Seed 1: zealgaspar

This is a series of posts on Jets of Time seeds ran either by me, or people I've watched. Jets of Time, for those not in the know, is an open world CT randomizer that opens up most of the world and implements a Zelda style gate and key system to control progression. It takes some liberties with the original game, but for the most part understanding the mechanics of the base game helps a lot with getting through.

For the most part, I won't be going too indepth into the characters and their techs, since the guides bundled with the randomizer itself cover it well enough. I will, however, provide insight into why I took decisions, and how they turned out.

This seed opened with Frog and Ayla. They are an interesting combo, mostly known for their iconic "Slurp Kiss" dual tech. Both are technically physical attackers, but Ayla is essentially a monk, who improves her damage with levels. Frog is all over the place, picking up water magic, healing, and even a danger move. The combination of Frog Squash and Dino Tail can be absolutely devastating late game; the tricky part is actually powering them up!

First order of business was pilfering the readily accessible chests in 600 AD. Fiona's house had a Red Katana, Frog's Burrow had a Memory Cap, and Denadoro Mts had a Dream Bow. Everything else was mostly unremarkable, save for a second Red Katana from Truce Canyon. This, of course, was just more money. The Burrow is also a quick character peek, and Crono was there today. I noted him down, he was a good character but would likely be found a lot later.

Shelters and Revives were picked up from Melchior, as is the norm. The other fair shops had nothing of note, besides a FrenzyBand which I picked up. This went almost immediately on Ayla; while she had a paltry 17 attack at the moment, her damage would go up considerably later, and extra hits from her would definitely be valuable.

Not risking a Flashblade purchase for Frog, I instead head for Guardia Forest and fought the Bellbirds and the two Rolys encounters. This already gave Ayla's attack a noticeable buff, at 29. The Nagaettes went down swiftly, especially when Ayla got 2 counter crits in at 70 damage. This boosted her attack even further to 34, and added Lucca to the party.

With all that out of the way, the chests of the Cathedral out front were looted. It turned out some good loot; the first find was a White Vest, which essentially converted every lightning move into healing. The Third Eye was less exciting, but still potentially useful. With Ayla having naturally high evade, this could actually come in play. The Power Ring was a good damage boost for physical attackers. MegatonArm was a fairly strong arm for Robo. Lastly, the Gold Earring could help if the team needed to survive strong moves with not much defense(as can happen a few times, especially in the final fight). 

With three characters in tow, I immediately set off to upgrade Lucca's gun. She also got the Gold Earring to survive fights better, with Frog getting the Power Ring to make up a bit for his abysmal starting weapon. I disposed of some junk at Melchior's, then explored other places on the world. Porre's market had Aeon helms, which would be a good purchase later. The Snail Stop sold the Broken Hilt, and the carpenter's wife at Choras gave the Tools. The Hilt remained in the shop, since there was no good way to tell if the Masamune would actually come to play.

Guardia's cook gave the Toma's Pop. The skeleton encounters on Zenan Bridge provided Magic Tabs, which would be welcome for building casters later on. Zombor was quite easy; Ayla got 3 counter crits against him, and at one point got as many as 5 crits in a row! The head died in no time, and the legs followed soon after. A GreenDream and Magic Seal were my rewards. They weren't exciting, but had their uses, so they stayed with me.

Sunken Desert was the next check, as I didn't feel confident enough to check Giant's Claw yet. It was the shortest check I could do currently, provided I didn't fail. The first encounter I drew up unfortunately was the 3 Hexapods at the center. It took a lot of shovelling at their high defenses, but with the help of Ayla's counters, the team got through reasonably. I remedied this mistake by fighting some Mohavors, and with Cat Attack unlocked, Hexapods got a lot easier to deal with. Frog also learnt Water, which would help against the boss of this dungeon.

I picked two of the four chests in the first desert room; thankfully, one of them was a Mist Robe, which finally remedied my armor situation for the time being. I gave it to Lucca, then transferred the White Vest to Ayla, with Frog picking up the Ruby Vest. Since Frog was my healer for now, and had no other worthwhile accessories, he also took up the GreenDream.

The lower room had a MegatonArm and a second Gold Earring. Retinite was fairly standard; hit its parts with Water, focus all damage on the head, then pound the legs. The legs did get to chomp on Lucca and Frog unfortunately before dying. The core escaped too, which was slightly disappointing. Black Rock and Flea Vest were my awards, the remaining two chests upwards handed over a Berserker.

Of course, Sunken Desert doesn't give a reward until you find and deliver Robo to Fiona, so the next stop would have to be a choice of Giant's Claw, Denadoro Mts and Heckran Cave. I risked the Claw in hopes of good loot; sadly, all that really turned up was a Blue Vest and another White Vest. Nothing for it; the team headed for Rust Tyrano.

Rust Tyrano had many things going against him; the party had a Ruby Vest, his roars would be countered by Ayla, and to top it all off, Frog had a GreenDream on. The fight was mostly just figuring out whether Flame Kick with Water, or Bubble Hit with Fire worked better. It was the latter.

Rust Tyrano dropped a Power Tab, which was honestly overkill considering the high number of those in Giant's Claw. The trip ended up being worthwhile; he was guarding the Ruby Knife.

The next destination was Heckran Cave; while normally the TP here would be wasted, Ayla could still learn techs, and was about to learn Rock Throw soon. Flame Toss would also make the mobs a little less bothersome. Melchior had worthwhile armor, in the form of the Taban Vest and the Blue Vest. The team bought those, and ventured onward. 

The Cave was fairly uneventful, although I found that Lucca being in the back slot was helpful for the encounters on the third screen of the cave. Flame Toss could hit all 3 of the bats in their starting formation, for instance. Ayla learnt Rock Throw and Charm, making bosses now a potentially strong source for items.

Right at Heckran, Charm paid dividends; Heckran's steal was the Sun Shades, which would greatly help out in damage. Ayla took off her FrenzyBand to avoid pointless counters, and donned a Magic Seal because I didn't take accessorizing her too seriously. Blue Vests completely negated his attacks on 2/3rds of the team, and Lucca had enough magic defense to survive with a Taban Vest on. Even with only two characters using spells, it was still a fairly simple fight, with the only missteps being overzealous menuing drawing two Water Wave counters. Taban handed over the Pendant, which now put 2300 AD in play.

Ayla was the obvious choice for the prison sequence, so in she went with Sun Shades in tow. I skipped past most of it, only opening the chest near Fritz. It only turned out to be a MuscleRing. Unfortunately, I did run into two unnecessary encounters, one of them being the blue shields in the upper stairway. 

For Dragon Tank, my plan was to attack the body first, and then dismantle the rest, likely going for the head and then the wheel. This plan paid off brilliantly; while I was disappointed to find that the Dragon Tank couldn't be Rock Thrown, Bubble Hit pulled good numbers, and all that was expended in the fight was one Tonic and one Revive. The rewards were an Amulet and a FrenzyBand. Two FrenzyBands could be quite powerful, if I only found better physical damage later. Hopefully 2300 AD would deliver.