The continent of Ell represented a drastic jump in monster stats, if not in actual danger. Claude was clearly running close to the edge of the difficulty curve, as even the basic enemies like Elder Witchettes and Defenders took considerable effort to bring down. I hoped to eventually get advanced minerals and upgrade his weapon to patch that up.
Eluria Tower delivered this interesting shield - it shot back a bunch of fireballs upon every deflected hit. These actually added up to a considerable contribution to his offense, and the shield would remain on him until he got something much better.
Claude maxed out Guardbreak and started working on Breaker. He also began levelling Customization further, as he would need it maxed out to get his best weapon(for the playthrough). Breaker would help him break shields with all his moves, even the ones not specialized for it. He then stepped up to face Cynne for real.
Cynne was airborne, so that necessitated relying on Helmetbreak. He was mostly a test of attrition, and made Claude run dry of his healing items before the fight ended. I replicated a bunch of Mixed and Fruit Syrups on the next try, and that fixed it. These two items restore considerable amounts of HP and MP at once, and would be quite important in future battles. Alongside a Witch Powder to take the bite out of his Fohn Winds, they were more than enough to handle him, and he was put down after a long drawn out fight.
Claude proceeded directly to Centropolis on Energy Nede. He restocked on items, and bought the Lezard Flask. This finally let him craft Rainbow Diamonds, which would let him simply bust open item crafting. Look at this:
+1 level to ALL item creations and specialities. And they stack! This is why I was holding off on upgrading any of them past level 8 - he could just swap them in whenever he needed to use them. And he would immediately put this newfound ability to good use:
The Aeterna, forged by Customizing first the Deadly Edge and then the Blade of Minos, was Claude's best weapon for the entire playthrough. It not only had a huge attack value, it would also shoot a bunch of damaging stars while attacking. This property would eventually become irrelevant, yet for now it would enhance his offense considerably. I also crafted a Silvance, while it was somewhat weaker than the Aeterna, keeping one for its light element seemed prudent.
He also rolled this from painting a bunch:
The Revival Card would revive him on death. The Sacrificial Doll already covered this, but having this on hand to prolong his life in really dangerous fights was still reassuring. He also got a Counterfeit Medal out of a Challenge Mission, which he replicated a bunch. This handy item would instantly set his XP to 1 below the amount needed to level up. I didn't wish to grind with this, but I would certainly use it before boss fights to take full advantage of their XP.
He even Crafted this, a mana regen ring. This, along with the Ring of Regeneration from far earlier, would help him outlast any battles of attrition. I didn't expect any future fights to require it, but better to have the option than not.
With that, he was more than ready to handle Energy Nede. The Psynard was easily dealt with. Its breath was quite dangerous, but Claude could easily avoid it and strike it quickly while it was preoccupied. The Arachnovias were a bit tougher, but not by much. They were fairly straightforward melee opponents, and were easily dealt with through Knuckle Burst.
Claude spent the rest of his skill points getting Effort up. This skill cut into the XP needed to level, and would be the most useful in letting him keep up. Breaker also got closer to max.
He tackled the Field of Courage next. Both it and the Field of Might are, in my opinion, the easiest fields, as they mostly feature melee oriented enemies who can be easily kited and worn down at range. As such, his trip through both dungeons was largely uneventful. He also got three new special arts to play with.
Sword Bomber made Claude jump and hurl a few large fireballs diagonally. Attacking things with it was quite awkward, but it did help Claude evade and maneuver around his foes. Mirror Blade was essentially just a better Double Slash. Its aoe was more helpful as it got in a lot more hits, but it was still worse than regular attacks, and far more risky than using ranged special arts. Phase Gun was the real prize here, hitting for high damage at long range. This, along with Knuckle Burst, would be Claude's workhorse for the rest of the game.
The Guardian, in both Fields was another physically oriented opponent, and was murdered just like the rest. He did hit pretty hard, but that was nothing Claude's stash of healing items couldn't handle. He dropped a pretty sweet ring though:
Just look at that. Absorbs all physical damage! And this doesn't cover just melee hits, it also protects against any and all special arts. Two of these would honestly beat even the Sacrificial Doll for defensive coverage against physically heavy fights, and in fact the combination would be used to great effect against the second Guardian.
The character building side was almost done. Effort got maxed, as did Breaker. The only skills he would bother investing into would be Body Control and Sidestep, for faster recovery from stuns and higher evasion respectively.
I did notice that Phase Gun had a long cooldown after firing, and so switched out its combo for a combo of it followed by Meteor Palm. This cancelled its cooldown, and allowed it to combine with a shield breaking move, making it much more effective than chaining it on its own.
The Field of Wisdom is supposed to be the easiest of the four Fields, yet I find it fairly hard in comparison. It features Wizards, advanced enemy spellcasters. Their spells don't hit too hard, but that's the only concession they give. They can hurl decently strong ranged attacks, go invisible and avoid getting hurt, and worst of all, have a chance of petrifying on their attacks. Claude was technically overlevelled for this area, and they still gave him some aggravation. No serious threat, just enough aggravation.
The Guard Hand was a complete joke, and the less said about the fight, the better. Hint: it involved standing under it.
I was honestly getting tired of all of the lackadiscal boss fights so far. I decided to rush through the Field of Love and directly get to its boss, Lavarre. She is the first truly tough boss fight on Energy Nede, and a good test for the final bosses of this game. She starts out by slowing the team for the entire fight. The slowdown is so bad, it practically demands using an Ointment of Veda to counter it. She is accompanied by two Sunbreakers, who are sturdy and can hurt a fair bit, both with their Star Flares and their punches. They can also heal her! Finally, she has a nasty multi hit attack that is practically a guaranteed kill, unless the target dodges. This attack can be deployed just about anywhere, and is hard to stop, especially in the later stages of the fight.
Fortunately, Claude was well prepared for this fight. The Silver Charm let him absorb the Sunbreaker's Star Flares. Lavarre herself was weak to light, and the Silvance came in handy here. The Sunbreakers fell first, though I did try to keep one alive for its Star Flare heals, and the fight got a lot more simple from there. I also got a new Assault Action, as evidenced in the screenshot, but it wasn't anything special. It still got used in hard fights though, as it did contribute to both damage and shield breaking.
Claude pressed on. The Barchian was extremely trivial, as was Zaphkiel. Jophiel could petrify, but otherwise was quite easy. Metatron was considerably sturdier, but not any more difficult.
Zadkiel, Camael and Raphael were a big step up. They could petrify him, cast all sorts of dangerous spells, slow him down and stun him with multi hit attacks. Further, Raphael could swallow Claude up close and just end the fight right there! This required not only the right items, but a lot of serious maneuvering. Claude had upgraded his Phase Gun earlier, having been done upgrading his combat skills, and that did do enough damage to eventually wear them down, thankfully. Apologies for not getting pictures, I was too focused on not letting Claude die to them!
Haniel and Michael were pretty dangerous too, but they were more manageable, especially since Michael only ever used fire elemental moves. It was still tense, and I ran out of Blueberries during it.
A Silver Charm and Sacrificial Doll took most of the bite out of Lucifer. Note: most, not all. Claude still ran out of Blueberries fighting him, and had to be mindful whenever he teleported and spammed lightning. At least he didn't inflict any status ailments.
That left the big man himself.
Gabriel had lots of spells, so Sacrificial Doll was again called for. He also had a teleporting physical attack, and Song of the Gods, a highly damaging physical special art that looked a lot like a spell. For all of his flashiness though, he was easier than the trio fight, or Haniel and Michael. He did manage to inflict a defensive debuff on Claude, and almost got him once, but eventually he stood triumphant.
Claude had successfully beat Galaxy difficulty. This had been, for the most part, a fairly smooth journey. His moves carried him through all his battles, and his strength let him punch above himself quite often. Having a good mix of ranged and melee options meant that he had a lot of flexibility in engaging enemies, and they would never truly pin him down. He did struggle somewhat against fights with multiple strong foes, but even these weren't too bad with some maneuvering and careful application of moves. He has definitely proven himself a very strong character, and I enjoyed my run with him.
However, he's not going to rest on his laurels. Tune in next time when he begins Universe difficulty on a completely fresh file! See you then!
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