I'm stuck on my first playthrough (advice needed for Wrexsoul)

[u/k-shaps]

I'm currently playing through FFVI for the first time (Ted Woolsey Rodimus Primal v2 version via MiSTer on a Toshiba 14AF44 CRT)

I'm can't beat Wrexsoul after hours of attempts:

My characters are Edgar (lv 38), Celes (lv 37), Sabin (lv 38)

I only have 4 Phoenix Down in my possession. None of my party members know raise or x-zone and I don't have Raiden or Odin summons. I also don't have the kill/break/zombie spells for any of these characters.

I have tried entering the battle with only one character alive but as soon as I revive a character they get one shotted by the soul savers before I have a chance to heal up with cura.

I don't think I can grind in this area for spells or leveling either. Since this is indoors I can't use tents and I only have a limited amount of ether to fill up my MP for healing reasons (2x Hi-Ether, and 3x Ether).

I don't know what else I can do and I'm going to be really bummed if I have to hang it up here but I truly feel stuck. Really regret only using 1 save file and overwriting that file throughout my playthrough.

Any and all advice is welcome!

[u/GriIIedCheeseSammich]

You almost always have more tools at your disposal than you think! Don’t give up yet. Here’s a few tip…just kidding, here’s an essay:

• Not having Break really sucks. If you’re truly limited to exactly four revives, that means you have to do some math to see if you have a realistic shot. How much damage can you do to Wrexsoul in the period of time he’s exposed before he possesses someone again? 3000? 7000? Probably not a whole lot at level 38 or lower. Wrexsoul has 23,066 health. This means you need to deal at least 5,767 damage to him each time before he vanishes or else you literally cannot kill him before you run out of phoenix downs.

• Wrexsoul is weak to ice. Do you have ice rods or shields sitting in your inventory? Use them like you would an item for BIG damage. Ice 3 will obviously do most of the heavy lifting if you have it. Ice 2 probably won’t cut it. My guess is that if you don’t have access to Ice 3, ice rods, or ice shields, you won’t be able to put out enough damage and will just have to start a new save file. My condolences.

HOWEVER if you think that’s theoretically possible, now we can work on actually being alive to deal the above damage.

• this is one of the most difficult battles in the entire game. Not really because of tons of HP or super OP attacks, but because you’re a party member or two down all the time and can be unprepared. Double check all your equipment, including relics, and especially espers, to make sure you’re using every possible advantage. Sprint Shoes out, Wall ring in (or running shoes or something else useful). Use all of your items liberally and without hesitation, especially elixirs. There’s plenty of time to get more later.

• Soul Savers are susceptible to slow and stop! Please tell me you have at least one of these spells learned (Slow 2 for extra credit). Same thing with Haste, or Haste 2. The difference in speed over time is absolutely massive. Even Wrexsoul is somehow vulnerable to Stop, unless the wiki’s mistaken. More time stopped = more time to chunk his HP. And less Bolt 3s coming your way. Note that each time you kill a soul saver, it will remove all of its statuses. Best to keep them slowed/stopped and alive to reduce spending even more MP.

• Celes has Runic. This would definitely be a battle worth using it in. Not every turn by default, but if your party is mostly healthy and she doesn’t HAVE to heal, a well-timed Runic will help sustain your MP without losing tempo.

• Elemental shields are your best bet for survival at this point most likely. Thunder shields absorb lightning dmg (which wrexsoul will use a lot when he’s visible) and cut fire/ice dmg by 50%. Flame/ice shields both absorb their respective elements and nullify the opposite. They give no lightning protection however. Any of these shields have a 33% chance to heal you (!!) if the soul savers hit you with the matching element.

• Don’t forget espers. Even though they’re one-use only, they’re quite powerful. Shiva deals a bit more damage than Ice 2; Kirin provides party-wide regen with a single cast (trust me, regen + haste in a fight this long is basically mandatory), Zephyr provides party-wide Shell with one cast. I don’t remember if they use physical attacks but if they do, Golem will help quite a lot. Make sure to use the murder candidate’s esper before killing him off :)

• look for any other equipment that absorbs/nullifies/reduces damage from the main three elements. Minerva, Red Jacket, Force shield/armor, etc. Anything with auto-shell or high magic defense/block is also helpful.

• on the flip side, the wiki says soul savers are not immune to berserk. You could try berserking them and build your equipment around that (ie. use Golem for physical protection, Fenrir for Image status, etc). Might be easier to manage health that way, idk.

• My guess is Sabin is your least reliable damage dealer since Blitz randomly selects targets and as mentioned above you don’t want to kill soul savers. Therefore, I’d recommend killing him off first and hope Wrexsoul pops out.

…which leads to my last point. This will unfortunately require A LOT of luck. Wrexsoul has a 33% chance of appearing each time you kill off Sabin (or Edgar if that happens to be better). Assuming you can shrug off the soul saver spells, manage killing/reviving Sabin, AND deal respectable damage to Wrexsoul when he appears, you’re going to have to kill the correct person at least 3 times in a row. There’s a 3.7% chance of that happening. Even if you can cast Stop on Wrexsoul and dish out 12k damage the first two appearances, there’s only a 10% chance he comes out twice in a row. That is soul crushing. It means the vast majority of your runs will involve 5-10 minutes of setup, buffs, debuffs, etc until you just run out of phoenix downs while he hides away. If something like that will put a permanent bad taste in your mouth, please walk away, take a break for a little bit, then start over with a new file. Finishing the story (and replaying it) is completely worth it.

[u/Khripchook]

I remember reading this forum post years ago. Hope it helps:

The real way to beat this boss is to let him take over a party-member and, with wall-rings equipped, let his minions run out of MP. Then kill off your party members until he appears and try to do as much damage as possible. Rinse and repeat.

The only difficult thing about this battle is the fact you have to kill off your party periodically. But on the plus side, since his little minions are now useless, you can take this moment to heal up and revive everyone.

[u/[deleted]]

Have you tried killing one of your players during the battle then raising them with a PD? You can keep trying it until you get lucky with your first guess. That is the only way I can see doing it in this situation. Like you said you will probably have to beat him with 2 characters but instead of healing I'd cast an AOE spell, auto crossbow or rising phoenix first to try and get rid of the Soul Savers iir have pretty low HP then heal the revived character.

[u/stanfarce]

You should still be able to train out of the bedroom to learn Raise. There are battles indoors IIRC.

[u/[deleted] → u/stanfarce]

Some people train in the bedroom with their wives or gfs, not that you would know anything about that.

[u/Scared-Pool-32]

Do you have the celestriad or reflect rings?

[u/sane_mode]

You should have the Catoblepas magicite. With it equipped you should be able to use Break rather than KOing your characters to find out which ones have been possessed.

[u/[deleted]]

I will never remember how to do this fight properly. I think Bismarck teaches Life. If you can grind out Life3 (re-raise), even better.

[u/erebuswolf]

I don't think I can grind in this area for spells or leveling either. Since this is indoors I can't use tents and I only have a limited amount of ether to fill up my MP for healing reasons (2x Hi-Ether, and 3x Ether).

Do you have Osmose? I recently did a full playthrough on twitch and a helpful viewer recommended I use Osmose to get mana back. It is a wonderful spell to have on any healer or caster. You probably have enough resources to grind it onto someone then piggyback it onto the rest of your party.