Game:

Highly Responsive to Prayers (1996)

Duration: 3:09

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1

Evil Forge is a pretty simple boss after the genuinely difficult Eientei fight.

It seems to have only four moves:
-Magic Drain: steals all MP from one character and inflicts PAR
-Cry of Anguish: AOE that inflicts SIL, PAR and PSN
-Dark Blaze: simple MYS element AOE
-Ether Flare: MYS element nuke (hey, this move reappears in Labyrinth of Touhou 2!)

Ether Flare is its most threatening attack, but as you can see at the start of the fight, even Remilia and Sakuya can survive the attack with enough HP and MYS affinity. It's not a very interesting fight since the Evil Forge uses its moves at random. The boss also lacks high ailment resistances, so a lucky Confines of Avici from Komachi can completely cripple this thing.

It resists all elements, strongly resists MYS but is weak to SPI. "This is a perfect situation for Eirin!" Unfortunately, as a magic themed boss, the Evil Forge has high MND, so no using her shiny, SPI element nuke. Youmu and Patchouli will make quick work of the boss with their non-elemental nukes.

To be honest, my party is a bit over-level for this fight. I basically went straight to 15F after completing 12F, started leveling up so I could kill the 15F mobs and I forgot that I can't level down afterwards. I don't care too much though, this is one of the more forgettable LOT1 fights.

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Character Build:

Reisen: Even though her moveset is identical between games, she's not THE support character she is in LOT2, since she doesn't have her powerful ailment lowering passives. Reisen is still plenty useful as THE premiere debuffer though, because unlike LOT2 where shotgun debuffs are abundant (with LOT2 Komachi, Miko, Mamizou etc.) only Reisen can debuff all five stats at once. It helps that LOT1 handles debuffs very differently to its sequel. I've heard that MAG build Reisen pays off at some point, and I do need to grind battle points with her to get Kaguya, so I'm going with that.

Eirin: Unlike the previous two, I've actually used LOT1 Eirin. She's unfortunately not the gamebreaker that she is in LOT2 (buffs can erase her overheal, and her LOT1 overheal is also a flat heal that doesn't cure ailments, unlike in LOT2). Overheal can still be decent for characters like Komachi and Tenshi. Eirin can also overheal herself to tank attacks, and she can inflict MAG and ATK debuffs. I went with a HP build. No idea if it's good, I'm experimenting.

Suika: I actually picked her up before this fight. Another character I've never really used in either game. I guess LOT1 Suika has a SPD debuffing AOE (while her LOT2 incarnation does not). I originally wasn't going to use her, but she's turned out to be useful for a couple of fights. At first it was because I needed extra damage against the next boss (who has healing) but she's decently tanky and does decent damage even without optimal gear.

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Bench Warmer Update:

Rumia: She's starting to become useful for randoms on 14F and 15F. Moonlight Ray helps against an annoying enemy type on 14F, while Dark Side of the Moon is helpful on 15F.

Chen: Her SPD build is finally coming in handy. Mostly for exploring 15F while under-level (you can just run from everything while grabbing all the treasures).

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