Breath of Fire 3 - 0 Exp Run Part 18: Arch Mage

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MoogleBoss

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Published on August 1, 2015 3:17:04 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_06yltoA8M

Game:

Breath of Fire III (1997)

Duration: 5:27

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81

Well, it looks like time has come for me to reveal my trump card for the endgame of this challenge.

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

Arch Mage... One of the game's two optional superbosses, defeating whom painlessly requires reaching rather high stat benchmarks, ones definitely out of reach for a 0 exp run without stat boosters. Why exactly are we here again?

Right, the ArchMage drops a Holy Avenger, a holy-elemental devil-slaying (secondary property) dagger equippable by Ryu and Rei. Not only is it Rei's strongest weapon, but Arwan, a boss Ryu has to fight next in order to advance the story, is weak to both the holy element AND devilslaying weaponry, what with being the Devil-type, which results in 4x damage (to be sure, the power also noticeably goes down compared to, say, the GooKingSword we've been occasionally pulling out ever since the Faerie Village became available). Ryu absolutely needs the weapon to progress in this challenge.

So how is beating ArchMage in such strict challenge settings possible? Without the exploit showcased here, I'd say your chances of success astronomical without save states, and the latter would involve rigging a high damage roll+a critical hit on a 999 pwr (after boosters of whatever sort) character and likely also a crit in Weretiger from Rei whose power has also been boosted to the maximum possible (don't think he can cap it in this challenge though, but I'm not 100% sure).

So, the exploit then, what is it? It involves using the move Berserk, normally taught by the master Giotto. Since no levelling occurs in this run, we have to learn it from the most menacing wielder imaginable - Berserkr, another superboss in this game. I beat him many times to get multiple Rufad Spears for example, but in general, his lack of recovery makes him much easier to beat than ArchMage, and it's really impossible for him to beat you assuming you have a good enough stock of Ammonia with you.

Berserk functions as a customisable Weretiger that can be attached to any character. It's sometimes cited as an argument against Rei's uniqueness in the game - anyone can replicate his Weretiger performance with this skill, and even do so before Rei rejoins the party. However, on the third turn of the move being used (counting the one when you used it, sadly), the berserked character will be KO'd automatically. What happens if this character is holding a Soul Gem however (ManlyClothes don't seem to work, much to my chagrin), is that they are revived, their attack still benefiting from the Berserk status but, miraculously, you are once again under full control of their actions. For players not playing this challenge, this means using Shadowwalk and Aura off tripled attack, which is surely a lot of joy, but for our purposes, using Triple Blow and Blitz is also quite effective.

There are things to be aware of here, however. For one, if the character is killed "for real" by an enemy afterwards, or even if they receive a stat boost like Vodka Shot, their Berserk effect will be lost. I also haven't had any luck in combining Berserk with Last Resort, but perhaps I wasn't trying hard enough - either way, it seems a bit superfluous because only Focus and iirc Celerity (can anyone confirm this bit? It's been a few years since I tested this) can help you break the 999 Pwr limit.

The reason why we have to go to such lengths to win here is ArchMage's highly potent recovery that occurs every single turn. With a "mere" 3K HP, the superboss recovers 1,5K at the end of each turn, so outdamaging that healing is virtually impossible for a low-level party. If you want to beat ArchMage in two turns, you have to do at least 2,250 damage on average; otherwise, your party may not see the moment where the boss finally falls.

Surviving in this fight is tricky with the boss being fast and very destructive with magic. His AI is as simple as it gets - 50% Mjollnir, 50% Mind Sword. Mjollnir is cancelled by thunder protection, but there's only Thunder Ring in this game until the Sample bosses where you can a second one. Thunder inoculation + 1x Ivory Charm also supplies full protection. So every Mjollnir turn is a turn we have free to unfold our strategy. Mind Sword is worse - it's a physical attack that uses the caster's Int stat instead of their pwr stat. As such, it can be dodged. Rei, Ryu and Garr, all apprenticed under Meryleep, would have 35%, 18% and 14% dodge respectively. Since my Garr is under D'lonzo for more accuracy, it's just 9% (he still dodged it thrice in a row on one attempt; it failed in the end).

(out of space, see comments for a continuation)

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