Phantasy Star 4 Solo Challenge

Having been inspired by the Phantasy Star 3 Solo challenge done by another user on the GameFAQs board, I've decided to do one for P4.

The rules:
*Do not use the other characters in combat, let them be killed off as quickly as possible
*If the character being used for the challenge is not available, play as normal until the character is around
*If you have an android in your party, they obviously cannot be killed. Take away all their equipment and do not allow them to attack.

Order of characters:
*Ayls, decided to start with the simplest one. She will having the easiest time at the beginning, and will face a progressively harder time until her untimely demise. Juza is going to be a real chore, and I'm not sure the sandworm is worth going after. Other than that, should be relatively smooth sailing.
*Next up is Chaz. The beginning is going to be rough for him, as he has no durability and limited options for taking out a large group of monsters quickly. As time goes on though and his skills improve and his tp pool enlarges, I anticipate that the difficulty will become more manageable.
*Hahn. Oh man, Hahn. This is going to be a dozy. Dies at the drop of a hat, pathetic offense with the exception of wat, no ways of killing crowds until he gets savol. I see much grinding in my future. Its possible I won't be able to take on zio's fort until level 25 or higher, and getting through the passage to Zio's fort is going to be a nightmare. I don't anticipate taking on the final dungeon with him either.
*Gyrz. The beginning with him is going to be kinda dull. All he can do is attack, insta death, or war cry. Also won't have any healing he doesn't buy in a can. Still, should be easier than Hahn. Gyrz is most likely going to have to be highly overleveled to take on Zio to make sure he has enough health to survive an attack round without healing. The Profound Darkness is going to be even more interesting.
*Rika. She'll level up quickly, and has adequate attack and good spells to support herself. Her big trouble is that she doesn't have any direct attack spells. Still will probably be one of the easier characters.
*Demi. Her durability will be okay after she gains a few levels, but her attack options are limited until Phonmezer starts to gain uses. Zio will require her to be around level 30 or so, allowing Demi to use Phonmezer multiple times on him.
*Rune. The beginning will be tough, as while his attacks are powerful, they are quite expensive or limited in use when he comes in. His power increases almost exponentially, so things will get easier and easier as time goes on.
*Wren. He'll be solid, but will require some leveling to take advantage of his skills. I don't believe that he'll be particularly easy or hard.
*Kyra. Going to be a more powerful version of Ayls in some ways, a weaker version of Rune in others. Another middle of the pack character.
*Raja. There's a reason I'm doing him last. Remember how much I whined and moaned about Hahn? Raja is going to be ten times worse. Oh lordy. No hp, pathetic attack which may as well be poking his enemies, no attack skills usable against non dark creatures. In other words, about 80% of the stuff he's going to face. Of all the characters, he's the one I think won't be completeable.
Updates will be coming.

Some of those are going to be really hard, especially Raja and Hahn. They just aren't built for that kind of punishment. You'll definitely need lots of leveling. The weapons that can be used to cast spells will come in handy for some characters like Gryz, though.

Good luck with the challenges!

Alys is done.

Alys performed better than I expected. As anticipated, the beginning was a cake walk with an overleveled Alys. The first spot of trouble I had was in the passage to Tonoe, which was the first place that Alys actually started to take damage from. I had to retreat from about half the battles in order to survive the journey. Once I got into Tonoe and got my titanium armor, I realized that Alys was still no match for the basement at level 8, so I went back to the passageway and grinded her to level 13. The basement was a pushover at that point. Next stop, Zema.

The laboratory was easy was as well, and Alys got one level while in it. After getting to Aiedo and still finding all the enemies I encountered to be pushover's, I felt brave enough to take a plunge.

I would take on the sandworm. I boldly marched into the Guild hall, was told about the sandworm mission, and accepted it. I used a telepipe and zoomed to Mile to confront the worm.

I shifted and sanered Alys in the beginning of the fight, making sure she went first and making the worm's attack miss her about half the time. At level 14, she had about 105 health, and each worm attack do between 28-38 damage, meaning about a 1/3 of my health was gone with each attack. I first used up my nine vortex's, each doing about 80-90 damage each. When I ran out of those, I found to my delight that Gifoi was almost as good, doing about 75-80 damage each attack. It was when ran out of TP and monomates at the same time that I thought I might be in trouble. Luckily I still had Rune's woodcane, which healed me for an average of 30 health per use. It was barely workable given how often the worm missed Alys. At 30 damage per slasher attack, it took awhile, but the worm breathed its last in the end. I got a breath taking 25k exp, netting Alys 4 level ups, to level 18.

It was a good thing too. Even after taking on the Sandworm, the enemies in the passage to Kadary were tough. Both the worms and Zio's soldiers did about 10-20 damage to Alys per attack, meaning I was losing 1/2 to 3/4s of Alys's health per battle. The solution was to buy a dozen monomates and rush through it as quickly as possible. While going through it I got a level from the big fusioned slugs, which were vulnerable to Alys's death, netting me a cool 2000 exp. Alys was level 19 when she arrived in Kadery.

Alys got the laser slasher, bought a dozen dimates, took a deep breath, and plunged into Zio's fortress. One great thing about this being a solo run is that I didn't have to take any detours for items, I could just take the most direct route to Juza, which made the dungeon laughably short. Ayls arrived at Juza with full health

In one corner, Juza, 1400 health, can do 35-45 damage with a force flash, 15-20 damge with a wat or a zan. In other the corner, Alys, armed with nine vortex dealig about a 120 damage each, a gifoi for about 80 damage, 150 health, and a half dozen dimates. Bing!

First two rounds, saner and shift. Juza foi's me for the terrifying damage of 1 each time. My vortex's weaken him considerably, and his attacks are healed with dimates. He puts up a good fight, forcing me to use 5-6 Gifois after my vortex's run dry, but he is forced to submit. Alys gains a level, marches on to Demi...

And promptly gets her butt kicked by Zio. Ah, such is life.

To recap, she started at level 7, ended at level 20, and was able to take on all available challenges in stride. That'll do Alys, that'll do.

Now, on to Chaz! May he do as well.

Just a curious question... You playin on the Genesis cart, or on a emulator? If you're playin on a emulator then why don't you try looking at my Alys FAQ.. It'll make it where you can keep Alys throughout the whole game.. Just a thought though considering Alys' challenge doesn't have to end after Zio.

Chaz has toasted Zio.

He started out fine as expected, got through the Piata dungeon fine, didn't even break a sweat until he got to the Tonoe basement. I grinded him to level 10, and he was fine with a few dimates. The Zema dungeon was a easy, got Rika and then got out. By the time I got to Aiedo, Chaz was level 14. I decided to take a plunge.

I would take on the Sandworm mission. I teleported to Mile, went into the ranch... and got my butt handed to me on a sandy platter. I simply didn't have enough crosscuts and Githu's to take him down. It didn't help I only could take two attacks before I had to monomate over and over again to slowly get my health back up. Grind time. Went into the Bio ship wreck, grinded, got up to level 17. Tried again, and with the use of the woodcane, managed to crosscut, githu, and finally attack the worm to death. It took awhile though, much longer than Alys did at a lower level. She simply had more Vortexes, and she had saner and Shift. Got three levels, headed to the Aiedo cavern.

I got through it, but even at level 20 it wasn't easy. The enemies were tough enough to regularly do 5-15 per hit, and unlike Alys, Chaz doesn't have a insta death attack until much later, making it a rather dicey proposition taking on the big slugs in the cavern with their tasty 2000 exp. Still, I managed, and got to Zio's castle. As with Alys, the dungeon was shorter than usual with so much loot I could skip, and I got to Juza at level 23. Once again, as with Alys, he was easy. When a character has 140+ hp and a jacked up defense, Juza's attacks simply lack the punch to be very scary. Add the fact that Kadary is the first town to sell Dimates, and he doesn't stand a chance. Beat him, got no levels. Rescued Demi, got kicked out by Zio.

Demi is an annoying character to have in your party, as she insists on regenerating after each battle. While she usually does die almost instantly in each battle so long as you take off her armor, she still sometimes gets exp, and is a general pain in the rear. Ah well. Such is life.

Took off the plate system, got 2 levels as a result. Went to the Ladea tower, got Rune, and went to the top to get the Psycho wand. Was at level 27 at the time, with a brand new use of rayblade available. The boss battle should have been a shinch. Right? Right?

Wrong.

You see, I forgot a crucial thing about Gy Langiuah. He crits. A lot. As in, every single non-special move attack. Meaning he did anywhere from 70-120 damage with his attacks, meaning that if my health was <125 I had to diamate. His special fire attack tickled me with 25-35 damage, but he only used that about 1/3 of his attacks. Oh yeah, and he had 2200+ health, more than my crosscuts and lone rayblade could handle. I might have been able to off him with Githu, if all my tp wasn't being used for Gires after my dimates ran dry. I died, and was at the beginning of the dungeon again, at level 25.

Grinding to the appropriate level was...frustrating. I learned the hard way that the flatterplants in the tower paralyzed with every single regular attack that hit, and that if all party members are paralyzed, its game over. Add in one crash of the emulator at the exact wrong moment, and I don't update for a while. Still, I managed to eventually get to level 29 to try again with an additional rayblade and crosscut. No luck. I still got pwnered. It turned out that getting to level 31 was the key, as its at that level that Chaz gets Nathu. Nathu is rayblade minus about 10 damage, Nathu combined with the might of 2 rayblades and a couple of crosscuts was able to do the little jerk in. I still had to use up all dozen of my dimates though, and almost was out of tp for Gires.

After Gy Laungiah was taken out, Nurvus was pretty easy to go through. Just too make sure that I wouldn't have a similar experience with Zio, I grinded to level 35. It was much quicker than in the Ladea tower, as the enemies in Nurvus are much more generous with the exp. Armed to the teeth with 3 rayblades, about a dozen crosscuts and a bucketful of tp, Chaz confronted Zio.

On one side, Chaz, with about 220 health, 115 tp, rayblade, crosscut, Nathu, Gires, and a bunch of dimates. On the other side, Zio, with hewn doing about 40-45 damage, corrosion doing about 50-60 damage, his regular attack doing 75-90 damage, and the black energy wave doing between 95-105 damage. In some ways Zio was weaker than Gy Laungiah, in others he was stronger. On one hand, had about 800 more health. On the other, his two best attacks still didn't do as much damage potentially as Gy's regular strike. On the other again, Zio's attacks were much more consistent. While Gy's claws could go from 70-120, Zio's black energy wave had a stable average of 100 damage. In the end what matters is that he went down in a single go, even if I did have to once again use up my entire stash of dimates. Got a level, to 36, and got Nares, which is going to be very nice.

Here are how things stand. Chaz has about 235 health, 125 tp, and all of his abilities. He is at level 36, and he has to get to Zelan.

Plan?

Go to Zelan, get the plasma sword, and go back to Nurvus to grind. This will be the last time in the game that Chaz will not have an android tag along, meaning that he will be free to grind without having to kill his companion every single freaking battle. I plan to grind to level 40 at minimum, up to 45 if I can stand it.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Comments?

Quote:

Go to Zelan, get the plasma sword, and go back to Nurvus to grind.

Can you do that? It's been a while since I played that part, but I didn't think you could return to Motavia after leaving for Zelan and before getting Wren.

Nah. Its perfectly doable. You just avoid going into the room Wren is in. There is a separate room for all the goodies from the station, including the Plasma sword.

I've run into a problem, and would appreciate some input.

First a quick status update. Grinded Chaz to level 42 in Nurvus, did the save the kid in the hole quest for the killing the slug experience, got two levels, went to Dezolis, raced to Kuran, got a level while in Kuran.

Dark Force 1 was tougher than expected, but easier than any boss so far with the exception of Juza. His burstroc and flare attacks did roughly the same damage, at 100-110 per attack. Phonmezer did 40-45. I could survive two of his strongest attacks in a row, so he wasn't much of a problem. The big issue now is that dimates are officially obsolete, and are unable to keep up in boss fights.

I disposed of Raja, got Kyra, and got the torch stolen. On to the Air castle. On my way to the witches, I got the swift helm, which allows Chaz to Saner for the first time, which is sweet. I also got five levels on the way, boosting my levels to 50. I thought that with 8 rayblades at my disposal, I would be able to quickly dispose of the witches.

Boy was I naive. First round, rayblade. The witches focus their attacks on Wren and kill him without scratching Chaz. Second round, rayblade. Every other single round, I was constantly Nares, without pause, until the witches got a lucky set of shots and killed me at full health. What I forgot before this battle is just how valuable barrier and deban are. Without either, the witches do 80-100 damage with a Gizan, and 100-120 damage with a giwat, leaving me unable to respond offensively, constantly healing each turn.

Decided to grind for a bit to compensate. Got to level 55, tried again. Same story. I had about 25 more health, but it wasn't enough. Fundamentally, I need 3 rayblades and a crosscut in order to kill one witch, and they simply don't give me the opportunity. While I could grind some more, level 55 and above is at the point where it takes about a 20-25 minutes to get a single level. Given my situation here, I would probably need to get to level 65 before I can even think about trying again, which would probably be 3 1/2 to 4 hours of pure grinding. Not fun.

This situation has lead me to a temptation. Wren has barrier available. I tried out a test battle to see how it would go with it activated, and the difference was breath taking. Gizan suddenly buffeted my for 30 damage, and Giwat was chilling me for 60-70. Definitely manageable. The trouble is, using Wren's barrier wouldn't exactly be in the spirit of the solo run.

These are the options I've thought of:

*Grit my teeth and grind to level 65, and reevaluate at that point.
*Buy a reflect shield and a torn dagger to deflect damage from the witches long enough to take one out with rayblade.
*Use Wren's barrier and hang my head in shame.

I throw myself at your feet. What do you think I should do?

I say that you level up. The levels will come in handy when taking on Lashiec and DF3. And of course, the almighty Profound Darkness!

I'd say get the Reflect shield and dagger, and level up a bit. I know having to fight SOLELY for levels isn't fun at all most of the time, especially for that obscene amount of time. Getting that equipment would reduce the need for level grinding.

Quotes against grinding brought to you by someone stubborn enough to STILL be trying to obtain all 25 1/128 item drops in Earthbound.