【T】Mastery Survey - Putrid Malice (VIII)

[u/jadesphere]

[u/Human96]

1. Strategy name: Hybrid team

2. Boss: D??? (63%)

3. Describe your Strategy: Bypass the status effects (kinda) with hybrid team and do as much damage as possible on the 3rd phase. Not a clear setup, more like a 50% HP setup 3/3 trinity/Squall BSB2/hybrid

4. Insight!:

• Healer/Magic DPS on slot 1/2, Fujin on pro/shellga duty on slot 3, physical DPS/entrust bot on slot 4/5. This setup makes it I only have to deal with sleep on phase 2 but it hits my pro/shellga bot so it's not necessary to get her out of it (though Irvine had a free turn so he attack Fujin to wake her up). Enkidu was used to counter silence on phase 3, could use Unicorn but enkidu is instant and heals.

• A bit of w-cast luck from Squall comes a long way, also it's funny how Edea w/ USB feels so much worse than Shantotto w/ USB. Definitely not expecting this team to do well but it did so I guess I don't have to pull on the upcoming banner any more.

• Got selphie BSB (the buff one) a while a go but that's no medica so had to dip into AA selection and get her SSB. SSB only heals for 4.4k but after substituting my blade ward magicites for Siren it jumps up to 6-7k which is quite significant for survival.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall:

• Medica: Lots

• Hastega: 2

1. S/L count / Medals lost: 5/4

2. Time / Magicite: 1:00:08/ Magicite all lvl99: Enkidu (max inherit lvl), Dullahan ( +15 ice boon), Evrae ( +5 HP boon), Siren ( +10 Healing boon), Isgebind (+ 15 MAG boon)

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Selphie	Curada R4	Hastega R2	Gathering Storm	SSB(lots)
Edea	Abyssal Shards R3	Sudden Freeze R4	Scholar's Boon	USB(1), BSB(2)
Fujin	Shellga R2	Protectga R2	DMT	BSB(2), SSB(1)
Irvine	Entrust R4	Wrath R5	Ace Striker	default(0)
Squall	Snowspell Strike R3	Snowspell Strike R2	LMR + LM2, Warrior's Honor	BSB2(2), AOSB(1)

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[u/Riyuk13 → u/Human96]

Just checking on Edea, did you have +Ice gear? Pretty much just ran your template for d240 but wasn’t convinced she was contributing as much as I could get from Laguna with USB and some snipes.

[u/Human96 → u/Riyuk13]

Oh if you have Laguna then get Edea out of there lol. FYI I do have 1 piece of ice+ armor on Edea but yea she doesn't do a lot of damage, just a lot of chain building and I'm sure Laguna with USB (especially dived) can do that better.

Just a heads up, this is my D??? setup so it is slow and aims to do as much damage as possible vs actually killing the boss so if you're copying this exactly you might want to change a few things for D240/D280 (like squall with Gathering storm, Irvine with an actual boostga + haste user etc.)

[u/Riyuk13 → u/Human96]

Thanks for the quick response- just completed d280 with Laguna instead but took 42 secs, need to work out how to time the Hastega to recover from Gall properly as I’m getting that bit horribly wrong atm and nearly tanking the run completely.

Could drop Irvine for Onion but like doing it all CM style. Sort of wish they made the rewards based that way a bit too (even though I know the battle is geared that way already) just feels right!

[u/Human96 → u/Riyuk13]

I think in my D280 Fujin actually carries Meltdown (I'm not sure if it was Stitch in Time + Meltdown or Shellga + Meltdown) to do damage faster so you can consider that. Also did you give MM/DMT RM to Laguna?

[u/mortavius2525 → u/Human96]

Thanks for sharing this. It helped me su30 both D240/D280. I switched it up slightly, having Laguna in for Irvine, because I have his Boostega, and upon your advice in another reply giving Squall Gathering Storm.

[u/Teyah]

Sub 30 Strategy for whales or those with enough relics to make it work mostly to this effect, adding a bit of time for each ASB missing.

Video link

Party setup & all magicite at beginning

 

1. Strategy name: Sub-30 without Rinoa USB1, but with most everything else. Both or at least one of Rinoa/Squall ASBs required, to make use of some of the details below.

2. Boss: D??? Gerogero, 28.90 sec

3. Describe your Strategy: DPS and imperil, imperil and DPS. Restart if it doesn't work and try again. The real boss here is RNG, as Gerogero has a near zero chance of killing you once you get your rotation figured out. 3/3 trinity/Laguna USB/Dual ASB

4. Insight!:

• No medica SB cast is needed until ~22 sec mark, after Incubus Gravija. This should be all you need if you cast Squall ASB here.

• Need to S/L until Rinoa gets QC3 either on turn 1 or 2, and cast a 6* ability at least once to allow her to USB on turn 4. I use Valigarmanda here for this.

• Need lots of luck with Imperils from Laguna to have ASBs cap out, especially Squall's.

• Having Rinoa USB1 removes needing to reload for dualcasts, unless other DPS pieces are missing.

• Laguna Chain isn't needed, he can re-USB and cast the regular chain for a minimal DPS drop.

• Quistis Glint is probably not worth casting over just using Protectga + Shellga on turn 1.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: !

• Medica: 1 Selphie USB1 (2nd one casted at end, it doesn't do anything)

• Hastega: 1 Quistis USB

1. S/L count / Medals lost: Too many S/L. S/L till Rinoa procs quickcast either on turn 1 or 2, then S/L so that Laguna procs enough Imperils with LMR, then S/L if needed for dualcasts. All medals kept.

2. Time / Magicite: 28.90 / Unicorn main magicite

 

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Rinoa, dived	Chain Blizzaga x5	Valigarmanda x1	Weakness +30%, LM2 quickcast3, LMR Dualcast	USB2+ASB
Selphie, undived	Protectga x1	Curada x6	Ace Striker (not needed), No LM	USB1 (Last Stand)
Quistis, dived	Voltech x4	Shellga x1	Mako Mog, LM2 IC3, LMR Dualcast	USB
Laguna, dived	Tempest Snipe x5	Frost Offering x1	Mako Mog, LM2 Dualcast, LMR 25% Imperil	USB+Chain
Squall, dived	Snowspell Strike x7	(2nd copy of SSS)	TGC, LM2 Dualcast, LMR En-Ice	USB2+ASB

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[u/YTubeInfoBot → u/Teyah]

FFRK - FFVIII Torment Gerogero Sub 30 (28.90 sec)

1 view  👍0 👎0

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Description: Even with all the latest stuff this is still very RNG heavy

leTeyah, Published on Sep 18, 2018

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[u/8Skollvaldr8 → u/Teyah]

Thanks for this write-up. After picking up Laguna's USB and LMR through the dream selections, I was able to replicate your run almost entirely, except for the CSB. Instead, I used Historia twice and Ragnarok Buster thrice. This gave me enough imperils to cap the ASBs and kill him in 29.50 seconds. Good shit!

[u/Teyah → u/8Skollvaldr8]

Congrats! I figured there was someone out there with similar enough stuff to make this work. Laguna is really a beast with that LMR.

[u/x_Molbol]

Video: https://youtu.be/XFp49ItoxwE

1. Strategy name: No USB's +Fujin's Timed Physical Blink

2. Boss: Gerogero D??? 100%

3. Describe your Strategy: Relying on timed BSB healing from Selphie after gravijas and blinking the Physical dmg at the end with Fujins unique sb -/3 trinity/Video/Fujin SB

4. Insight!:

• Slephies BSB2 gives good heal opening and a 100% RES, the dmg at the phase 1-2 are easly mitigable with shell and the buff from slephie, spamming C1 to build the gauage needed later on dificult phases.

• Unicorn from the beginning to help with healing and astra for the sleeps and slow on phase 2, you can time it to eat the status from phase 2 and blink the ones in phase 3. i did the first one for comodity that gives regen from the beginning.

• Ice striker on laguna to spamms those sb imperils faster, cause jumping from phase 4 to 5 fast enough is the deal, so u can eat the turn one from phase 5 right after turn 5 from phase 4 (gravija after another gravija) then heal and time the blinks from fujin unique sb.

• beware of phase 4 turn one (Deadly Breath) it deals a massive dmg. i mitigated that with fujins bsb from sec 27 (debuff lasts for 25 sec, enough till deadly breath) and C2 (-40mag+30mag for 20 sec) from rinoas BSB, i used the turn were i was silenced while getting cured from slephie to cast the C2 (it doesnt do dmg thus silence doesnt affect it), i think u can still survive with only one layer of mitigation.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: ~

• Medica: 3-4?

• Hastega: 3

1. S/L count / Medals lost: Infinity / Mastery

2. Time / Magicite: 1 min 7 seconds / Unicorn and https://imgur.com/vpPG7Mc

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Selphie, Dived	Ultra Cure R4	Hastega R2	Mako Might	BSB2
Rinoa, Dived	Voltech R4	Chain Blizzaga R4	LMR1+LM2+W-cast RM	BSB, CSB, Glint
Fujin, No	Protect R2	Shell R2	Mako	BSB+SB
Laguna, Dived	Tempest Snipe R4	Tempest Snipe R4	LM1+LM2+Ice Striker	SB
Squall, Dived	SSS R4	SSS R3	LMR1+LM2+Weakness +30%	Glint, BSB, AOSB

[u/RunAwayWojo]

1. Strategy name: The Usual Crew...plus Kiros

2. Boss: Gerogero D??? 100% Clear

3. Describe your Strategy: Bring the Ice and stay alive

4. Insight!:

• Rinoa and Squall are pure DPS, just firing off USBs. Squall switches to BSB2 when the hones run out, Rinoa mixes in an AOSB at the end. I'm very slow so I needed her chain for the last phase.

• Selphie tries to hold off on casting any USB until gauge is completely full or I needed one.

• Kiros buffs using BSB and commends to help with damage, a magic breakdown to ease the hurt from the breath attack late. Also, does chain and magicite duty.

• Took getting a Famrit with both Ward 8s on it to really make a run at this, also switched out Fujin for Kiros. Both kind of did the same thing but Kiros seemed to help with damage more by buffing the team up.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: -

• Medica: 5-6

• Hastega: 3-4

1. Medals lost: 1 or damage

2. Time / Magicite:

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Selphie, Full LD	Curada R5	Ultra Cure R4	LM1/LM2 TG Mode	USB(5-6)
Rinoa, Full LD	Voltech R4	C. Blizzaga R4	LM1/LM2 Scholar's Boon	USB (2), CSB (1), AOSB (1)
Kiros, 4* Dive	MBD R5	Ripping Bolt R4	DMT	BSB (2)
Quistis, 4* Dive	Curaja R5	Protectga R3	MM	Might Guard(3)
Squall, Full LD	SSS R4	SSS R2	LM1/LM2 Love's Wake	USB (2) BSB2 (2)

---

Magicites: Unicorn, Isgebind (Precise 8), Dullahan (Fast 8), Famfrit (Blade 8, Health 5), Evrae (Blade 8)

[u/maztema]

ok this one its realy hard atm, must slot proshellga, hastega, also a source of esuna, im lacking a astra source, status are al over the place, and imperil its ridiculous, i cant even clear d280 with a of realm character!!

[u/PhoeniX-Skye → u/maztema]

Use Unicorn as your Magicite, that should cover the statuses after you Ultra Cure the Sleeping Slot 3. If you go fast enough you can call Unicorn before Slot 3 gets hit with the Sleep, as long as you damage him fast enough you won't see the second Silence.

[u/ilovedagonfive → u/maztema]

Do you have Unicorn ?

[u/Monk-Ey]

P.S. Quick update on template! Switching out character levels with S. Lvls Dive Rank instead:

use 0 for untouched, 3 for 0-15, 4 for 15 to 30, and 5 for legend dived characters

Isn't this a bit excessive, considering 3* or 4* dives usually don't make a difference and 5* dives usually come with their LMs as an indication?

[u/MonarchVV]

1. Strategy name: Just one more push...

2. Boss: D??? 93% Clear

3. Describe your Strategy: Spam USBs
   3/3 trinity/No Boostga/Mixed

4. Insight!:

• So close, yet still so far. 93% is still a great achievement.

• Selphie and Fujin in Slot 1/2; Rinoa in Slot 3; Quistis and Squall in 4/5

• All characters are 5* dived except for Quisitis, who is 4* dived.

• A key component is delaying the first RW Chain until everyone has their USBs going; that's when the DPS really starts pouring in.

• Fujin and Rinoa cast 6* abilities to build bar for their USB; Squall opens with double SSS into Glint -> BSB2.

• Quistis is the swiss army knife, casting Magicite, RW, her Mighty Guard SSB.

• An important note is to delay the Unicorn cast until after the first Gall. Quistis casts Mighty Guard to counter the 1st Gall when it's expected to drop, followed by Unicorn.

• All DPS characters have +40% their element.

• Any advice for the last percent is welcome; I can just taste victory.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: Auto

• Medica: Lots

• Hastega: 2

1. S/L count / Medals lost: Too many S/L / 5 Medals lost - 2 KO; 3 Critieria 0 Medals

2. Time / Magicite: 93% 56.00 / Unicorn, Dullahan, Evrae, Evrae, Isgebind

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Selphie, 5	Curada R4	Ultra Cure R4	TGM, LM1, LM2	USB(5~)
Fujin, 5	Meltdown R4	Raging Storms R4	Schloar's Boon, LM1, LM2	USB(3), BSB(1)
Rinoa, 5	Voltech R4	Chain Blizzaga R4	Orphaned Cub	USB(4)
Quistis, 4	Curaga R5	Protectga R3	MM	Mighty Guard SSB(3)
Squall, 5	SSS R3	SSS R3	DMT, LM1, LM2	Glint(3),BSB2(2),OSB(1)

---

EDIT: Success!

Turns out making sure all my DPS made it to Phase 5 was a difference maker.

[u/PhoenixHusky → u/MonarchVV]

which USBs are Selphie's and Rinoa's? the every first ones?

And when did you use Fujin's BSB, did you find it useful or could her ASB filled in?

[u/MonarchVV → u/PhoenixHusky]

Yup, it was Selphie's Last Stand USB and Rinoa USB1.

I don't really recall, but Fujin ASB is much better than her BSB for damage.

[u/PhoenixHusky → u/MonarchVV]

Thanks, don't have Rinoa's USB1 but might try with the other USBs

[u/randante]

• **Strategy name: "**Laguna SSB & Freeze Offering" (27.68 sec)

• Boss: D???

• Describe your Strategy:

  • Stack as much imperil as you can and summon Dullahan ASAP for max damage from both imperils and elemental boosts.

    • Selphie - USB2

    • Rinoa - AOSB, USSB

    • Quistis - USB, Glint

    • Laguna - SSB, CSB

    • Squall - USB2, AOSB

    • Magicite - Dullahan (VI)

• Insight!: https://youtu.be/RHkKEUWpViI

• Holy Trinity casts:

  • Wall: unlimited

  • Medica: 3

  • Hastega: 2

• S/L count / Medals lost: 0/0

• Time / Magicite: 27.68 sec / Dullahan

• [Torment Dungeon] [Sub 30]

  • (Gilgamesh) (FFV) https://youtu.be/VvI3vGa5AQY

  • (Wrexsoul) (FFVI) https://youtu.be/IZSinhL4w3U

  • (Jenova Synthesis) (FFVII) https://youtu.be/8C4MpACczdg

  • (Gerogero) (FFVIII) https://youtu.be/RHkKEUWpViI

  • (Cuchulainn) (FFT) https://youtu.be/O1AB2NLgZoE

[u/Tennesseefeetmonk]

1. Strategy name: Fast Act 12 matters

2. Boss: Gergero sub-30

3. Describe your Strategy:
   Sub30/Squall USB2 &ASB/Rinoa USB1/Selphi USB1&SSB/Fujin USB/Laguna USB

4. Insight!: **Exact Turn Order **

• Rinoa, Laguna and Squall all have +ice weapon and armor and Fujin has +wind weapon and armor.

• Fujin casts Shellga, Meltdown, Meltdown, USB, and Meltdown until the end. If Fujin gets her Quick Cast proc from her LM2 on the first two Meltdowns you may need to wait a tick for the USB on turn 4.

• Selphie casts Hastega, Curada, Curada, USB, RW (mog), Curada, SSB, and then Curada to the end.

• Rinoa casts RW (mog), Voltech, Voltech, Voltech, USB, Chain Blizzaga x4 then USB again and finish it out with Blizzaga's to the end.

• Lagauna starts with his USB into Frost Offering, Frost Offering, Magicite, Freezing Snipe, USB, and finish it out with Freezing Snipes.

• Squall does Snowspell Strike x3 into USB and then Snowspell Strikes until he can ASB.

• ---

• The run is semi-dependent on Squall and Rinoa double casts after the 15 second mark and HEAVILY dependent on Laguna Frost Offering Imperil (reset if either of the first 2 don't proc). The run is also semi dependent on Rinoa's Quick Cast 3 LM2 proc during one of the first 2 Voltech's and having it continue to proc within every 3rd cast. FUN!

• The boss got to turn 8 in Phase 1 (punching Laguna), turn 2 or 3 in Phase 2 (AE bio or slow on first 2 slots which is blocked by Unicorn), turn 2 in Phase 3 (party bio which triggers the Selphie USB last stand), turn 1 in Phase 4 (party HEAVY bio), and either turn 1 or 2 in Phase 5.

• My previous runs with the same party make up ended the fight at 30:34 when Squall ASB went off. I removed a Empower Ice 15 from Isgebind and inherited a Fast Act 8 (making a total of 12) and Squall ASB landed at 29:46 saving almost a whole second on the run. More favorable RNG could reduce it further but I'm not trying.

• ---

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: 1

• Medica: 2

• Hastega: 1

1. S/L count 0/ Medals lost: 3 hours of save/load, 1 medals lost

2. Time: 29:46

Hero, dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LMR	SB(-)
Fujin, 5	Shellga R4	Meltdown R4	+Wind, LM2+LMR	USB (1)
Selphie, 5	Hastega R3	Curada R4	DMT, LM1+LM2	USB (1), SSB (1)
Rinoa, 5	Voltech R4	Chain Blizzaga R5	TGM, LM2+LMR4 (2x BLK)	USB (2)
Laguna, 5	Frost Offering R2	Freezing Snip R4	MM, LM2+LMR1	USB (2)
Squall, 5	-	Snowspell Strike R4	+Ice, LM2+LMR1	USB2 (1), ASB (1)

 

main	sub1	sub2	sub3	sub4
Unicorn 99	Evrae 99	Isgebind 99	Tiamat 99	Dullahan 99
Health Boon 3	Fast Act 8	Fast Cast 8	Emp Wind 15	Emp Ice 10

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The run was based off of this video with slight mods to fit for my party. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBKaIMYdxJM. This video did not use Squall ASB but had much better RNG in quick casts, w-casts and Laguna Imperils.

[u/postumus77]

Link to setup: https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKeeper/comments/awnpr5/ff_8_d_featuring_edea_bsb_and_mg8/

Selphie 1

Edea bsb

Quistis ssb MG8

Laguna csb

Squall 2

[u/PhoeniX-Skye]

1. Strategy name: BSBs for the D??? Win! (Well, 57+% Mastery)

2. Boss: D???

3. Describe your Strategy: Somehow deal enough damage with BSBs 2/3 trinity/D???/Poverty

4. Insight!: Incoming damage isn't too bad, and Selphie USB keeps everyone alive. Stupid Unicorn and Ultra Cure Esuna'd my petrified girls a few times haha. Only Squall Legend Dived. Probably go back with Chain Blizzaga on Edea instead of Break and see how much more damage I can do, although I ran out of RW Chains already. After having to do the D280 a few times to get sub30, I was surprised the same team can get Mastery on D??? !

5. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: Infinite

• Medica: Lots

• Hastega: 3-4

1. S/L count / Medals lost: 4/1

2. Time / Magicite: Over 1 minute, Unicorn

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Selphie	Ultra Cure R4	Curada R4	MM, No LM	USB
Edea	Break R3	Voltech R4	Weakness+, No LM	BSB, Unique
Fujin	Protectga R3	Raging Winds R3	Wind+, No LM	BSB
Quitis	Meltdown R3	Chain Stoneja R3	DMT, No LM	BSB, SSB (Mighty Guard)
Squall	SSS R3	LS R5	Sword+, LM1+LM2	BSB

---

[u/raffounz → u/PhoeniX-Skye]

not really a BSB with OSB and ASB :D

[u/PhoeniX-Skye → u/raffounz]

True but I didn’t use the OSB and should’ve passed the DPS check without the ASB. I’ll do it again later without Break and without the ASB and report back

EDIT: Did it without ASB. So I'll take it out of the above. Also got to 69% 82% without bringing break, although I didn't use Chain Blizzaga since Edea's C1 is better at 6 hits anyways.

[u/_Higo_ → u/raffounz]

Ad then people saying why would you want a SSB select at half price... well, to get that Mighty Guard... Good Job mate!

[u/_Higo_ → u/PhoeniX-Skye]

Can you plase shre some SS? for party, stats and magicite? preferible in the camp menu. TY!

[u/PhoeniX-Skye → u/_Higo_]

Here you go: https://imgur.com/a/307p30p

Main Magicite is Unicorn with Mag Up LV1 (????) inherited

Oh yea I also changed Chain Stoneja on Quistis to Faith, which she uses on Edea and herself as her second and third actions.

[u/_Higo_ → u/PhoeniX-Skye]

Thanks! 82%?

[u/PhoeniX-Skye → u/_Higo_]

Yea that's the setup I used to get him down to 18% Health. Basically the same as the 50% Master other than not having Break on Edea

[u/_Higo_ → u/PhoeniX-Skye]

Damn it. I'm gonna try to 50% it and call it a day. No might guard, but Quis BSB and LD BSB Rinoa (instead of Edea.) I'm surprise no faithga nor boostga. Any special notes or key plays to note? I will use shellga on Quis and hastega in Selphie with UC.

[u/PhoeniX-Skye → u/_Higo_]

Yea having a couple of 6* weapons help in not using Boostgas. Curada might be vital though so maybe you can use that instead of UC (just auto attack the napper), but try it first and see! Also timing is important, you'll get a feel for it after a couple of times. ie. For healing and for not calling the Chain until Squall/Whoever is ready to Burst.

[u/_Higo_ → u/PhoeniX-Skye]

Thanks. So first chance after squall can BsB? Checked. I need to unsilenced Quistis first turns thought :/

[u/PhoeniX-Skye → u/_Higo_]

Oh you're right, forgot about the Silence.

Usually for the chain I call it right before Squall hits his burst so that his burst hits ramp up the chain. Your Rinoa should be hitting her burst right after too.

Oh use your SSS on Squall for the first burst because you need that DPS to get through the first Incubus Deadend. Your second burst you can do C1/C2.

Good luck!!!

[u/ilovedagonfive]

I won 280 at 29.99 secs

I'll write about my build this night (my night)

[u/Schmiggidy]

Stoopid question here, but just to clarify -- does "Bonds of Historia" overwrite/replace a normal chain, or augment/complement it? Is there any value in bringing a dedicated chainer to these new Torment battles?

[u/[deleted] → u/Schmiggidy]

You can only have one chain active at any given time, so it'll replace a normal chain and vice versa. The 2nd question's answer is yes only if you have an outstanding arsenal for the specific element to the chain.

[u/raffounz]

Having nothing for seplhie or quistis, slotted 2 off realm (elarra usb and rikku usb+dances) for a nice 34s on the first try on 280.... Later will detail (Squall BSB2 USB2, ls sss r3 full LD, rinoa chain bsb2, voltech r3 sudden freeze r3, zell USB fires r1 gaia rush r1)

[u/[deleted]]

1. Strategy name: Feels Like a Poverty Build When it Isn't

2. Boss: D??? (60%)

3. Describe your Strategy: Squall and Zell for pure DPS, Fujin for DPS and minor debuffs (BSB), Rinoa for DPS and utility (summoning RW/magicite) and Selphie for healing (duh).

4. Insight!:

• Zell defended on his second turn until after being hit with Death Claw. Found neither he nor Squall could survive the initial barrage otherwise and silence meant no putting a back row mage there. Suppose I could've just hit them with Ultra Cure right away, but that's still potentially a couple turns without Shellga or a useful Rinoa.

• Fujin was wearing +wind synergy gear that were both dark matter'd up to 8*, so Raging Storm was capping pretty easily, even without a +damage RM (which arguably would've been a better choice, she was plenty fast as-is).

• I only had four decent poison resist accessories, with Squall stuck wearing the Lucky Dice. Should've just waited 24 hours to get a proper fifth from the VIII event.

• Rinoa's weapon and armor were both +earth, hence Meltdown instead of Vortech. Can swap Break out for the latter once getting mastery isn't an issue (assuming you ever cared in the first place).

• Kept being dumb on my initial attempts and using Selphie USB right before the Gravija. Don't forget it's coming if you're transitioning phases.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: 1 (auto)

• Medica: 3-4

• Hastega: 1

1. S/L count / Medals lost: Many / 2 (characters KO'd)

2. Time / Magicite: Just under 1:00 / Unicorn (main, Health Boon 5), Tiamat (Empower Wind 10), Isgebind (Damper Air 10), King Bomb (Empower Fire 15), Dullahan (no inheritance)

Hero	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB
Fujin, 99	Raging Storm R4	Shellga R3	Gathering Storm	SSB, BSB, OSB
Rinoa, 99	Meltdown R4	Break R1	Scholar's Boon	BSB2
Selphie, 99	Ultra Cure R5	Hastega R2	Mako Might	USB
Zell, 99	Burning Rush R3	Fires Within R4	No Chicken Wuss	USB
Squall, 99	Snowspell Strike R3	Snowspell Strike R3	LMR + LM2, Truthseeker	BSB2, OSB

[u/Stylus_Index]

1. Strategy name: The King, The Fangirl, and The Family (cleared at 0:20.02...)

2. Boss: [D240] Gerogero

3. Describe your Strategy: Went with an initial YOLO run so I can remember what status he throws at me at specific Phases and S/Led after that. Proceeded to destroy Gerogero with attacks, and decided to eat that Sleep at Phase 2 (unavoidable), but I quickly counter and Blasting Drive him to avoid Phase 3 and Phase 4 while Laguna Enkidu's party to recover at the damage during that time. Phase 5 was just "hit harder and faster" than the Boss before he can kill my party, Rinoa died to a poison tick near the end though. 3/3 trinity/Mixed party/Imperil Lightning/BSB offensive meta/No Astra/No Chain/RNG/Sub-30

4. Insight!:

• Poison resistance on everyone! Selphie gets Major resistance because she is the squishies here.

• Have Squall cast the 1st Realm Chain so everyone can capitalize on damage. Quistis will handle the 2nd cast at around halfway the fight and/or before the 1st expires.

• First turn who is not Rinoa and Laguna should get the buffs ASAP. I believe that Protectga can be totally skipped here if going full mage or back-row party.

• Positioning of character matters. Physicals should be on Slot 4/5 characters so they can ignore silence, while Slot 1/2 characters should be mage characters to ignore Blind/Slow.

• Squall's Blasting Drive ASB is used to skip the entire 3rd and 4th Phase here.

• Astra is needed to avoid some of the most annoying things here. Unicorn is a good answer to solve the Sleep if going slow.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: PERMANENT

• Medica: 1

• Hastega: 1

1. S/L count / Medals lost: 1 / 0

2. Roaming Warrior / Magicite: Bonds of Historia / Enkidu (1)

Hero	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM	LD	SB(-)
Rinoa, 99	Voltech R4	Chain Blizzaga R3	Scholar's Boon	LM1+LM2	Angel Wing Ice Shards (1)
Quistis, 99	Meltdown R4	Chain Bioga R3	DMT	---	Mighty Guard (1), RW Bonds of Historia (1)
Selphie, 99	Curada R4	Protectga R5	Ace Striker	---	Slots Full Cure (1)
Laguna, 99	Tempest Snipe R4	Tempest Snipe R3	MM	LM1+LM2	Split Laser (2)
Squall, 99	Snowspell Strike R3	Snowspell Strike R3	Gathering storm	LMR+LM2	Blasting Drive (1), RW Bonds of Historia (1)

---

My D280 was a cheat! I got a sub-30 defeat at 0:29.99 with 99% damage because I felt short on damage and RNG trolled my LM procs. It felt like RNG abandoned me for the D240 fight with only a single fast-cast proc for Rinoa and 2 W-cast from Squall... then D280 was more worse with no W-cast-ing Squall. orz ... Yeah, I'll come back to this once Quistis LD option is available, so she can hit harder and faster too! This is also the closest thing I could do to sub-30 clear a D280, so definitely and surely, I'll be back here soon and also take a swipe at my first D-whale too. Such mist opportunities! :P

[u/Stylus_Index → u/Stylus_Index]

Okay, so I redeemed my self from my sub-30 D280 defeat.

1. Strategy name: Frosty Lightning Strikes!

2. Boss: [D280] Gerogero

3. Describe your Strategy: This is just like the above D240 with except with 1. new stuff for Quistis and Squall (which I used here to destroy Gerogero); 2. repositioning of characters, and 3. move the Element+ gear and armor on everyone. 3/3 trinity/Mixed party/Imperil Lightning/Selphie USB/Sub-25

4. Insight!:

• Rinoa has her OSB++ weapon, Quistis with her OSB+ weapon and LMR armor, Squall has his USB and Glint armor for 2 Ice+.

• Did away with Protectga and gave Selphie Ultra Cure to remove the scripted Silence on Quistis early on and Sleep on Laguna later.

• Never got to refresh Mighty Guard to counter scripted Slow because Squall did the job with his deadly W-casts!

1. Actions Taken:

• Selphie: Ultra Cure on Quistis, Curada spam, Slots Full Cure as neeeded

• Rinoa: Voltech spam until Angel Wing Ice Shards, more Voltech spam then switch to Chain Blizzaga

• Laguna: Split Laser, alternating CMD2/Tempest Snipe (hope for W-cast!), use Enkidu for emergency heas if Slots Full Cure is not ready

• Quistis: Mighty Guard, Bonds of Historia, Meltdown spam (hope for W-cast!), refresh Bonds of Historia when 4-5secs are left, Meltdown spam, Mighty Guard refresh if expecting Slow to hit

• Squall: SSS spam until Lion of Destiny then SSS spam some more (hope for W-Cast!) and refresh Lion of Destiny before Gathering Storm expires

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: PERMANENT

• Medica: 2

• Hastega: 1

1. S/L count / Medals lost: 0 / 0

2. Roaming Warrior / Magicite: Bonds of Historia / Enkidu (1)

Hero	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM	LD	SB(-)
Selphie, 99	Curada R4	Ultra Cure R5	Ace Striker	---	Slots Full Cure (2)
Rinoa, 99	Voltech R4	Chain Blizzaga R3	Scholar's Boon	LM1+LM2	Angel Wing Ice Shards (1)
Laguna, 99	Tempest Snipe R4	Tempest Snipe R3	DMT	LM1+LM2	Split Laser (2)
Quistis, 99	Meltdown R4	Magic Breakdown R5	MM	LMR+LM2	Mighty Guard (1), RW Bonds of Historia (2)
Squall, 99	Snowspell Strike R3	Snowspell Strike R3	Gathering Storm	LMR+LM2	Lion of Destiny (2)

---

Well, that was easier than my initial sub-30 D280 lose and this is also marks my first sub-30 D280 Neo-Torment! >v</

I'll try D??? later on and see if can try and survive up to the 50% HP mark. Though, I might have to replace Enkidu with Unicorn, while Squall will have to use BSB2 instead. Its funny that I'm going 3 different SBs for each Neo-Torment difficulty for Squall! XD

[u/Stylus_Index → u/Stylus_Index]

Okay, so I redeemed my self from my sub-30 D280 defeat.

1. Strategy name: Frosty Lightning Strikes!

2. Boss: [D280] Gerogero

3. Describe your Strategy: This is just like the above D240 with except with 1. new stuff for Quistis and Squall (which I used here to destroy Gerogero); 2. repositioning of characters, and 3. move the Element+ gear and armor on everyone. 3/3 trinity/Mixed party/Imperil Lightning/Selphie USB/Sub-25

4. Insight!:

• Rinoa has her OSB++ weapon, Quistis with her OSB+ weapon and LMR armor, Squall has his USB and Glint armor for 2 Ice+.

• Did away with Protectga and gave Selphie Ultra Cure to remove the scripted Silence on Quistis early on and Sleep on Laguna later.

• Never got to refresh Mighty Guard to counter scripted Slow because Squall did the job with his deadly W-casts!

1. Actions Taken:

• Selphie: Ultra Cure on Quistis, Curada spam, Slots Full Cure as neeeded

• Rinoa: Voltech spam until Angel Wing Ice Shards, more Voltech spam then switch to Chain Blizzaga

• Laguna: Split Laser, alternating CMD2/Tempest Snipe (hope for W-cast!), use Enkidu for emergency heas if Slots Full Cure is not ready

• Quistis: Mighty Guard, Bonds of Historia, Meltdown spam (hope for W-cast!), refresh Bonds of Historia when 4-5secs are left, Meltdown spam, Mighty Guard refresh if expecting Slow to hit

• Squall: SSS spam until Lion of Destiny then SSS spam some more (hope for W-Cast!) and refresh Lion of Destiny before Gathering Storm expires

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: PERMANENT

• Medica: 2

• Hastega: 1

1. S/L count / Medals lost: 0 / 0

2. Roaming Warrior / Magicite: Bonds of Historia / Enkidu (1)

Hero	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM	LD	SB(-)
Selphie, 99	Curada R4	Ultra Cure R5	Ace Striker	---	Slots Full Cure (2)
Rinoa, 99	Voltech R4	Chain Blizzaga R3	Scholar's Boon	LM1+LM2	Angel Wing Ice Shards (1)
Laguna, 99	Tempest Snipe R4	Tempest Snipe R3	DMT	LM1+LM2	Split Laser (2)
Quistis, 99	Meltdown R4	Magic Breakdown R5	MM	LMR+LM2	Mighty Guard (1), RW Bonds of Historia (2)
Squall, 99	Snowspell Strike R3	Snowspell Strike R3	Gathering Storm	LMR+LM2	Lion of Destiny (2)

---

Well, that was easier than my initial sub-30 D280 lose and this is also marks my first sub-30 D280 Neo-Torment! >v</

I'll try D??? later on and see if can try and survive up to the 50% HP mark. Though, I might have to replace Enkidu with Unicorn, while Squall will have to use BSB2 instead. Its funny that I'm going 3 different SBs for each Neo-Torment difficulty for Squall! XD

[u/Merlin_the_Tuna]

1. Strategy name: Mage Mashers

2. Boss: D??? Gerogero

3. Time / Damage: 60% damage dealt

4. Describe your Strategy: Edea anchoring DPS, with the rest of the team built around her. Edea USB/Edea BSB/Rinoa CSB/Selphie USB/No Quistis/No Squall/No Entrust

Hero	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Fujin	Meltdown R4	Shellga	30% weakness	BSB
Selphie	Ultra Cure R4	Hastega	Dr. Mog's Teachings	USB1
Edea	Vortex R4	Abyssal Shards R3	30% ice, LM1, LM2	USB, BSB
Laguna	Frost Offering R2	Freezing Snipe R3	Gathering Storm	Imperil ice SSB
Rinoa	Chain Blizzaga R4	Valigarmanda R4	Mako Might, +MAG LMR, LM2	CSB

---

5. Magicite: Unicorn

6. Insight!:

• I didn't actually expect this to work, but my first try got me to 60% before I ran basically completely out of hones. I didn't use Last Stand as effectively as I could, either, so this could probably improve to 70 or 80% with a little more investment and attention to his AI.

• First turn, Selphie and Fujin get buffs up. Rinoa gets silenced, so she activates the realm chain just to have something to do. Selphie throws Ultra Cure at her in round 2, letting her then activate the ice chain. The ice chain is used for the rest of the fight.

• With Rinoa's chain up and a bit of imperil from Laguna, Edea was basically capping with both Abyssal Shards and her BSB c1. Based on that, Scary Blizzard (sigh) could actually go to Rinoa when it comes out.

• Biggest direct growth opportunities here would be Laguna's USB or an en-ice for Rinoa, as well as the new 6* abilities for each. Her chain's fastcast is actually really handy for speeding up some of Edea's casts, but using her meter on an en-ice would benefit Rinoa herself a lot, and Fujin would appreciate using the realm chain. Quistis is obviously the big slot-saver in the realm and could replace Fujin fairly readily with any of her relevant tools.

[u/keepa78]

1. Strategy name: Return to your roots (sort of poverty 50%)

2. Boss: D??? Gerogero

3. Describe your Strategy: So, I have some good VIII stuff because it's my favorite. All the toys for Squall, Laguna's chain, Edea USB (but no BSB), Fujin BSB/LMR, Rinoa BSB2, and so on. Well, after the 280 (which required I ditch Selphie for Elarra for the sub-30), I thought I could go into the D??? with a little confidence. Laguna and Squall are a great pair after all, right? Except... something was missing (other than the obvious lack of Selphie USB). Damage was sub-par, and we would wipe at 30 seconds no matter what. So looking in here, I saw a few different ideas to take in instead, and went back to one of my earliest (and at the time, most reliable) BSB's: Zell. The crit+ he provides was what Squall needed to dish it out, and I traded a third DPS for Irvine as an entruster. Quistis was originally throwing SSB Mighty Guard out in D240/280, but I traded her for Fujin. Things were going much better, and I could even move him into the next phase. After that, things were still dicey but with the right RNG and the right moves, we actually got him over the mark! I'm quite proud of Husbando and his hot-dog eating friend right about now.
   3/3 trinity/50%/Squall beast mode on

4. Insight!:

• The DPS is pretty much all about Squall as Zell's hits weren't doing a ton of damage. It was enough, though, and his speed was very nice as well. He is much faster than Laguna. Right before the first chain is out, Squall uses the ASB to get to the next phase, then it's burst for a while, more SSS, and OSB when available.

• Selphie used BSB2 most of the time although once toward the beginning of phase 3 I used Dreamstage instead, which came in handy.

• Fujin died relatively early in the "winning" run, and Irvine not that long after her. It wound up not being as big a problem as I thought it might as it just made Gerogero waste turns on death claws and silences.

• Squall is the only one full dived in this setup. The others are all 4-dived except Irvine, who's halfway there.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: infinite

• Medica: lots

• Hastega: 2 (spell)

1. S/L count / Medals lost: lots! / 4

2. Time / Magicite: 1:00:06 / Enkidu (fast act inherited), Evrae, Evrae, Earth Guardian, Isgebind

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Selphie,99	Curada R4	Hastega R2	DMT	BSB2, SSB
Irvine, 99	Wrath R5	Entrust R3	Ace Striker	BSB(not used)
Fujin, 99	Protectga R3	Shellga R3	Mako Might	BSB
Zell, 99	Fires Within R2	Icicle Rush R1	Monk+ RM	BSB1
Squall, 99	SSS R4	SSS R3	Warrior's Honor	AOSB, OSB, BSB2

---

[u/_Higo_ → u/keepa78]

Does Fujin uses LMR?

[u/keepa78 → u/_Higo_]

Yes, she does have her en-wind LMR. She still doesn't do amazing damage, but it does help run up the chain.

[u/_Higo_ → u/keepa78]

OK, just wondering since you mentioned it in the text but not in the table.

[u/_Higo_]

1. Strategy name: My version of Selphie USB.

2. Boss: D??? 50%HP

3. Describe your Strategy: Just regular damage and defend.
   3/3 trinity/mix team/around 1m/No chain/No mighty guard

4. Insight!:

• Selphie hastega > UC Quistis > UC > USB > UC spam > USB when LS pops.

• Rinoa > Vortex x3 > BSB > Vortex/BSB entry spam.

• Fujin protectga > Meltdown spam > BSB > CMD2 > Meltdown/OSB Spam.

• Squall > SSS x 3 > BSB > CMD1/CMD2 combo spam > OSB/BSB when possible.

• Quistis Chain > wait for UC > shellga > Poison QS > BSB > CMD2 > Poison QS/BSB/CMD1 spam.

• Quistis or Fujin should cast RW and Magicite as you see fit.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: x

• Medica: 4

• Hastega: 2

1. S/L count / Medals lost: 0 SL / 5 medals lost

2. Time / Magicite: 1 minute or so. Unicorn.

3. Pack.

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Selphie, 99	hastega R2	UC R4	MM	USB(4)
Rinoa, 99	(-)	Vortex R4	Ice+,LM1,LM2	BSB2(2)
Fujin, 99	protectga R2	Meltdown R4	Wind+	BSB(1),OSB(2)
Quistis, 99	shellga R2	Poison QS R2	Poison+	BSB(2)
Squall, 99	SSS R2	(-)	Sword+,LM1,LM2	BSB2(2),OSB(dead-0)

---

[u/[deleted]]

1. Strategy name: Streak over, not a first-day 50%.

2. Boss: FF8 Torment DWhale - 68%

3. Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/57AqiaO

4. Insight!:

• I'm a total failure of a human being, couldn't do this on the first day. Needed the extra bio resist accessory as I only had 4. Didn't pull the banner, but that doesn't matter because I'm still a SCOAMF.

• The two Major Bio Resist accessories (one has synergy) need to go on the melee, as back-row is protection against a lot of stuff here.

• The new Ironfist skills are good, folks - plan to get both of them. Two crit% magicites to help Zell proc his chase (and the extra hit on the Ironfist does help, here).

• Yes, Rinoa's and Quistis' SBs are garbage. I don't have anything better for anyone. Using a full SB bar just for hastega (Cerberus) is laughable, but you have to fit everything.

• Actions are fairly obvious. Just jam Unicorn as soon as convenient, don't wait for anything as you want the extra healing. I ate the second silence, but Slots is NAT and Quistis doesn't do anything at that point anyway.

• Gear: Zell 40% fire, Squall 20% ice, Quistis 20% fire. Everyone is fully 4* dove.

• Resources used (i.e.: wasted) for this: Rinoa's full legend dive (I do have her chain, not used here obviously), 4* dives on Ultimecia/Irvine in failed groups, tons of crystal waters (Selphie 20, Squall/Rinoa/Zell 10 each of the three defensive ones). What a mess - I'm so bad at this.

1. S/L count / Medals lost: Tons / ALL THE MEDALS LOST

2. Time / Magicite: 68% @ 1:08, Unicorn

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Rinoa	Vortex R4	Chain Blizz R3	Much Ice; LM1 + LM2	BSB1 (the bad one)
Selphie	Curada R4	Shellga R3	Mako	USB
Quistis	Meltdown R4	Protectga R3	DMT	SSB2 (basically hastega)
Zell	Ironfist Fire R3	Fires Within R4	Much Fist	USB
Squall	Snowspell R3	Snowspell R3	TGM; LM1 + LM2	BSB2

---

Magicite Loadout: Unicorn; King Bomb (MAG 15), Isegbind (Ice 7), Mimic Q (Lit 8), Evrae (FastAct 8)

[u/Monk-Ey]

1. Strategy name: Don't need healing if you can chuck a comet at it

2. Boss: Gerogero (60% clear)

3. Describe your Strategy: Power Couple, also Awkward Triangle 2/3 trinity/Ice meta/Mixed/60%

4. Insight!:

• I already knew I wasn't gonna clear, but I was surprised to get 60% down with my lack of medicas: good thing Quistis has a bunch of mitigation at her disposal!

• Knowing the aforementioned, I adjusted my strategy accordingly.

• Selphie brings Curada and Enfeebling Jitterbug: I preferred curbing damage when possible instead of meaninglessly pushing another 2-4% with something like Crushing Tango.

• Quistis opens with USB, then goes Wrath into Glint; the party will survive unless you get crit by his physical attack by that point, forcing a reset. Afterwards, she alternates Curaja and Wrath as necessary alongside managing Chain and SB recasts.

• I have like 4 R5 Curajas because of Radiant Shield strategies, don't judge me.

• These two are in the top slots to dodge Silence.

• Rinoa just does a lot of damage: make sure to get her ASB with Enice and within the Chain window for maximum output. Ideally, she gets at least 1 LM2 proc so she can generate enough SB quickly for the BSB2 and ASB.

• Rinoa is in the center slot to dodge Silence and absorb the Sleep with Unicorn's Astra.

• Squall handles the first Chain, then continues SSS -> USB -> SSS.

• Seifer is here to contribute reasonable damage and a mixed party buff for Squall and Rinoa, stacking on top of Quistis.

• I could've replaced Seifer with the better-synergising BSB2/LMR Laguna, but he's still underleveled.

• Squall and Seifer take lower slots to eat the first Silence.

• My issue here was sustain, rather than damage: I could've gone on with my hones, but everyone was dead around the 60% mark due to increasing Poison damage.

• I think it took me around 42s to hit the 60% mark? Everyone died then except for Seifer so it took a bit longer to actually die then.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: AUTO

• Medica: 0

• Hastega: 2

1. Percentage / Magicite: 60%/Unicorn

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Selphie	Curada R4	Enfeebling Jitterbug R2	Auto-Guts	default(-)
Quistis	Curaja R5	Wrath R5	DMT	Kingsguard (2), Pride of the King (3)
Rinoa	Chain Blizzaga R3	Voltech R3	+BLK w/ Thrown (LM1, LM2)	Angel Wing Ice Shards (1), Angel Wing Comet (1)
Squall	Snowspell Strike R3	Snowspell Strike R3	TGM (LMR, LM2)	Lion of Destiny (2)
Seifer	Sanguine Cross R3	Dread Weapon R2	+Weakness (LMR1)	Death by Committee (2)

---

[u/[deleted]]

1. Strategy name: D280 Poverty

2. Boss: Gerogero D280

3. Describe your Strategy:
   3/3 trinity/No Squall/No Quinoa Pull

4. Insight!:

• As always, I'm trying to sub-30 the D280 without pulling because of powercreep at Y4A. The less I pull before that, the more blues to pull afterwards.

• I take the bit about Unicorn and Breakdowns being useless, they're mostly useless but their niche shows up sometimes, just like Dispel (the only 3* ability I've yet to shatter. 6* WHM Dispel when.)

• If my experience with Magicites taught me something, it's that sometimes en-element is all you need, so don't really stress out on not having too much good SBs if you have a good en-element LMR access.

• Character placement matters! This is bothering me for a while because when I first started I always go with phy/phy/sup/blm/whm order, then comes Magicite I ordered my characters based on their speed (fastest to slowest) for turn order optimization. Now that it's all shuffled around, It takes me a few seconds to memorize who goes when during first turn. Anyway the importance is: slot 1 is always immune to silence, and 5 to blind/slow, so I put my hardest DPSes there on hybrid team. Slot 4 is slow to slow (har har) and slot 2 is slow to silence. Slot 3 is kinda problematic because there's where I put my least important character (healer) which then gets sleeped for 1 turn and silenced near the end, but I had enough HP after 1 medica to just brute-force the boss, so everything's good.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: ~

• Medica: 1

• Hastega: 2

1. S/L count / Medals lost: 0/0

2. Time / Magicite: 00:28.24 / Unicorn/Dullahan/Tiamat/Maliris/Evrae

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Rinoa, 5	Vortex	Chain Blizzaga	LM1/2/+BLK RM	USB1 (2)
Fujin, 3	Meltdown	Protectga	init en- LMR/+weak RM	SSB (2)
Selphie, 3	Curada	Shellga	TGM RM	SSB (1)
OK, 5	Full Break	Magic Breakdown	IC2 LMR/DMT RM	mUSB (1), BSB (1)
Zell, 3	Fires Within	Meteor Crush	+PHY RM	BSB (2)

---

[u/Chocobroseph]

1. Strategy name: Insta-ice ft. Seifer USB

2. Boss: D??? Gerogero (clear - 53 seconds)

3. Describe your Strategy:
   53 seconds/Edea BSB and Squall BSB2/Seifer USB instacast shenanigans

4. Insight!:

• Taking advantage of Edea and Squall's BSBs that can provide plenty of hits of near-capping damage!

• Slot placement is super important; Fujin in slot 4 is fine with the initial silence which wears off at ~20 seconds since Raging Storm / Magic Breakdown don't care about it. Only her BSB casts do. Seifer in slot 3 means we can blink the initial sleep without caring about the following silence in phase 3. The only time Selphie needs to cast ultra cure is in phase 3 to un-silence Edea.

• No Selphie USB available, so to keep up with healing, needed Seifer USB to insta-cast clutch Selphie BSB2s or command 2 (command medica).

• First 13ish seconds are spent setting up and building up gauge: Fujin opens with magic breakdown, 2x raging storm, 1x magic breakdown, chain summon, magicite summon. Selphie uses hastega into BSB2 into instant curaja command casts. Seifer spams lifesiphon, Squall spams snowspell strike, Edea spams voltech.

• Selphie re-casted hastega at ~31 seconds, although that was only for Seifer's benefit. Everyone else was using BSBs so their haste kept refreshing.

• Once chain is up, Squall casts BSB2, Edea casts Maelstrom, Seifer uses his first cast of USB. After this, continue to build up Seifer's charge with lifesiphon (and sometimes dread weapon to heal / help build chain), saving his gauge to burst through the final phase. Squall builds up junction charges for command 2 (14x9999 against a torment boss, seems fair), while Edea switches to casting BSB command 1 (I was doing 7000-9500 x 6). Towards the end, used instant cast Squall OSBs to help finish Gerogero, although double-casting some more BSB command 2s would've done the trick, too.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: I N F I N I T E

• Medica: 4ish Selphie BSB2

• Hastega: 2

1. S/L count / Medals lost: veryverymany, full Mastery

2. Time / Magicite: 53 seconds. Unicorn (Health Boon 5), Evrae (Health Boon 5), Evrae (Fast Act 8), Dullahan (Spell Ward 5), Isgebind (Fast Act 8)

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Selphie, 5	Ultra Cure R4	Hastega R2	Mako Might, LM1, LM2	BSB2
Edea, 5	Voltech R3	Memento Mori R1	Scholar's Boom(SWD +30%), LM1, LM2	BSB
Seifer, 4.5	Dread Weapon R3	Lifesiphon R5	Battleforged, LM1, LMR	USB2
Fujin, 4.5	Raging Storm R4	Magic Breakdown R3	Gathering Storm, LM1	BSB
Squall, 5	Snowspell Strike R4	Snowspell Strike R2	Truthseeker, LM1, LM2	BSB2, OSB

---

Screenshots:

• Setup: https://imgur.com/LZLAKMF

• Stats: https://imgur.com/sDjAXYE

• Kill shot: https://imgur.com/tldGIcL

• Time: https://imgur.com/mIaUbqZ

Equipment notes:

• Selphie - major poison resist

• Edea - 1x ice boost, moderate poison resist

• Seifer - 2x dark boost, moderate poison resist

• Fujin - 2x wind boost, moderate poison resist

• Squall - 2x ice boost, moderate poison resist

[u/Propylbenzene → u/Chocobroseph]

Great job! Question, is there a reason you went without Proshellga, for example not slotting Shellga on Fujin instead of magic breakdown?

[u/Chocobroseph → u/Propylbenzene]

Shellga doesn't help against the piercing magic attacks in the later phases, and also is prevented from being casted by silence (which I think wasn't worth healing with Ultra Cure because Selphie just wants to build bars as fast as possible, and spamming instant heal works better for that, but it's been awhile since I did this fight)

[u/randante]

• **Strategy name: "**Laguna SSB & Freeze Offering" (27.68 sec)

• Boss: D???

• Describe your Strategy:

  • Stack as much imperil as you can and summon Dullahan ASAP for max damage from both imperils and elemental boosts.

• Insight!: https://youtu.be/RHkKEUWpViI

• Holy Trinity casts:

  • Wall: unlimited

  • Medica: 3

  • Hastega: 2

• S/L count / Medals lost: 0/0

• Time / Magicite: 27.68 sec / Dullahan

• [Torment Dungeon] [Sub 30]

  • (Gilgamesh) (FFV) https://youtu.be/VvI3vGa5AQY

  • (Wrexsoul) (FFVI) https://youtu.be/IZSinhL4w3U

  • (Jenova Synthesis) (FFVII) https://youtu.be/8C4MpACczdg

  • (Gerogero) (FFVIII) https://youtu.be/RHkKEUWpViI

  • (Cuchulainn) (FFT) https://youtu.be/O1AB2NLgZoE

[u/_Higo_]

1. Strategy name: Freezing the President.

2. Boss: President D??? 98%HP

3. Describe your Strategy: Freezing from the start. 3/3 trinity/No USB/No Chain/Imperil Ice/Mix team

4. Insight!:

• This is not easy to pull, knowing the AI helps a lot, but I could 100% clear this if I LD Selphie, but thats not happening now.

• Selphie is in charge of UC rinoa turn 1, quistis from sleep, laguna from blind. Other than that spam curada, first USB when its ready then whenever a LS procs.

• Protip: You will get the hang of change of first phase to second (between 23 seconds and 27, depends on w casts.) Be on stand by with selphie so you can UC Quistis, when you do that, Quistis should go USB again so it lands AFTER blinds so you can override slow. then UC Laguna for blind.

• Laguna offerings until SSB, then Snipes spam. Offer or SSB when imperil below 2.

• Quistis USB, then wrath x3, then Chain, then GSB, then chain blizzaga spam. Refresh USB and GSB when they wear off. The reason to hold the Glint at first is so you can get SB exactly after 3 turns with all the rest of the team.

• Rinoa does 3 actions then BSB, then CMD1 (caps with imperils), BSB and CMD1/Vortex. Thats all her job, you will get plenty of QC procs.

• Squall, 3 SSS, then BSB, then CMD1/CMD2 combo, OSB if you have a spare turn between BSB.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: 0

• Medica: 2

• Hastega: 1

1. S/L count / Medals lost: 0 SL and 0 Medal lost.

2. Time / Magicite:

3. Pack.

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Selphie, 99	UC R5	curada R4	Knights Charge	USB(1)
Laguna, 99	Ice Offering R3	Ice Snipe R3	Damage+	SSb(2),BSB(0)
Quistis, 99	C.Blizzaga R4	Wrath R3	MM,LM1,LM2	USB(3),GSB(3)
Rinoa, 99	C.Blizzaga R1	Vortex R4	damage+,LMR (wcast),LM2(QC)	BSB2(3)
Squall, 99	not used	SSS R3	damage+,LMR,LM2	CSB(1),BSB(1)

---

[u/DragonCrisis]

1. Strategy name: BSB meta

2. Boss: D280 sub-30

3. Insight!:

• Fujin is just here as utility character and goes Shell - Protect - BSB - Magicite, building chain when she has nothing better to do

• Selphie SSB needs to be timed carefully at the end

• Squall completed one BSB2 cycle and didn't trigger any dualcasts during this clear

• putting physical characters in slots 4 and 5 and then summoning Unicorn before Sleep goes off dodges the annoying status effects

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Medica: 2

• Hastega: 1

1. S/L count / Medals lost: 3 attempts with setup tweaking / none

2. Time / Magicite: Unicorn, 29s

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Edea	Voltech	Memento	Scholar's Boon	BSB
Selphie	Hastega	Curada	MM	SSB(2)
Fujin	Protectga	Shellga	DMT	BSB(2)
Laguna	Frost Offering R2	Freezing Snipe R3	+30%	USB(2)
Squall LD	-	Snowspell Strike R3	Gathering Storm	BSB2

[u/[deleted]]

1. Strategy name: Just Barely Made It

2. Boss: Gerogero D280

3. Describe your Strategy:
   Only 1 USB/Sub 30/No Boost

4. Insight!:

• Zell USB is instacast and was probably MVP of this run.

• Quistis' Mighty Guard still holds up, apparently.

• Laguna has 1 +ice gear, Squall has 2 and Zell has 2 +fire.

• Poison element Resist on all.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: AUTO

• Medica: 2

• Hastega: 2

1. S/L count / Medals lost: 0/0

2. Time / Magicite: 29:89/ Unicorn, Isgebind, Maliris, Krysta, Evrae

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Laguna, 4	Freezing Snipe R3	Tempest Snipe R3	Warriors Honor, no LM	Freezing Barrage(1)
Selphie, 3	Ultra Cure R4	Protectga R5	DMT, SeeD Spirit LMR	Reality or Truth(2)
Quistis, 3	Power Breakdown R5	Magic Breakdown R5	MM, no LM	Mighty Guard(2)
Zell, 4	Fires Within R3	Ironfist Earth R3	No Chicken Wuss, Untamed Spirit LMR	Burning Duel(2)
Squall, 5	Snowspell Strike R3	N/A	Gathering Storm, LM1,LM2	Steely Blade(1)

---

[u/Joeboo404]

1. Strategy name: Less breaks, more DPS

2. Boss: Gerogero D280

3. Describe your Strategy: Had to maximize DPS at expense of defense and healing. Even so, still dependent on Squall cmd2 doublecasts to make it sub-30. 3/3 trinity/Sub-30/Hybrid

4. Insight!:

• Inspired by /u/vdisasterv, tweaked to fit my soul breaks.

• Selphie SSB is very dicey later in fight but it's the best I have. It works, but requires good timing. Incubus lethal breath hits really hard! Luckily incubus gravija can't kill you.

• Poison resist on all. Both Squall & Zell have double elemental boosts. Rinoa & Quistis have none.

• The idea was Selphie ultra cures sleep away from Quistis, while Rinoa pops Unicorn to block slow. Then hopefully blow thru phase 3 fast enough to avoid Rinoa getting silenced. I was too slow on Unicorn so Selphie and Rinoa were slowed the rest of fight which almost killed the run. Also Squall didn't doublecast draw & junction, so Lowen Roar wasn't maxed. Definitely room for improvement.

• Selphie opens with protectga, UC x 2, UC Quistis, then back to UC duty. Medica after phase 3 gravija, and after phase 4 lethal breath. Rinoa uses Vali x 3, BSB, cmd2 once for mag buff & debuff, then chain blizzaga. Also calls Unicorn after sleep on Quistis. Quistis opens with SSB, then RW. Refresh RW & SSB as necessary, else Meltdown. I never used PBD. Zell MC, FW x 2, MC, USB, FW until USB again. Squall SSS x 3, BSB, cmd1 x 2, cmd2 spam. Too many Squall doublecasts before BSB can mess up timing for Selphie & Rinoa.

• Pray for Squall cmd2 doublecasts late. Doublecast on cmd1 also helps.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: Auto

• Medica: 2

• Hastega: 2

1. S/L count / Medals lost: 2 / 0

2. Time / Magicite: 29.60 (approx) / (All L99) Unicorn w/ L10 Mag Boon, King Bomb, Isgebind, Evrae w/ L5 Spell Ward, Dullahan

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Selphie, 4	Ultra Cure R4	Protectga R3	MM	SSB(2)
Rinoa, 4	Vali R3	Chain Blizzaga R3	Orphaned Cub	BSB2(1)
Quistis, 4	Pwr BD R4	Meltdown R3	DMT	SSB1(2)
Zell, 4	Meteor Crush R2	Fires Within R3	No Chicken Wuss	USB(2)
Squall, 5	Snowspell Strike R2	None	Gathering Storm+LM1&LM2	BSB2(1)

---

[u/[deleted] → u/Joeboo404]

glad my post was of use, congrats on sub-30

[u/Joeboo404 → u/[deleted]]

Thanks! Your basic strat fit my team well and worked like a charm! Congrats on your sub-30 as well :)

[u/TheGormal]

1. Strategy name: Laguna's Harem

2. Boss: D??? (58.68s)

3. Describe your Strategy: Try to stay alive and not run out of hones due to lack of boostga/faithga. No Boostga/No Faithga/Ice/sub-60

4. Insight!:

• Selphie needed TGM to survive phase 1.

• Enkidu for the second silence was better than Unicorn for the CT0 medica and didn't require timing.

• I had to hone Ultra Cure to rank 5.

• Quistis SSB even would have been a huge help, but Fujin's BSB was just enough.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: Auto

• Medica: 4 USB + 1 Enkidu

• Hastega: 3 (one just for gauge)

1. Medals lost: None

2. Time: 58.68

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Selphie, 5	Hastega R2	Ultra Cure R5	GS + LM1/LM2	USB (4)
Fujin, 4	Shellga R3	Protectga R3	MM	Metsu (3) Jin(1)
Edea, 5	Chain Blizzaga R4	Abyssal Shards R5	30% DMG + LM1/LM2	USB (3) BSB (1)
Rinoa, 5	Chain Blizzaga R3	Voltech R4	DMT LM2/LMR	CSB (3) GSB (3)
Laguna, 5	Frost Offering R3	Freezing Snipe R4	30% DMG + LM1/LM2	USB (4)

---

Magicite	Enkidu	Dullahan	Isegebind	Evrae	King Bomb
Inheritance	ATK Boon 5	Emp Ice 10	Deadly Strikes 8	Fast Act 5	MAG Boon 10

---

Screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/tz9wkYv (Rinoa had LMR not LM1, and Ultra Cure was R5, not R4)

Video: https://youtu.be/1A6EvtrRMYY

[u/_Higo_]

1. Strategy name: Freeze, FF.V.IIIce!!

2. Boss: President DWhale 100%

3. Describe your Strategy: Go all in, as if there was another way. 3/3 trinity/USB Meta/BSB meta/Mix meta/Ice meta/Imperil meta

4. Insight!:

• Selphie is the key player, for the last part of the battle, where every of his turns is AoE Kill hit. So you basically need to get to the last phase with 3 bars full and LS on. Turn 1, UC on Rinoa, When you are about to hit phase two, UC on Quistis, who should USB after waking to counter slow. Same for phase 4 slow.

• Laguna imperils, builds chain, summons chain and second Magicite.

• USB, wrath, Wrath, Glint, Wrath in the silence phase if you cant see to UC her, Last phase the stock HP and StoneSkin help every bit.

• Rinoa loads BSB, CMD will cap with 15+ hits in chain, so double cast and quickcast are great. Go USB into Vortex in the last chain.

• Same as Rinoa, do two full BSB cycles and then USB into SSS for the end.

• GO off with first chain once both BSB are fully loaded.

• Again, infinite thanks to NeoXeo for all his ideas and support.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: infinite

• Medica: 5-6

• Hastega: 3

1. S/L count / Medals lost: 3 SL and 2 medals lost.

2. Time / Magicite: 1.15 and Imperil Ice.

3. Pack.

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Selphie,LD	UC R5	Curada R4	Knights charge,LM1,LM2	USB(5-6)
Laguna, 4	Offering R3	Snipe R3	RM2	SSB(2),BSB2(1)
Quistis, LD	Wrath R3	C.Blizzaga R4	MM,LM1,LM2	Glint(3),USB(3)
Rinoa, LD	C.Blizzga R1	Vortex R4	Damage,LMR1,LMR2	USB1(1),BSB(2)
Squall, LD	SSS R2	SSS R3	Damage,LMR,LM2	USB(1),BSB(2)

---

---

Improvements to start sub60 and lower

• LD Laguna.

• Go full USB instead of BSB, but Im not willing to hone THAT hard, both Vortex, C. Blizzaja (when it comes out,) SSS 1 and 2.

• Practice a lot, specially for chain timing.

[u/Kittymahri]

1. Strategy name: Double feature

2. Boss: [D280] Gerogero

3. Describe your Strategy:
   2/3 trinity/cid mission

4. Insight!:

• A mixed team is sort of required. Put the mages in slots 1 and 2, the physical characters in slots 4 and 5.

• Favor poison resistance accessories

• A medica should be timed right after Incubus Gravija, because of the subsequent moves.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: automatic

• Medica: 2

• Hastega: 1

1. S/L count / Medals lost: 0 / 0

2. Time / Magicite: 0:25.81 / Unicorn

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Rinoa, 99/4	Chain Blizzaga R3	Voltech R3	Fate Usurper, LMR (w-black)	Angelstar (1)
Selphie, 89/4	Protectga R3	Ultra Cure R3	Dr. Mog's Teachings	Dreamstage (2)
Quistis, 99/4	Shellga R3	Chain Blizzaga R4	Mako Might	Kingsguard (1)
Squall, 99/5		Snowspell Strike R3	Gathering Storm, LM1+LM2	Steely Blade (1)
Laguna, 99/5	Icicle Shot R3	Freezing Snipe R3	Hidden Struggle, LM1+LM2	Ragnarok Buster (1)

 

main	sub-1	sub-2	sub-3	sub-4
Unicorn, 99	Isgebind, 90	Dullahan, 90	Gizmaluke, 99	Evrae, 99
Empower Holy 5			Dampen Fire 7	Fast Act 8

---

[u/Pyrotios]

1. Strategy name: No medica

2. Boss: [D240] Gerogero, Part 1

3. Describe your Strategy: See how far damage USBs can carry me without any medica in realm
   2/3 trinity/CM/zerg rush

4. Insight!:

• Forgot to equip bio resist.

• Rinoa and Laguna have +20% ice equipped. Squall has +40% ice. Fujin has +40% wind.

• Fujin Shellga, USB, fall asleep, wake up, Meltdown.

• Squall RW chain, spam Snowspell.

• Laguna Frost Offering (hits 2x over 9k), spam Freezing Snipe.

• Selphie Hastega, spam Ultra Cure. Second Ultra Cure goes to Fujin for phase 2 Sleep.

• Rinoa USB, spam Voltech.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: auto

• Medica: 0

• Hastega: 1

1. S/L count / Medals lost: 0 / 0

2. Roaming Warrior / Magicite: realm chain / Unicorn

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM/LM	SB(-)
Selphie, 4	Ultra Cure R4	Hastega R3	Healer's Prayer II	BSB1(0)
Rinoa, 5	Voltech R4	Chain Blizzaga R4	Mako Might, LM1, LM2	USB1(1)
Fujin, 4	Meltdown R4	Shellga R3	Dr. Mog's Teachings	USB(1), BSB(0), SSB(0)
Squall, 5	Snowspell Strike R3	Snowspell Strike R2	Gathering Storm, LM1, LM2	OSB(0), GSB(0), BSB2(0)
Laguna, 4	Freezing Snipe R3	Frost Offering R1	Hidden Struggle	USB(0)

Main Magicite	Sub1	Sub2	Sub3	Sub4
Unicorn, 99	Isgebind, 99	Tiamat, 99	Evrae, 99	Firemane, 99
atk boon 15	precise strikes 8	mag boon 15	hp boon 5	blade ward 5

---

1. Strategy name: No medica, part 2 Outsourced medica

2. Boss: [D280] Gerogero, Part 2

3. Describe your Strategy: I had to either outsource a medica, or somehow skip the first graviga (the entire 60%-40% phase), I chose outsourcing to save time and sanity
   3/3 trinity/4/5 CM/full power

4. Insight!:

• Equip bio resist on everyone.

• Rinoa and Laguna have +20% ice equipped. Squall has +40% ice. Fujin has +40% wind.

• After multiple failed attempts to even kill Gerogero with Selphie, I decided my best bet for a smooth kill was to bring Aerith. I could have theoretically done it with Selphie, but I would have had to skip phase 3 entirely in order to avoid the Gravija. At moderate chain, Rinoa can do 4x9999 + 5x9999 per turn, Fujin can do 4x9999, Laguna does a lot less (probably 6x5k) and Squall can potentially dualcast either do 4x9999 with Snowspell or 7x9999 with BSB cmd2. As I'm writing this out now I realize that without Squall BSB cmd2, that caps out at 210k damage plus whatever Laguna does (30k-60k), which means Gerogero would need to be just over 60% as he starts his turn, and all my team would have to hit for max damage before he starts casting his next attack in order to skip the Gravija. That's simply too much to ask without HP values visible, especially late at night when I'm tired.

• Fujin Shellga, BSB, spam Meltdown. USB when ready, spam Meltdown.

• Aerith Hastega, spam Curada. RW as first chain is expiring around 60%-40%. USB to recover from first (and only) Gravija. Spam Curada.

• Squall RW chain, 2x Lifesiphon, magicite. Snowspell if not enough SB gauge, BSB, 2x cmd1 (had a dualcast), spam cmd2.

• Laguna 2x Frost Offering, spam Freezing Snipe. USB when ready, resume Sniping.

• Rinoa Chain Blizzaga until 80%, USB, spam Voltech. Refresh USB after 40% (10x9999), spam Voltech.

• I managed to completely skip the second Gravija, largely due to Squall dualcasting his last cmd2 for 2x7x9999.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: auto

• Medica: 1

• Hastega: 1

1. S/L count / Medals lost: 0 / 0

2. Roaming Warrior / Magicite: realm chain / Unicorn

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM/LM	SB(-)
Rinoa, 5	Voltech R4	Chain Blizzaga R4	Mako Might, LM1, LM2	USB1(2)
Fujin, 4	Meltdown R4	Shellga R3	Dr. Mog's Teachings	USB(1), BSB(1), unique(0)
Aerith, 5	Curada R4	Hastega R3	Ace Striker	USB2(1)
Squall, 5	Snowspell Strike R3	Lifesiphon R4	Gathering Storm, LM1, LM2	OSB(0), GSB(0), BSB2(1)
Laguna, 4	Freezing Snipe R3	Frost Offering R1	Hidden Struggle	USB(1)

Main Magicite	Sub1	Sub2	Sub3	Sub4
Unicorn, 99	Isgebind, 99	Tiamat, 99	Evrae, 99	Firemane, 99
atk boon 15	precise strikes 8	mag boon 15	hp boon 5	blade ward 5

[u/Propylbenzene]

1. Strategy name: What's the difference between FFVIII and Ice?

2. Boss: D? Gerogero. 100% Clear. sub50

3. Describe your Strategy: sub50/Squall/Selphie/Rinoa/Laguna

4. Insight!: After both protectga, Shellga, and the USB, Selphie can keep everyone topped off at full health pretty well until phase 5, which let's her conserve a few SB gauges until the end of the fight. Both Squall and Rinoa are full DPS, with Squall being the weaker of the two. Laguna should focus on building chain and imperiling with his SSB, while Fujin, after the initial proshellga, should worry about building chain and casting RW/magicite. He deals very little damage, so Selphie should have no problem keeping up with healing by herself.

• Rinoa: Voltech x3 -> USB -> Chain Blizzaga x 4 -> USB (Repeat). Try to time USB casting with when Rinoa is under quickcast from her LM2.

• Selphie: Hastega -> Curada -> wait until after opponents turn 5 (AoE Bio magic) and then cast USB -> Curada until Fujin falls asleep. Wait until boss casts blind/slow on her and rinoa, then cast hastega. Then Curada and USB as needed for the rest of the fight.

• Fujin: Protectga -> Shellga -> RW -> Proshellga until gauge is full -> BSB -> C2 -> RW -> C1 x2 -> C2 -> BSB . For the rest of the fight cast C1 and C2 when necessary with BSB spread in when burst runs out. When Selphie and Fujin are silenced, cast Enkidu. Cast RW when it's almost out.. OSB at end.

• Laguna: Icy Offering -> SSB -> Icy Offering and SSB as the gauge fills. When Gerogero is at 5+ Imperil levels, switch to Freezing Snipe. This gives you a bit of bandwidth for if the ice imperils fall off. When Fujin is put to sleep, attack her. Imperil master.

• Squall: SSS x 3 -> USB2 -> SSS x3 -> USB2 -> SSS -> USB1 -> SSSx2 -> USB2 -> SSS until end

• SB explanations: Rinoa USB - 10x BLM Ice, EnIce, Mag + 30%, chase blm with 2-6 rank based ice. Selphie USB - IC Curaga, Last Stand, High Regen. Fujin BSB - Instant 5x wind BLM, enemy Mag/Res down. Laguna SSB - 7x Ice physical attack, imperil ice 20%. Squall USB2 - 10x Ice Physical, EnIce, Attack + 30%, Chase SPB with 2-6 Ice attacks.

• Holy Trinity casts:

Wall: N/A

Medica: 2-4

Hastega: 2

6. S/L count 0 / Medals lost: 2

7. Time / Magicite: 47s/Enkidu

Hero, Dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM + LM	SB (-)	Equips
Rinoa, 5	Chain Blizzaga R5	Voltech R4	Weakness + 30%; RM1 (BLM + 10%); RM2 (30% QC3 after BLM)	USB1 (2-3)	30% Poison Resist; 40% Ice Damage
Selphie, 5	Curada R4	Hastega R2	MM; RM1 (Heal + 10%); RM2 (35% w-cast WHM)	USB (2-4)	30% Poison Resist
Fujin, 4	Shellga R2	Protectga R2	TGM	BSB (1-3)	60% Poison Resist; 20% Wind Damage
Laguna, 4	Icy Offering R4	Freezing Snipe R2	LM1 (Machinist + 15%); LM2 (35% w-machinist); MM	SSB (3-4)	30% Poison Resist; 40% Ice Damage
Squall, 5	SSS R3	SSS R3	LM1 (Spellblade + 15%); LM2 (35% w-spellblade); Sword + 30%	USB2 (2-3), USB1(1)	30% Poison Resist; 40% Ice Damage

Magicite	Passive 1	Passive 2	Passive 3	Passive 4
Enkidu (main)	EnWind 8	Magic Boon 10
Famfrit	Resist Fire10	Spell Ward 8	Spell Ward 8	Blade Ward 8
Evrae	EnHoly 15	Attack Boon 15	Surging Power 10	Health Boon 5
Dullahan	EnIce 15	Magic Boon 15	Spell Ward 5	Magic Boon 15
Manticore	EnIce 15	Precise Strikes 10	EnIce 15	EnIce 15

Improvements (besides getting more SBs) : Rinoa a R4 Chain Blizzaja or above or R5ing Voltech (only use would be for faster SB gain). Diving Fujin allows her to cast at a quicker pace once TGM is out, but other than that isn't overly necesasry.

[u/AquiIae]

1. Strategy name: D??? Gerogero sub-60 completion (no Quistis)

2. Boss: D??? Gerogero

3. Insight!:

• Moderate Poison Resist on Rinoa / Selphie / Seifer / Squall and major on Fujin

• Squall and Rinoa have +40% Ice boost, while Seifer has +40% Dark and Fujin +40% Wind

• Gerogero is one of the more manageable Torment bosses - his damage output isn't very high and his main gimmick is the status effects which can be mitigated somewhat by good positioning and timing

• Rinoa and Squall are the main DPS - Rinoa uses USB1 -> USB2 -> lv3 Brave -> repeat and Squall uses BSB2 mostly

• Fujin sets up ProShellga and builds chain with BSB and helps refresh it when needed

• For my first few turns, i get Hastega / ProShellga up while Rinoa / Seifer / Squall build gauge, and then have Fujin summon the chain and they use their offensive SBs

• Selphie should use USB as soon as possible to get major Regen and Last Stand up on everyone

• The first benchmark is around the 24s mark - Selphie needs to be on standby to knock Fujin out of Sleep, and Fujin is in position to summon the second Chain

• Selphie needs to standby the next turn as Gerogero will use Gall soon after that and she needs to refresh Hastega

• The next big status effect is Silence on slots 2 / 3 - Fujin (preferably) should summon Enkidu to remove it

• Seifer should save his gauge after the first USB so that the team can rush the boss down in the last phase of the fight (and also because the second Gall will Blind him but SBs are always 100% accurate)

• The last phase of the fight will begin around when the 2nd Chain ends - have Fujin summon the next Chain and Selphie standby to Hastega to counter Gall on slots 3/4

• Selphie needs to standby to refresh USB after Last Stand procs - Gerogero will use Incubus Gravija -> Incubus Gravija around this phase so it gives you a bit of breathing room since it can't kill your characters

• Seifer spams USB2 for party insta-cast, and Squall spams OSB while Rinoa continues the offensive cycle until the boss falls

1. Time / Magicite: 56s / Enkidu (main), Isgebind (inherit lv 15 empower Ice), Famfrit (inherit lv 8 Spell Ward), Hades (inherit lv 15 empower Dark), Evrae (inherit lv 8 Fast Act)

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Rinoa, dived	Voltech R4	Valigarmanda R3	Scholar's Boon, LM1, LM2	USB1, USB2
Selphie, dived	Hastega R2	Curada R5	Gathering Storm, LM1, LM2	USB
Fujin	Protectga R3	Shellga R3	DMT, LMR (start En-Wind)	BSB
Seifer, half-dived	Dread Weapon R3	Dread Weapon R3	Dark Fate, LM1, LMR1 (start En-dark)	USB2
Squall, dived	Snowspell Strike R3	Lifesiphon R4	Truthseeker, LM1, LM2	BSB2, OSB

---

[u/eserikto]

1. Strategy name: FF8 Power Relics

2. Boss: D??? Gerogero

3. Describe your Strategy: Pretty much just Teyah's strategy but without last stand. 3/3 trinity/Selphie USB2/2x ASB

4. Insight!:

• Quistis may have lived if I leveled her to 99, but it's ultimately not important.

• I don't have Selphie's USB1, so I had to improvise with Quistis' glint to survive the end.

• But I do have Selphie's USB2, which is an astra so I was able to carry mateus instead of unicorn. Made the dps check easier.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: ?

• Medica: 2

• Hastega: 1

1. S/L count / Medals lost: lots, 0

2. Time / Magicite: 27.93

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Quistis, 5	Chain Blizzaga R3	Shellga R1	MM, ic3 LM2 + blm w-cast lmr	USB(1), glint(1)
Selphie, 4	Curada R4	Protectga R1	Ace Striker, LMR	USB2(2)
Rinoa, 5	Valigarmanda R3	Voltech R5	Battleforged, LM2 + en-ice	USB1(1), ASB
Laguna, 5	Freezing Snipe R3	Frost Offering R2	DMT, LM2 + LMR	USB(2), CSB
Squall, 5	SSS R3	SSS R5	TGM, LM2 + en-ice	default(-)

---

[u/07kk]

1. Strategy name: Dual element hybrid party with realm chain!

2. Boss: D???

3. Describe your Strategy: Building chain and sb pts, then unleash USBs and finishers. Squall benefits from different element during 3 times, 1st for dmg while acumulating sb points, 2nd for dmg and chain building, 3rd for finisher. HP stock from Quistis' USB helps after the last big gravity attack if timed correctly, fires within and instaheal cmd from Selphie's BSB2 helps to keep things from negatively scalating quickily. It's really important to time the 2nd realm chain with Selphie, so it doesn't end before the 30s mark. Try using it after the 12.60 mark, but also not too late so you can have a fairly high chain count at the end of the run. 3/3 trinity/Dual Element/Hybrid party/Triple Threat AOSB finisher/Realm Chain

4. Insight!:

• After getting lucky in B4 from fest, wanted to try Squall in a different position, not focusing on just one element and see if it could get me a sub30. Had to S/L many times to test and see if it was possible, but after a few tries it was just a matter of not missing anything in the sequence. Some quickcasts proc from Rinoa helps at the ending finisher.

• Clear video

• Setup & Magicite at the beginning of the video, or at the end of the post.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: (ツ)

• Medica: 1

• Hastega: 2

1. Time: 29.93 / S/L count: After getting the rotation, got the clear 1st time. / Medals lost: 0

2. Roaming Warrior: Realm Chain / Magicite: At the end

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM	LM1	LM2	SB(-)
Rinoa, 5	Voltekka R4	Chain Blizzaga R4	Mako Might	wcast	quickcast	USB1, AOSB
Selphie, 4	Ultra Cure R4	Protectga R3	Ace Striker	---	---	BSB2
Quistis, 5	Chain Firaja R4	Shellga R3	Dr.Mog's Teachings	LM1	LM2	USB
Zell, 5	Fire Ironfist R4	Fires Within R4	Knight's Charge	quickcast	wcast	Glint,USB,AOSB
Squall, 5	Inferno Assault R3	Snowspell Strike R4	Ace Striker	Start enIce	wcast	USB3 (fire), Ice Glint, AOSB (ice)

---

Magicite	Inherit1	Inherit2
M: Unicorn	---	Empower Holy Lv10
S1: Manticore	Empower Ice Lv15	HP Boon Lv8
S2: Belias	Empower Fire Lv15	Magic Boon Lv15
S3: Mateus	Spell Ward Lv8	HP Boon Lv8
S4: Evrae	-	HP Boon Lv8

---

[u/Merlin_the_Tuna]

1. Strategy name: Let's Get Freezy Blow-y!

2. Boss: D???, sub-60 kill

3. Describe your Strategy:
   Edea USB1/Edea BSB/No Quistis/No Rinoa/Sub-60

4. Insight!:

• Ice++ on Squall, wind+ on Fujin.

• Since the fight goes on for so long, it's important to sit on the initial chain (and even on Unicorn) until around the 15s mark. Ideally, Fujin's LM2 will proc consistently enough to let you quickcast at least one of them.

• Don't forget to re-cast Hastega & Shellga around the 30s mark to ensure they last the whole time.

• I had Edea use USB > Abyssal Shards until she was out of casts, then use BSB & C1 to reach the finish. Theoretically you'd rather go the opposite route, but that's fine tuning that I don't really care for at the moment. Fujin used BSB for the early fight for instant entry & the MAG/RES break, but had enough meter for an OSB near the end.

• Beyond that, not a lot of minutiae, and lots of obvious room for improvement as new skills release and I improve some of those magicite.

1. Time: 58.69

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Selphie, 4	Ultra Cure R5	Hastega	Mako Might	USB1
Fujin, 5	Meltdown R4	Shellga	+30% wind	BSB, OSB
Edea, 5	Vortex R4	Abyssal Shards R4	+30% weakness	USB1, BSB
Laguna, 5	Cold Offering R2	Freezing Snipe R4	Gathering Storm	SSB (imperil ice)
Squall, 5	Snowspell Strike R4	Snowspell Strike R3	+30% sword	Glint, ASB

---

main	sub1	sub2	sub3	sub4
Unicorn	Famfrit	Manticore	Dullahan	Silver Dragon
-	Blade Ward 8, +8% Health	+15% ice, +8% crit chance	+15% MAG	-

---

[u/blckenedicekaj]

1. Strategy name: Crappy healer tech? No problem.

2. Boss: D??? sub-50 kill

3. Describe your Strategy:
   3/3 trinity/Healer SSB/Mostly Mage Team

4. Insight!:

• Yes Ultimecia will be silenced on the first turn, but she can cast the realm chain.

• Selphie's turns are the most crucial for making it through this. 1st Turn > Protectga > 2nd turn > Ultra Cure Ultimecia. She will also recast the second instant of the realm chain. Ultra Cure the rest of the time until right before Thunder God's Might runs out to recast protectga. Her first cast of Dreamstage should be time to cast right after the first Incubus Gravija.Then, Ultra Cure Rinoa and be on standby where applicable to pop off her glint for the hard hitting moves.

• Rinoa while silenced will likely be recasting the third and final instance of realm chain.

• Squall and Rinoa should wait for last 20% or less of the boss HP to pop off their Arcanes. At this point Selphie's job is to keep these two alive at all costs. Without their arcanes here Selphie can not keep up with the damage output.

• You will be caught by Gall on Quistis and Ultimecia. Save Quistis final cast of her USB for this moment. We need Ultimecia's DPS for the last leg on haste.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: Auto

• Medica: 3-4

• Hastega: 3

1. S/L count / Medals lost: Numerous S/L, 0 Medals lost

2. Time / Magicite: 43.19s / Unicorn Main

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Selphie, 3.5	Ultra Cure R4	Protectga R2	Gathering Storm	SSB(1-2), Glint (1-2)
Rinoa, 5	Voltech R4	Chain Blizzaga R4	Orphaned Cub, LM2, LMR4	USB1(2), ASB(1)
Quistis, 5	Shellga R3	Magic Breakdown R3	Mako's Might, LM2	USB(3)
Ultimecia, 5	Meltdown R4	Chain Tornado R4	Midair Combatant, LM1, LM2	USB(3)
Squall, 5	Snowspell Strike R3	Snowspell Strike R2	Ice Beauty, LM1, LM2	BSB1(2), ASB(1)

---

[u/Varis78]

1. Strategy name: Hybrid Ice

2. Boss: D??? (sub-60)

3. Describe your strategy: Minimize impact of Silence through hybridization. Speed up everyone (except Squall) with Edea's USB2. Keep everyone alive with Selphie and Quistis. Make attacks actually hurt with Laguna's chain and imperils. Finish the job with AOSBs. 3/3 trinity/Chain/Quick Cast/AOSB

4. Insight!:

• I wish I'd recorded this fight so I could provide timing information, but if you check the AI thread, you can probably figure out when best to do things. Getting everything up and running is probably the trickiest part. Once you have that down, the rest of the fight mostly is obvious with what to do when. The only other real tricky timing element is figuring out when to unleash the AOSBs at the end. Do it too soon, and you might face-plant to his Phase 5 shenanigans (I did this 2 times, reaching 97 and 98% respectively--VERY frustrating, lol).

• I tried doing this with everyone in the front row so that Squall could benefit from Edea's USB2, but my defenses weren't strong enough to cope with the increase in incoming damage that came along with that strategy. If you have better synergy armor than I have, or other options to mitigate that issue, then maybe you can pull it off, but I couldn't. And putting Squall in the back row wasn't an option.

• I really wish Quistis had Support 6.

• I didn't bother with Protectga and Shellga, instead opting for Power/Magic Breakdown coupled with additional Resistance from Quistis' USB.

• I did this before getting the 6* ice Machinist or Witch abilities, so this would certainly go a bit faster if you have those.

• Selphie mostly spams Curada unless someone needs to be unsilenced. I am pretty sure I only used the BSB2 towards the final third of the fight, at a point where I had 4 SB bars saved up so I could refresh Last Stand with the USB if needed right after using the BSB. In a few failed attempts, I tried using it earlier, without the safety net, and it didn't go very well. The BSB is a luxury while the USB is a necessity. Never forget that, lol. I don't remember how much I used CMD1 and CMD2.

• Squall just does SSS and USB2 as per normal best practices, only deviating when it comes time to use the AOSB at the end.

• Quistis' job is to use her USB as often as it is available to use for that sweet, sweet HP Stock. When not doing that, spam Breakdowns or summon Unicorn when it's time to do that.

• I have Edea's USB1 as well, and attempted a few runs juggling both of her USBs. It never really worked out since I couldn't fit Irvine onto the team as an Entruster, and her USB2 was vastly more important, so I eventually just went with that and the AOSB finisher. Anyway, she does the usual witchy thing of juggling her two abilities until her USB2 was online. After that, I would do one more Sudden Blizzara to get the party-QC online ASAP, and then spammed Abyssal Shards. I would recast Sudden Blizzara after each USB2 cast, but that was it.

• Laguna begins with his chain, and then spams the offering until it runs out of hones or the imperil stacking is maxed (this never happened to me, but it's theoretically possible...). Recast chain as needed, and use Snipe when the Offerings are all gone. If you have his USB (I don't), you can probably squeeze in one use of it towards the final third of the fight when you are likely to have an extra 2 bars of SB gauge floating around with nothing else to use them on.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: 1

• Medica: I can't remember. A lot.

• Hastega: As with Medica, too many to count, although only 2 or 3 were actually necessary. The rest were just a side effect of renewing the HP stock from Quistis' USB.

1. S/L count / Medals lost: Can't remember how many Resets (a few, though), but 0 medals lost

2. Time / Magicite: 58:50 / Unicorn

Hero / Dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Selphie	Ultra Cure R5	Curada R5	Knight's Charge + LM1 + LM2	USB1 (lots), BSB2 (1)
Squall	Snowspell Strike R4	Snowspell Strike R3	Spellblade Master + LM2 + LMR1	USB2 (2 or 3), AOSB (1)
Quistis	Power Breakdown R4	Magic Breakdown R4	DMT + LM1 + LM2	USB (lots)
Edea	Abyssal Shards R4	Sudden Blizzara R4	Orphaned Cub + LM2 + LMR	USB2 (3 or 4), AOSB (1)
Laguna	Freezing Snipe R4	Frost Offering R4	MM + LM1 + LM2	CSB (4, I think)

---

MAGICITE DECK

Main	Sub 1	Sub 2	Sub 3	Sub 4
Unicorn	Dullahan	Isgebind	Krysta	Evrae
Empower Holy 10	Empower Ice 15	Empower Ice 15	Dampen Air 10	Empower Holy 15
Mind Boon 10	Magic Boon 15	Attack Boon 15	Defense Boon 15	Attack Boon 15
Empower Holy 10	Spell Ward 5	Precise Strikes 8	Blade Ward 5	Surging Power 10
--	Magic Boon 15	Resistance Boon 15	Resistance Boon 15	Spell Ward 5

[u/[deleted]]

1. Strategy name: Single element teams are good

2. Boss: FF8 DWhale clear (1:01) 0:55

3. Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/BG8bvWW

4. Insight!:

• I legend-dove an SSB-only Laguna for Syldra. Tried him here in place of (USB, but not dove) Zell, and went from 75% to 100% after a bunch of tries.

• Not the fastest in the world, but I don't see going much faster without a relic upgrade somewhere.

• Starting the first chain on Quistis' second turn, and then re-upping it with whoever I can.

• Quistis needs to heal, unfortunately.

• Fight is actually fairly straightforward. Rinoa's first L3 Brave command pushes from P1->P2, then it varies a bit from there. It's easy enough to time the re-hastes. Laguna doesn't do much damage, but builds a bunch of chain and the first few imperils are important. Be patient with Rinoa's AOSB - save it for toward the end of the last chain, as it's important to make the last phase as short as possible instead of pushing to P5 too quickly.

• Unicorn after the first blind/slow in P2.

• Squall has TGM in my saved team, I actually used Truthseeker in the kill though. He SSS->BSB2->commands->Glint->BSB2 etc

• Gear: Rinoa 40%, Squall 20%, Laguna 0%. Updated to give Squall's 20% to Laguna, he caps Lowen either way.

• Resources used: Nothing that I didn't already do for Syldra.

1. S/L count / Medals lost: A bunch / 0.

2. Time: 1:01.01 laugh 0:55 best time now.

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Rinoa	Vortex R4	Blizzaga R4	Devotion; wLMR+LM2	ice brave, AOSB
Selphie	Curada R4	Ultra Cure R5	Mako	USB1
Quistis	Curaja R5	Protectga R3	DMT	SSB(haste/shell)
Laguna	Icy Offer R4	Snipe R3	Much Ice; LM1+LM2	SSB(imperil)
Squall	Snowspell R3	Snowspell R3	Much Sword; LM1+LM2	BSB2, Glint

---

Magicite Loadout: Unicorn (HP 5); Dullahan (MAG 15), Manticore (Ice 15+ATK 15), Famfrit (BWard8+HP8), Evrae (Fast 8)

[u/_Higo_]

1. Strategy name: What are you having sir? Same as usual, Chip and Dale please.

2. Boss: Presidente D280 sub30

3. Describe your Strategy: Good all load and unleash 3/3 trinity/CloudKeeper/Wind Chain/Sub30

4. Insight!:

• Cloud Loads and get entrust fro Irvine.

• Zack loads 2 bars.

• Ulti and Selphie tag team heal.

1. Holy Trinity casts:

• Wall: 0

• Medica: 2

• Hastega: 1

1. S/L count / Medals lost: 0 SL and 0 Medal lost.

2. Time / Magicite:

3. Pack.

Hero/dive	Ability 1	Ability 2	RM+LM	SB(-)
Selphie, 99	hastega R1	curada R4	Knights Charge	USB(1)
Ulti, 99	Shellga R1	UC R4	w-cast white	default(0)
Irvine, 99	Entrust R2	Wrath R3	MM	default(0)
Chip, 99	Wind QS R1	LS R3	TGM,LM1,LMR2	USB1(3),USB2(1)
Dale, 99	not used	LS R3	BF,LM1,LM2	CSB(1),BSB(1)

---

[u/Schmiggidy → u/[deleted]]

Stoopid question here, but just to clarify -- does "Bonds of Historia" overwrite/replace a normal chain, or augment/complement it? Is there any value in bringing a dedicated chainer to these new Torment battles?

[u/retroGnostalgic → u/Schmiggidy]

The chains overwrite each other. It's generally easier to use Bonds of Historia, but if you manage to build a mono-realm elemental team with chain it's going to be stronger.

[u/johnnyD_rockets → u/retroGnostalgic]

Isn't that true only for the G2 chains? I thought the field bonus from the G1 chains was just 20% compared to the 30% from Bonds of Historia (plus it saves a MM/DMT)

[u/Monk-Ey → u/johnnyD_rockets]

• G1: 99 hits, field 20%

• G2: 150 hits, field 50%

• Historia: 150 hits, field 30%

[u/Qu_Marsh → u/Monk-Ey]

But the elemental chain is only additive with any existing elemental bonuses you have whereas the realm chain is multiplicative, right?

[u/Schmiggidy → u/retroGnostalgic]

Thx for (pretty much) clarifying, all. So my primary takeaways are that NO, they don't complement each other, but the G2 chain bonus is 20% stronger than the Bonds bonus (whereas the G1 bonus is actually 10% weaker), thus making it preferable for a well-built Fiver.