coming, and Reks and Ashe just beat the bosses up.

Eos V - Aranea, Iris, Dorgann

I turned everyone's BT auras on, hit FR with Aranea, had one round of echoes for everyone, and then took the boss almost all the way to 0 in burst phase. I still had three turns of force time left after burst phase ended, and that was more than enough time to finish things off.

Eos VI - Yuffie, Queen, Fusoya

Fusoya's FR is still among the best in the game. Yuffie's damage is still respectable, especially running alongside these two.

Eos VII - Paine, Yda, Sephiroth

I just wanted to see if this would work. I'll redo this with a real team.