Breath of Fire 3 - 0 Exp Run Part 12: Gaist

Channel:

MoogleBoss

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Published on May 2, 2015 4:10:45 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf62uCjIKqg

Game:

Breath of Fire III (1997)

Duration: 5:42

1,535 views

22

The big battle we've all been waiting for.

Challenge playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbSv8zSDR9c3B4PywC9BZi6DB276WM3gE

Gaist is the bane of many challenges and playthroughs where Ryu isn't optimised for taking him on, and the difficulty is especially gruesome when Ryu has to do it low-levelled. I still shudder whenever I remember the number of resets it took me to defeat Gaist in my first BoF3 challenge (LLNFV). It was much better on this one, though I still do think I got lucky.

Ryu is even weaker statwise this time around, but equipment obtained via the Faerie Village goes a long way to help remedy this issue. He has more defence, more attack and is more flexible with multiple sources of elemental and status protection. Most importantly, Demonsbane is a demonslaying weapon, doubling in attack against the boss, making it particularly lethal when Ryu's defence has been added to his power stat as a result of casting the Last Resort buff/status.

First of all, some necessary statistics of the moves Gaist is likely to use:

Phase 1. above 1250/2500 HP
Attack 50% (82% to connect because Ryu is under Meryleep for extra 10 evasion), Sanctuary 19%, Howling 12%, Risky Blow 12%, Corona 6%

Phase 2. below 1250/2500 HP
Attack 25%, Risky Blow 28%, Corona 28% , Howling 19%

As you can see, the first phase is the toughest for us. Physical attacks happen all too often at this point, so Ryu often doesn't even get to have his first action. Risky Blow is inaccurate, but deadly when connecting. Howling and Corona (18% to use either) just waste a turn considering Ivory Charm 2x grants full protection to their effects, while Sanctuary is nothing but annoyance, dispelling the Last Resort condition, making Ryu's Frost Strike weak and forcing us to re-cast it. It gets better in the second phase, with less physical attacks (though many more Risky Blows), a 47% chance to waste a turn using Corona/Howling, and no Sanctuary at all, so this is the time to deal big damage and win! The problem is, of course, making it to the second phase altogether.

The first thing we need to accomplish is to blind Gaist with the help of an Octopus item (can be fished in the vicinity). This may take some turns to succeed; usually it's Ryu's death that doesn't let us use too many of these. Once blinded, physical attacks will have a tendency to whiff, and Risky Blows will be even less likely to connect.

When Gaist is blinded, there's hardly any time to be wasted. Ryu should use Last Resort immediately. There's a good reason why Ryu enters the battle poisoned - his colossal defence from FV equipment, bolstered further by the poison status, will -sometimes- (not always) grant him a chance to withstand a regular blow from Gaist when at max health. Needless to say, using Last Resort leaves Ryu no chance to take any more successful attacks that get through, but early on it's quite effective and this video shows the poison status's potency in action.

Now Ryu should start attacking with mean 4x effective Frost Strikes - 2x from Demonsbane's demonslaying properties and 2x from Gaist's ice weakness. Having converted defence into attack, it's one wicked blow. The only problem is running out of AP too quickly with 11 maximum AP. I have Ryu equip a Flame Shield and swap one of the Ivory Charms with a Spirit Ring, halving Frost Strike's AP cost and making it more berabale.

With this setup, Ryu can afford using Frost Strike a total of 5 times, which should come close to killing Gaist assuming there were no Sanctuaries used (it's all too likely that it does rear its ugly ahead somewhere down the first phase however). If Ryu does run out of AP, he can choose between recovering his AP with Black Porgy / Wisdom Seed and just using Blitz for 1.5x damage instead of 2x.

Attacking the Torches is probably not worth it. Ryu can swap his Demonsbane for a GooKingSword and start out by using Blitz to take them out, but the damage on Gaist will be greatly reduced, and after all we want the first phase to be over as soon as possible.

And so we proceed to the next part of the game, where Ryu is once again accompanied by far stronger allies of his. Yet still, there remains one more boss that he'll have to take on one-on-one...

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