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Quote (Silverlance @ 16th January 2007 13:11)

Edit: I'm tempted to make a "challenge" hack sometime. Make all jobs accessible from the start. Maybe seal off the other 3 characters too. Dunno. But not at the moment.

That'd be sweet, but give the option to choose which sprite set to use.

for instance at the start screen the player has a choice of an SCC or an SJCC (single job/character challenge)

when they choose SCC they select a class.
when they choose SJCC they choose a character(Boots, Lenna, Faris, Galuf, or Krile) and class


That'd definitely be sweet.

--------------------

"Have you ever seen a baby do that before?"

Update:


On my way to say hello to the flamin' master of disaster, RokStr had to suck this bad boy dry, mostly because he decided to go with something imitatable:


Which is a great help when my life is full, and nothing else hits for squat.

Quote

For your blue mage SSCC, you'll find yourself primarily using Vampire and ????.

As I've discovered. As I've achieved about 700 hp now, i stay hovered around 200 and beat down with massive damage.


I gave Ifrit a chill pill...


This is my stats after the battle that mastered the job.

Oh yeah, and in the truest sense of not fearing the reaper, this rock star shines:

Our hero had some get-up/lay-down help from a buddy, but it's awesome how you pwn with ???? right after a phoenix down. In just a job challenge, I would make that a tactic.

Also, not shown, but I managed to get aero2 on my way out of the castle(the one that blows up). I went and got the elf cape for the evasion bonus. I can't wait to get the aegis shield, but I think that's waaaaaay down the road.

Edit

Check it yo...

I'm slowly getting "smarter"

This post has been edited by leilong on 17th January 2007 05:35

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If internal struggles were as enjoyable and glamorous as the self conflicted wars within video game characters, we would all be statues, reveling in perpetual self war. -Me

Play me on Rock Band 2, GH-WT, or any other Xbox GH!
Xbox Gamertag-MeanJerry

Quote

I'm slowly getting "smarter"

I remember feeling that way in my first SJCC. Hunter was interesting you really learn to value speed. towards the end I would even kill bosses before they could touch me.

This post has been edited by Cloud_Strife510 on 17th January 2007 06:26

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"Have you ever seen a baby do that before?"

Er... ???? and Vampire? Why? ???? is really weak. I've been using Aqua Rake (Aqua Lore? Forgot...) through the entire game and rarely, if ever, had problems.

It does over 500 per hit to everything onscreen without having to drop to 30% of your health, which is enough to hurt most bosses really good. Then agter geting Aero 3, I can do about 1500-2000 per hit to bosses.

And let's not forget DeathClaw.

As for healing, hi-potions (once available) give back 500 hp. Vampire, in my case, often does under 400. I suppose it's really useful if you're out of money though.

--------------------

"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

Quote (Silverlance @ 17th January 2007 10:51)

Er... ???? and Vampire? Why? ???? is really weak. I've been using Aqua Rake (Aqua Lore? Forgot...) through the entire game and rarely, if ever, had problems.

Two reasons I don't rely on Aqua Rake:

1: Currently, I have 185 max MP. This means that from full, I can cast Aqua Rake a total of 4 times. Then I have to scrounge for attacks and abilities afterward. ???? I can do 61 times from full magic. And Vampire costs 2, so that's interchangable into that 61.

2: Aqua Rake does great damage, but it's water elemental. I'd rather save that for a one-hit thing on someone weak to water (saying there's really no other way to cast a water spell otherwise). My average damage with Aqua Rake is about 550 right now. With an emulator and save states and reverse, I can usually hover my life around 100hp or less, which at 775 max hp, makes my attacks at least 600. If the enemy should do an attack that would finish me off, rewind and cast vampire. At around 100/775, Vampire usually does around 200-350 absorption. I throw Vampire into all this because it is the only healing I have, and Vamp and ???? go hand in hand.

So damage to MP ratios:

Aqua Rake - 14.5:1 (550dam/38mp)
???? - 200:1 (600dam/3mp)
Vampire - 100:1 (200dam/2mp)

Per the ratios, you can see what has bang for your buck.

Edit

Also, I was wondering: I think it's called condemn in this game, but Doom in all the others (Except doom in this is death), the countdown one. Do you have to die from it to learn it, or can the countdown just be cast on you?

This post has been edited by leilong on 18th January 2007 16:03

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If internal struggles were as enjoyable and glamorous as the self conflicted wars within video game characters, we would all be statues, reveling in perpetual self war. -Me

Play me on Rock Band 2, GH-WT, or any other Xbox GH!
Xbox Gamertag-MeanJerry

Is that a single character challenge, or with a party of 4 characters? >"<

Also, there's a difference between cheating to stay alive in battle and really risking things by keeping your health at 100. If that were a legit means of completing a challenge, it'd be really easy to hover around 1 HP and reload whenever something hits...

With 4 characters, 4x4x550 damage to all enemies = 7200. By the time bosses have more health than that, you'll have better spells (ie, Aero 2 and 3 1500-2000 damage per hit FTW!)

--------------------

"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

Aqua Rake isn't Water-elemental, it's non-elemental. The reason you sometimes see it do more damage than usual is the fact it deals 8 times as much damage to Desert-type creatures.

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The Collapse of Heaven and Earth

Quote (Djibriel @ 18th January 2007 15:41)

Aqua Rake isn't Water-elemental, it's non-elemental. The reason you sometimes see it do more damage than usual is the fact it deals 8 times as much damage to Desert-type creatures.

I've noticed that too long ago when I tried to equip Coral Rings against D. Chimera. It also explains why it did 4k damage to the Sand Worm at the desert.

Quote

Is that a single character challenge, or with a party of 4 characters? >"<

Leilong joined the dark side and started a blue mage SJCC (i really think the J prevents any form of a confusion between a SCC and an SSCC).

So he's taking the game on as a solo Blue Mage.

--------------------

"Have you ever seen a baby do that before?"

Well, I've started 2 SCCs. One with a party of Blue Mages. That one isn't so difficult. The hard one is the party of Thieves. I'm stuck at Byblos. I'm at level 22 with all my characters. The characters with the Guardian and Moonring Blade weapons can do around 80-90 damage before they get hit by Dischord, then it drops to around 50. The other 2 characters do 50 and once hit by Dischord drop to around 20. I'd still be fine if it weren't for his Drain ability. He Drains for 200, so every time I get him close to death he uses Drain. I don't think there are any better weapons in the game at this point so all I can think to do is power level. Any ideas?

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FFVA
SCC: Party of Thieves, stuck at Byblos

I"m starting up an Archer challenge. Seems fun, and X-Fight will be useful throughout the game.

Quote (Cyan @ 8th February 2007 16:21)

The hard one is the party of Thieves. I'm stuck at Byblos. I'm at level 22 with all my characters. The characters with the Guardian and Moonring Blade weapons can do around 80-90 damage before they get hit by Dischord, then it drops to around 50. The other 2 characters do 50 and once hit by Dischord drop to around 20. I'd still be fine if it weren't for his Drain ability. He Drains for 200, so every time I get him close to death he uses Drain. I don't think there are any better weapons in the game at this point so all I can think to do is power level. Any ideas?

It's best you level up. I remember going through the same issue in my Thief SJC. Try to get over 800-1000 HP for each characters to sustain Wind Slash. You need alot of luck to get out of this fight. Once you beat him, everything else pretty much gets easier for a while. Full Moon, Guardian, and Mythril Knives are your only good weapons. Steal alot of HiPotions from Poltergeist (in the Steamship) to heal up.

mmmm...

fresh Blood.

it's been a while since I've played my black mage SJCC, ArcheAvis is a bitch, and when the only visible alternative is power-leveling it becomes hard to stay on track.

but in both your cases you shouldn't run into that situation, it's the reason why I turned away from dragoon, I was at Dragon Grass and Faris was already level 68, well beyond a solo hunter's level for Atamos.

Although I do have a strategy for dragoon, I still need to level up after backtracking.

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"Have you ever seen a baby do that before?"

Haha, Animals is evil at low levels. 180 damage squirrels at level 3

So far archer is none to difficult. Where daggers fail, animal companinos come to save the day.

Quote (Silverlance @ 18th January 2007 12:32)

Also, there's a difference between cheating to stay alive in battle and really risking things by keeping your health at 100. If that were a legit means of completing a challenge, it'd be really easy to hover around 1 HP and reload whenever something hits...

It's true, it does weigh things in my favor...
But it only rewinds so far, and there are many times... (ramuh in particular) that even rewinding/vamping/etc. wasn't enough.

My argument is that I'm not doing anything to alter the gameplay. Yes I stay low for stronger attacks, but the rewind is nothing more than an external return spell. Also, the attacks the game does don't really change that much, so you can start to anticipate what sort of comebacks will occur, and plan accordingly. I ususally only have to rewind to beat a character once. I actually had a really good reply to all this at one point, but forgot to submit it, and closed the window.

But aside from all that, I think your accusation on my legitimacy, however tame it may be, has probably guilt-tripped me into using that tactic a lot less.

Edit

It has in fact, convinced me to use the tactic a LOT less, usually only for accidental deaths, rather than a tactic. It does add another level of difficluty to not just wail on my opponets as such. But nobody anywhere will ever get me to stop repeated vampirism in fast-forward!!!

Edit

Quote

So far archer is none to difficult. Where daggers fail, animal companinos come to save the day.

Indeed. Except for the randimocity (randomness/animocity) of it all, Nightengale would be stellar to have during battle!

Edit

I hope this makes it the most recent thing in the FFV forum...

I'm confuzzled!

So my RokStr is takin on the SolCannon, and it's not so good. He olded me, and I watched the effectiveness of my shattered rods go from 3000 dam to 700 dam. That really was insult to injury. Do I really have to cough up 50k for an angel ring? Is the beam he hits you with elemental at all? If so, can I just buy the ring for that?

Edit

Well, since I'm not allowed to double post, I hope someone reads this and comments just to revive this before I continue posting into oblivion.

Anyway, I beat Archeoavis! I figured he'd give me more fits than he did, but as a blue mage I got the upper hand easily.

Darkshock + LV 5 Doom = 1/3 down

Vampire X 1,000,000 (couldn't cure the poison quick enough, so every attack had to be, and it was substantial b/c I was so low on HP = 2/3 down

Lv 5 Doom = 3/3 down

This post has been edited by leilong on 18th February 2007 20:41

--------------------

If internal struggles were as enjoyable and glamorous as the self conflicted wars within video game characters, we would all be statues, reveling in perpetual self war. -Me

Play me on Rock Band 2, GH-WT, or any other Xbox GH!
Xbox Gamertag-MeanJerry

ok guys imma need some help im just starting a blue mage sjcc and I cant learn vampire he hits me with it but nothing happens.


Edit: ok nvm noob me somehow didnt notice that he had pressed the wrong button
when setting the class and somehow did'nt notice that his sprite hadnt changed


This post has been edited by berskersrpretty on 9th March 2007 04:53

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SCC completed: berserkers !!!
SCC working on: black mage
SCSJ I working on: red mage , blue mage.

Quote (berskersrpretty @ 8th March 2007 22:47)

ok guys imma need some help im just starting a blue mage sjcc

Are you doing a single player challenge, or a team challenge? Cuz that makes all the difference in the world. Especially starting out, I think a single player is easier just because when vampire is your strong hitter, it is very helpful to be able to access the commands of the weak person immediately, and when it's 1 on 1, you always have the weak person to deal the most damage.

--------------------

If internal struggles were as enjoyable and glamorous as the self conflicted wars within video game characters, we would all be statues, reveling in perpetual self war. -Me

Play me on Rock Band 2, GH-WT, or any other Xbox GH!
Xbox Gamertag-MeanJerry

I'm going Single class single character, and one last question where do I get ???? im almost at carlboss and have aero, gob punch, vampire.

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SCC completed: berserkers !!!
SCC working on: black mage
SCSJ I working on: red mage , blue mage.

You won't get it until you reach the wild nacks around Karnak.

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Oh sure, I don't have to get kicked in the junk to activate it, but I like it anyway. -- Thief commenting on the difference between Throw and Blue Magic.

A Solo Berserker can beat Sol Cannon
by Michael Dunn (dunnius)

It is statistically possible to beat Sol Cannon with a solo berserker without cheating. This requires luck and careful planning, which is normal for berserker battles. I accomplished this using Butz at level 97. See the screen shot: http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w196/du...atSolCannon.jpg
Since physical and magic defense are irrelevant for this battle, reducing the equipment weight and increasing the speed is important. I equipped a doom axe, stealth robe, and angel ring, for a total equipment weight of four. The doom axe is the best weapon for the berserker at this point in the game. It cannot do critical hits, nor do any Berserker equippable axes or knives in world one. It misses 15% of the time, which is the only downside. I did not equip a shield or helmet because I don't need the defense or the extra weight. I equipped the Stealth Robe to increase the agility by one, and the angel ring to protect against Aging, though both are not that useful as shown later.
Sol Cannon has 22500 hit points, and the two Launchers each have 10800 hit points. Each of the three will self-destruct when their respective hit points are less than 10000, so the effective hit points of Sol Cannon is 12501, and for each of the two Launchers, 801. The Launchers have zero defense, but Sol Cannon has a defense of five, which gets cut down to one by the doom axe. Neither have a physical attack evade rate. The only attack that the two Launchers do is Valiant Attack, which cuts the target's current hit points in half and adds Aging. There is a chance that the attack will fail, and that chance goes up as the berserker gains levels. At level 97, the chance of the attack failing is 72%, and at level 99 it is 74%. The only attack that Sol Cannon does is Surge Beam, which does damage equal to half of the target's maximum hit points and adds HP Leak, and the attack always hits.
The maximum attack multiplier for the berserker at this point in the game is 39, which happens at level 97 or higher with Butz. The range of hit point damage with the doom axe is 1170 through 3705, with an average of 2437. Since the minimum damage is greater than the Launchers' hit points, they will be killed in one hit. As for Sol Cannon, it will take 5.13 hits using the average damage.
The berserker is able to get in four hits before Sol Cannon does Surge Beam, which is not enough to take down Sol Cannon. However, if the berserker does not get hit with any Valiant Attacks before Surge Beam, which is possible given the high failure rate, then the berserker can get a total of seven hits before the second Surge Beam, which is enough to take down Sol Cannon. This is why the Angel Ring is not needed. Also, there is no change in the number of attacks whether the Stealth Robe is equipped or not.
It is very likely that both Launchers will get hit, which will leave five hits for Sol Cannon. That will be enough provided that the Doom axe does not miss at all and it does an overall average damage that is slightly above the axe's average. Since the doom axe misses 15% of time, it is likely to miss one of the seven times. Both Launchers will attempt four Valiant Attacks before the first Surge Beam if they do not get killed by the Berserker. At a 28% chance of success, it is likely that one will succeed for each Launcher. Therefore, it is best if the Berserker takes out the Launchers quickly to reduce the chance of getting hit with Valiant Attack.
So in order to beat Sol Cannon with a solo berserker, the Launchers must not succeed with any Valiant Attacks, the doom axe must not miss, and the damage of the doom axe must be slightly above average. This means that it will take numerous retries before succeeding, but it can be done.


Formulas and Calculations

The formulas and data that I used came from "final_fantasy_v_algorithms.txt" by J.L. Tseng. I tested and verified them so I know they are correct.
In the AI script for Launcher and Sol Cannon, when their respective hit points are less than 10000, they use an attack on themselves called Punishment, which causes the explosion animation and causes them to die.
The Launcher's Valiant Attack has a base hit rate of 75%. Since the berserker does not have any magic evasion/block/reduction at this point in the game, the only formula that calculates the hit rate is Hit% = Spell Hit% + Attacker Level - Target Level. The Launcher is at level 50 and the berserker is at level 97. That means that the hit rate = 75 + 50 - 97, which is 28%. That means that the chance of the attack failing is 100 - 28 or 72%.
The Doom Axe has an attack power of 43 and its hit rate is 85%. That means that it will miss 15% of the time. The formula that modifies the attack power is Attack = (Weapon Attack/2) + (0..Weapon Attack). That means that the attack = 43/2 + (0..43), which is a range from 21 to 64 (note the integer division for all calculations.) Because the berserker always has the berserk status, the attack is multiplied by 3/2, so the new range is 31 to 96.
The calculation for the attack multiplier is M = (Level*Strength)/128 + 2. For Butz at level 97, M = (97*49)/128 + 2, which is 39. (For reference, at level 96, M is 38, and at level 99, M is 39.) The calculation for the enemy's defense when using an axe is Defense = Defense/4. That means that Sol Cannon's normal defense of 5 becomes 1. The hit point damage formula is Damage = (Attack - Defense) * M. For Sol Cannon, low damage = (31 - 1) * 39, which is 1170. The high damage = (96 - 1) * 39, which is 3705. The average damage is (1170 + 3705) / 2, which is 2437. The hit point damage for the Launchers, which have zero defense, is higher by the attack multiplier, 39. Since the low damage is above the Launcher's effective hit points, it will be killed in one hit. Since Sol Cannon effectively has 12501 hit points, the average number of hits to take down Sol Cannon is 12501 / 2437, or 5.13 hits.
The number of attacks that the berserker does before each Surge Beam and the number of Valiant Attacks before the first Surge beam were the only things that I measured through all my testing.


This post has been edited by dunnius on 2nd June 2007 19:36

It looks like you put a lot of effort into that theoretical battle, but I'm not sure it is entirely correct. I'd get into details but I just spent like 20 minutes searching through the earlier pages of this thread to find evidence and I don't want to reread your post and do a bunch of calculations and look into the code to try to figure out what happened.

RuneLancer beat the Sol Cannon at level 62:
http://www.cavesofnarshe.com/forums/ipb/in...10&#entry107691

Not sure if he just got incredibly lucky or something, or if that is about right. One thing I do remember missing in your explanation is critical hits. When I beat Sol Cannon with my four berserkers, I remember getting MASS amounts of critical hits with Galuf and Butz, each one hitting for like 3k damage, if memory serves correct. And that wasn't with Doom Axe, either. I didn't get those until just before I left for world 2 (forgot about them). I was still using some hammer, I think. So I think your damage figures might be off a little. If I was averaging 1500 per hit at like level 40-45 with a weaker weapon, there's no way that optimizing your equipment and gaining 40 levels will only increase your damage output by like 1000.

Either way, that was an interesting read.

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Is PJ

I modified my previous post by adding a "Formulas and Calculations" section at the bottom of my post. I also added the fact that the world one axes and knives for the Berserker do not have critical hits.

The reason that axes look like it does critical hits is because of the wide range of damage that is does. In my post above, the range is over 2500. What looks like a critical hit is in fact the highest range of the damage formula. Of course, the exception is the rune axe which really does critical hits. Also, because Berserkers are always in Berserk status, the attack power is multiplied by 3/2, so they will do more damage than normal. That may also make it appear as if berserkers do critical hits.

It is possible to beat Sol Cannon at level 62, but it requires much more luck. The way to do it is to not hit both Launchers, but it is not common for the berserker to hit only one target. I would have to see what you had equipped at lvl 40-45 to average 1500 per hit, or to do over 3000 damage.

I did forget about the Training Suit (Kenpo). Since it increases the strength by one, it makes a small difference, but every little bit helps. I will have to beat Sol Cannon once again with the Training Suit. It should be a little easier, though I will need to gain one level for it to change the M to 40.

Hoo boy... it's been a while but I remember the massive amount of powerlevelling and retrying I had to do before getting uber-lucky and beating it. :S (Silverlance == RuneLancer, btw.)

I'm fairly certain I saw critical hits coming in too with my berserker. IIRC my damage was closer to ~2000 than 2500 (on average) but I'm very certain I had critical hits in there. SNES version, not GBA, I should note.

What I'm really surprised at, looking back on all of this, is beating Atomos. I believe there is one boss that's unbeatable, and that's where I got stuck. I was in ExDeath's castle when I stopped playing, but I don't remember if I had made it to ExDeath. Either way it got fairly boring to powerlevel and restart fights dozens, if not hundreds, of times. :S

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

At level 62 with the doom axe, the damage range for the berserker is 780 to 2470, so getting around 2000 damage is within the normal range, and getting that consistently is quite lucky. The attack multiplier at that level is 26 (62*50)/128 + 2. The attack range for the doom axe against sol cannon is 30 to 95 as explained in the 'Formulas and Calculations' section of my previous post. I have done extensive testing on various enemies as I have been going through the game so I know it is correct and that there are no critical hits for berserkers. In my testing, I discovered that Sandworm is always in the back row, so the multiplier is cut in half, which is reflected in the actual damage to Sandworm.

Atomos was an interesting battle with the solo berserker. Of course it takes a while for Atomos to start attacking since there are dead characters. I was at level 97, so I had 9999 hit points, so it takes a while for Atomos to kill my Berserker. Of course, Comet has a wide range of hit point damage also (the base attack is 50..200) so luck is needed to make Comet not hit with the high end of the range, and also for the berserker to hit with the higher end of its range. But ultimately, it is not that difficult.

As for Exdeath's Castle, there are three bosses in there: Carbunkle, Gilgamesh, and Exdeath. Gilgamesh is an easy battle, so I doubt you got stuck on him. Carbunkle is a little difficult. It starts out doing Fire2, Ice2, and Bolt2, though with a flame ring that is not a problem. When Carbunkle's hit points are below 10000, it instead uses Bio, Stop, and Charm. With the Bone Mail, Bio is not a problem, and bersekers are naturally immune to Charm. Stop isn't a problem other than the fact that while it in effect, Carbunkle can use Cure2. When Carbunkle's hit points fall below 3000, it uses Break, XZone, and Doom. Obviously Doom is not a problem, but Break and XZone are. So it requires luck to get past this stage by hoping that Carbunkle casts Doom, or that the other two fail since they have a success rate. But Exdeath is a hard battle, or at least the first half is. Once Exdeath's hit points fall below 16000 (he starts with 32768), the battle is much easier. Exdeath starts with a 2/3 chance of Condemn, and 1/3 chance of Fight. Basically, restart the battle until Exdeath does not cast Condemn. The Wall Ring is important in this battle because when Exdeath casts Level 3 Flare, it will bounce back and do about 1000 damage to him (for each character that has a wall ring and is alive, which helps on normal SCCs) so that will help the berserker. It may be necessary to hope that Exdeath does not cast Condemn the second time around if not enough damage has been done. This is a hard battle, and I think this is where you got stuck.

I am currently doing all 22 SCCs simultaneously and now I am also doing the Solo Berserker SCC as well. All 23 groups have just obtained the airship in world 3 and are about to enter the Solitary Island Shrine. I am using the SNES version of the game on the emulator. I have been working on this for a few years, always interrupted by work. I have been reading this thread for some time and have picked up some good advice that has helped a lot.

Again, all those calculations and such are nice to know just for kicks, but it's really not practical at all. RL beat Sol Cannon at level 63 or whatever after a few tries, so why waste hours levelling up to the most statistically probable level to beat Sol Cannon when you can just beat him earlier on?

You can keep pointing us to that magical file or whatever if you want, but it really doesn't matter to RL and I. We have discovered how the algorithms function on our own directly from studying the ROM. Your lectures are unfortunately wasted on us.

I see that you copied the AI information straight from instructrtrepe's algorithms file because you have no information on AI yourself. That's ok. Except that one of his mistakes carried through in your information. I guess since we're tossing numbers and information around here, I can provide the actual dump of Carbunkle's (form 1) AI and an interpretation of it.

Code

02 0D 88 13     -If health is <5000
FE     -Then
FD F3 0D F0     -Target self
FD 2E 47 34     -Randomly choose between [Break, X_Zone, Doom]
FD F3 0D F0     -Target self
FD 2E 47 34     -Randomly choose between [Break, X_Zone, Doom]
FD F3 0D F0     -Target self
FD 2E 47 34     -Randomly choose between [Break, X_Zone, Doom]
FD F2 02 40 EE     -Call in enemy 0x40 in this formation
FE     -Else
02 0D 10 27     -If health <10000
FE     -Then
FD F3 0D F0     -Target self
FD 2F 3D 1A     -Randomly choose between [Bio, Stop, Charm]
FD F3 0D F0     -Target self
FD 2F 3D 1A     -Randomly choose between [Bio, Stop, Charm]
FD F3 0D F0     -Target self
FD 2F 3D 1A     -Randomly choose between [Bio, Stop, Charm]
FD F2 02 40 EE     -Call in enemy 0x40 in this formation
FE     -Else
00 00 00 00     -If no conditions are satisfied
FE     -Then
FD F3 0D F0     -Target self
FD 2B 2A 2C     -Randomly choose between [Ice2, Fire2, Bolt2]
FD F3 0D F0     -Target self
FD 2B 2A 2C     -Randomly choose between [Ice2, Fire2, Bolt2]
FD F3 0D F0     -Target self
FD 2B 2A 2C     -Randomly choose between [Ice2, Fire2, Bolt2]
FD F2 02 40 EE     -Call in enemy 0x40 in this formation
FF FF     -End

Enemy 0x40 in this formation is Carbunkle (form 2), whose AI is given below:

Code

00 00 00 00     -If no conditions are satisfied
FE     -Then
18     -Cast Cure 2.  Since this Carbunkle does not have an innate wall, there is no need to mess around with the targetting for this command.
FD F2 02 80 EE     -Call in enemy 0x80 in this formation
FF FF     -End

This Carbunkle simply comes in, heals himself, and brings in the former Carbunkle. There is no chance to attack him at this time, but if there was, you can use magic on him without any fear of it being reflected back. However, if you did happen to kill him in form 2, you would not get the Carbunkle summon because he doesn't drop it.

Instructrtrepe's information is the same as what my dump tells me (it was one of the first enemies I checked when I was curious), so yours likely is, too.

Anyways, good luck doing all 23 SCCs at the same time.

This post has been edited by Caesar on 4th June 2007 20:19

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Is PJ

I beat Sol Cannon with the solo berserker at level 97 because it was the easiest to do. Even so, It took many retries to beat it, and from looking at the posts from Silverlance, it looks like that was also many retries, not a few. I am not saying it can't be done with lower levels, I wanted to prove that it can be done.

I went back to Carbunkle and I see that the file that I used is indeed incorrect about the < 3000; it should have been < 5000. I stand corrected. I also realized the reason I did not notice the error; I forgot about the Air Lancet knife. There is in fact plenty of time to attack the form that does healing, and if you beat Carbunkle in that form, you still get the summon because it is not an item. I found this out by fighting the battle, not from the magical file. The healing form is weak against all elements, so the damage to the second form with the Air Lancet or elemental magic is massive, almost 7000 with my solo berserker using the Air Lancet. This is how I beat Carbunkle with most of the SCCs that I did (it is fun with four attackers doing sizable damage.)

Knowing the calculations and AI script for the bosses is important as well as actually doing the battle. One of the most important battles where this is true is the white mages vs. Atomos battle. I did not want to be over-leveled for this battle, so I used statistics (standard deviation) to determine the most common range of damage for two Comets. But testing this out by doing the battle was equally important. Anyways, I finally felt comfortable with level 35, and I used that level to beat Atomos. Of course, this battle can be done at a lower level; I may have over-leveled that a little bit.

You can flame me, but all you do is make yourself look ridiculous. I was trying to help Silverlance get past Exdeath's castle by giving advice, which I hope will be useful. Some of your information about Carbunkle was wrong too, but I am not going to make a big deal over that.

Quote (dunnius @ 4th June 2007 19:51)

You can flame me, but all you do is make yourself look ridiculous.  I was trying to help Silverlance get past Exdeath's castle by giving advice, which I hope will be useful.  Some of your information about Carbunkle was wrong too, but I am not going to make a big deal over that.

Caesar's dump is dumped directly from the SNES ROM and the commands have been verified through the enemy AI parser in bank C2 by yours truly. No information in it is wrong - you can verify its accuracy with a hex editor and a fresh copy of the ROM (finding either shouldn't be any difficult, but posting links to the ROM would be against the forum rules.)

While I appreciate the help, I just don't... y'know... care to finish the SCC. It's kind of boring. There's no strategy to it beyond equipment, and that's often fairly minor compared to the strategy, say, a magic-user or lower-tier fighting class would have. My last post on this was... heck, months ago. I didn't care to finish ExDeath's castle because it just got... well... really, REALLY tedious.

I don't think Caesar was trying to flame you. I think you came off a little strong joining solely to show off information someone else found. Some of us here are fairly experienced ROM hackers who've done their own research - this isn't new to us (nor, with all due respect, remotely impressive.) Rather than flaming you, I think he was making a point. And seeing as he, too, has done his own research, no, he's not making himself look ridiculous...

Feel free to use whichever source of information you need for assistance. This thread IS about an SCC, after all, not about FFV's mechanics. There's an FFV hacking thread somewhere in the "My Creations" forum that would be a good place to discuss this sort of thing, though. That thread aside, why not keep us updated on your progress? Had I more spare time, I'd definately play a chemist SCC - the whole item-gathering aspect sounds great.

This post has been edited by Silverlance on 5th June 2007 01:19

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

Quote (Caesar @ 4th June 2007 20:19)

There is no chance to attack him [the healing form of Carbunkle] at this time, but if there was, you can use magic on him without any fear of it being reflected back. However, if you did happen to kill him in form 2, you would not get the Carbunkle summon because he doesn't drop it.

This is incorrect (except for the part about form 2 not having reflect.) I have both attacked that form of Carbunkle and beat Carbunkle in that form and got the summon (because it is not an item.) This comes from actually playing the game, so I know it can be done.

Also, in all of the Berserker SCC and Solo Berserker SCC that I have played, I have never seen a critical hit from the axes. The damage range has always been within the range of the formula.

I didn't come here to show off someone else's data. I used the data to show that it is possible to beat Sol Cannon in a Solo Berserker SCC since other people have said that it can't be done. I also use the data in advice since it helped me through my SCCs.

I will keep you posted about my progress; hopefully I will have some time to play again. It takes a while to go through a dungeon since I have to do it 23 times.

I do have a question about the Knight SCC, however. Is it possible to get the items in Worus Basement without encountering Garkimasra (or is it possible to beat it?) I had to restart that SCC because I ran from too many battles for some reason and now I am making sure I don't run from any battles this time. The Ancient Sword is not powerful enough to do any damage to Garkimasra. After leaving world one, it is not possible to come back to Worus basement.

I've tinkered with using Blue Mages at various points in the game, and I find that Goblin Punch is really quite effective. In World 3 I've seen it do close to 7000 damage. Weird, I know

When the attacker of Goblin Punch is the same level of the defender, Goblin Punch gets a big bonus. That is why it can do 7000 damage.