Phantasy Star 4 Solo Challenge

Personally, I'd use Barrier. I know the idea is for Chaz to do everything solo, but there are already compromises on that front, like using the woodcane that Rune brings and having Wren distracting enemies from some damage Chaz would take.

You could also maybe use a code to increase experience gained. Normally I wouldn't recommend that for a solo challenge, but 3+ hours for grinding is more than I would be able to stand. You would still be grinding, just not as long.

If you really don't want to add another compromise to the list, the reflect shield sounds like the way to go.

I've done it! And at the same level too, with no equipment changes.

Here's how. My mistake was in my strategy. I was trying to go after one witch and destroy that one quickly, so that the other two would then be easy to beat. What I forgot is that if you use a multitarget attack like airslash, they all use their thundblast combo. Normally this is something to avoid, as this combo can be devastating to a level 30-35 party. With a level 55 Chaz though, it only did a little more damage than a Giwat, about 110-150. The reason this is good is because with the combo, they witches do that one attack, rather than potentially up to three giwats for 300-340 damage.

Even with my new strategy, it was tough going. A lot depended on luck. If I had full health from a Nares and the witches did two regular attacks and a Gizan, I would be able to airslash. If they did a Gizan and two Giwats, I had to heal again. In the end what probably saved me was one glorious round where one did a low damage Gizan, and the other two did a regular attack, one of which also low rolled and only did one damage to me. I was able to airslash twice in a row that time before healing.

It was a good thing too, as I ran completely out of tp, and had to use a Trimate and a Sol dew. In the end though, they went down, and I got my rather disappointing 22000 exp. I might have even been able to do this fight at my original level 50, but it would have required even more luck, and probably quite a few retries.

What's kind of funny is that LaShiec is usually one of the tougher bosses of the game, all of his moves being powerful multiple target attacks. With a level 57 Chaz though, his thundhalbert did 60-85 damage, and even his another gate did 130-150 damage, rather unthreatening to a Chaz with 360+ health. With the Flamesword equipped, crosscut did an average* of 350 damage, slightly more than rayblade. The fight was over pretty quick, with little pain. There was only one worrisome moment due to LaShiec's sleep attack. Chaz always woke up immediately the next turn, except once, which was almost enough to kill me. I slept for two turns, and if it had been one more Lashiec would have killed me. Still, Chaz awoke, no harm no foul.

Tremble, and despair, Dark Force 2. Your time will be soon at hand!

*One minor addendum. For some reason, Chaz's crosscut attacks against Lashiec were highly variable, doing anywhere between 320-385 damage. Does anyone have an idea of why this is? Is it to do with his fire weakness?

Chaz has beaten the game.

Will write more later. Is tired.

Sorry for the long delay, life had intervened.

Anyways, the Gaurberak Tower turned out to be tough in terms of its monsters. Unlike the Aircastle, no new shiny equipment to bear the brunt of the tougher enemies, so damage went up accordingly. Got to Dark Force 2 at around level 62.

Dark Force 2 was tough but doable. His shadowbreath attack could do 200+ damage, meaning my 390 hp Chaz had to be 210 health or above to attack. DF's lightning shower did 130 damage. It took almost all of my Tp and I ran out of rayblades and half of my crosscuts, but I did it.

I decided to do the Vahal fort mission for some spare sol dew cash if I needed it. The fort provided relatively good exp, and of course, the boss fight was laughable.

The Soldiers temple is amazingly easy. Dark Force 3 was a horrendous pain.

It wasn't his attack power that made him so annoying. His regular swing did about 180-200 damage, which was manageable at level 65. His corrosion attack did 120 damage, not bad. Shadow bind was annoying, but not deadly.

No, what really was killer was his sleep attack. Both Lashiec's and DF2s sleep attack were ineffective, non factors. Not so with DF3. His worked about half the time, often for multiple turns, which very quickly ended the fight. The most frustrating aspect of this was that I wasn't able to do much about this really. All I could do was continue fighting and hope to get lucky. I eventually did, but it took about 10 tries. Ugh.

Thankfully, Rykros had no such difficulty spikes. The enemies were easy with Guardian equipment, and both of the Tower bosses were pieces of cake.

Next up, the PD. I charged through the dungeon to go after the jerk. I was level 70. I got myself killed against her first form. Its single attacks were simply too damaging for the health I had at level 70. I grinded for a bit until level 75*, and went back down. This time the PD was more managable. I got through the first form okay, only using ordinary attacks. The second forms attacks actually did a little less damage, with the exception of Another gate. The third incarnation was quite tough. Megid took about 40% my health, so deciding to heal or attack even if I had been at full health was a tough decision. When she cancelled me, I decided to just rebuff my deban using the Malhay shield and ignore the other buffs. This way, when the PD did her regular attack, I could pretty much ignore it, it doing only about 90 damage. It took all my crosscuts and all my rayblades, but the PD did go down.

All in all, quite satisfying. Chaz did well. May Rika perform as admirably.

Awesome! I take it Rika is next?

By the way, let me know when you get to Demi. I've actually solo-runned her before (was a while ago, but still), so I know how to handle her if you have trouble with her.

I always hated the sleep status effect, especially in those big boss fights. Nothing annoys me more than having my healer or heaviest hitter knocked out for a few turns.

I'm glad you were able to make it through with Chaz. Rika should be interesting. I never used many of her skills aside from double slash, so I'm curious to see what you find useful.

So sorry for the long wait. No real excuses, just got apathetic about it.

Will start playing again, but thankfully I can give an update on what I already did in the past.

Started my Rika run, played the game normally until the end of the Bio lab.

I got the best equipment for Rika available, and strode into the crash site. After the first battle, Rika got 4 levels. That's not a typo. The next battle, two levels. Jesus, she levels up quick.

I decided to go out on a bit of a limb and try to take out the sandworm at level 14, and match the record set by Alys. Just like Alys, Rika had saner, making her reliably go first, and had the woodcane as well for healing duties. It was a bit slow, as Rika didn't have many double slashes, but she had about has many as Chaz did at level 19. The worm gave her seven levels. Yup, seven. Refer to my above comment about her leveling up fast.

Anyways, it was time to brave the tunnel to Kadery. It went relatively smooth, with Rika healing as she went, and Eliminate taking out the big slugs.

Went into Zio's fort. Rika has it a bit harder than Chaz, has her attacks aren't quite as powerful once he gets the laser sword. She can't quite get any of the enemies in one hit, like Chaz could at the time. It was still pretty simple to get to Juza at level 24, and beat the everloving crap out of him. From what I can tell, Juza's attacks simply don't pack enough punch to really dent 140+ health, not even with his force flash. Too bad for him. Got Demi, got booted out.

Fixed the plate system, and then went into the Ladea Tower. It got to the top at level twenty nine, and initiated the battle with Gy. If you remember Chaz's run, there was much wailing and knashing of teeth when I tried this particular boss. Gy's melee attacks are insanely overpowered and unpredictable. The designers basically assumed that the party would have deban by the time you fight him.

Rika did. It was short, and god help me, totally sweet. The satisfaction of so easily downing Gy after painfully leveling for hours with Chaz was immense indeed.

Couldn't savor victory for too long though. I had to get back to Zio's fort to teach him a thing or two. I got all the goodies in Nurvus, exited the dungeon, and saved. That was the last thing I have done until now. Expect more updates.

Zio is aspolded.

The first time I tried to take down Zio, Rika had gotten to level 34. With deban, his regular attacks went down to 60-70, and with shift, Rika was doing slightly more damage with her doubleslash than Chaz's crosscut had. As with Chaz, his hewn attacks did 45-50 damage, and corrosion 50-60. The problem was that Rika had about 204 health, and Zio's black wave still did anywhere between 95-110 damage, meaning that any turn Zio used the black wave Rika had to heal, no exceptions. I died by gambling he wouldn't use it one time when Rika had 90 hp, and I lost that gamble. Since Rika's leveling is so fast, I decided to simply grind past the issue. At level 36, Rika had about 215 health, which was just enough to push her over the edge. Zio went down after about 3 dozen rounds, with Rika using up all of her tp for healing and a couple of dimates.

Now for the comparisons vis a vie Chaz at this point.

Rika has all three of the utility spells naturally, namely Deban, Saner and Shift. Chaz has too wait until much later to get all three, with deban coming in only for the final boss. Rika also requires much less grinding to level, which is pleasant for me. Her tp supply is a bit more abundant than Chaz, so Rika has too rely much less on -mates than Chaz does.

On the downside, Rika has offense issues starting to crop up, both with regular enemies and with bosses. She does less damage than than Chaz, so enemies that he one shotted naturally require a critted hit from Rika, enemies that Chaz crit killed will always require two hits from Rika, etc. As for the bosses, while Rika does slightly more damage with doubleslash than crosscut because of shift, there are other considerations. Namely, by the level that Chaz faced Zio, he had a couple of Rayblades, more than a dozen crosscuts and Nathu at his disposal. In contrast, Rika has double slash, double slash, and... more double slash. Her supply simply isn't enough to take down bosses on its own. She has to resort to regular hits, and this issue will only get worse as the game goes on. Another area Chaz has an advantage in is defense, as his swords give a boost that her higher agility is able to somewhat mitigate, but not completely.

I'll be grinding Rika to level 45 at Nurvus, as she progresses so fast that the leveling will be rather painless. We'll see how it goes from here.

Rika's damage may improve once you get to Dezoris, when some of her claws with specials start showing up. I always wished she had an attack skill other than double slash, though. It's so repetitive to keep using it and using it. At least the others get some variety.

Thanks for the encouragement. I know her damage will improve soon, but the issue of doubleslash is unfortunately not going anywhere. Oh well.

Anyway, leveled up to 45 in Nurvus, did Fract Ooze and got another level. Went to Zelan, got Wren, and took on the Chaos sorcerer. The hard part was forcing him to kill all of me companions to get max exp. Once that was done, I took him down in two hits. Pathetic.

Got Raja and the space ship and went to Kuran. Rika got two levels on the way to Dark Force, so she was at level 48 when she fought with him. After buffing up, Rikas double slashes did between 200-250 damage. Dark Force's flare shot did 60-70 damage, his phonen meser tickled Rika for 5-15, and Burst Rocket did 110-125. Obviously, the only attack that was remotely threatening was his burst rocket.
This is the last fight Rika will be able to use dimates. They are officially obsolete after this, as with Chaz. The difference between Rika and Chaz is that she and has larger tp pool, and no offensive techs, so while Chaz had to chose between Nathu and more Nares, Rika only has to chose between Gires and Nares. All in all, this means the sidelining of dimates will prove less troublesome for Rika than Chaz.
As with the previous fight, Rika ran out of double slashes, and had to resort to regular attacks. The funny thing was, since Rika critted everytime she attack, her regular attack was almost as effective, doing between 180 and 220 damage.
In the end though, Dark Force 1 was a pushover, easier than with Chaz, thanks to deban and saner. Its also probably just going to get easier from here on out, given how Rika is going to soon get both the Silver tusk and the thunder claw.