Dragon Quest XI - Low Level (Draconian) Part 18: Rab

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MoogleBoss

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Published on May 6, 2020 4:29:08 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vJA1grJdN4

Game:

Dragon Quest XI (2017)

Duration: 3:46

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46

Challenge playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbSv8zSDR9c3LqgBpOYsZOtq8gBAxox9I

The last solo battle and the one that gave me the most headache by far.

The MC has to face his grandfather in a practice fight of sorts, mastering Quadraslash being the aim of the training. Rab has already learnt Pearly Gates, whose power seems to be fractional and dependent on MC's level or HP, and the only way of cutting its damage is to block (when Rab rejoins, Pearly Gates is elemental and it doesn't work like that at all). Blocking is pointless as it doesn't cause the fight to progress anywhere.

The hero's Quadraslash is different here, too. Its damage starts really low and keeps increasing, capping at 300. You need about three maxed QSes to finally put an end to this fight.

Much of the challenge comes Rab acting twice and summoning shadows who do about the same things he does with the exception of Pearly Gates (imagine if all three used it lol) - physicals, defence debuffs, Crackle and Zam magic. Surviving six actions when your one doesn't make much of a difference is a tough feat to accomplish even if Pearly Gates isn't used on that turn.

Equipping the hero for protection against the threats posed here seemed impossible until I realised what the key to victory was. You don't try to protect against physicals (leaving the Hero weak to magic), ice magic or dark magic all at once - this will result in no visible difference between fights. You invest into one resistance and hope that you will see spells of this element and not the other. Zombie Mail we acquired from a treasure chest back in Act 1 grants 50% dark protection at +3 forge, add in a Devil's Tail and you're sitting at 80% protection against dark, reducing 50 damage attacks to 10 damage. Resetting until Zam spells are abundant and Crackle forgotten is far more reasonable compared to resetting with a "balanced" setup that leads to no sight of victory.

Another "secret" is not focusing too much effort on the shadows. Their presence may overwhelm you, but they're not going away anywhere. Rab will summon more when one dies and it only takes one of his turns. I only take them out to help power up Quadraslash, but the real reason to have at least one "old timer" shadow present at all times is that THEY RUN OUT OF MP. Having a shadow that misses actions sometimes is better than not progressing the fight further and just provoking Rab to summon more while your health slowly decreases.

Knowing these tricks really works wonders, but getting there was all too painful. Rab rejoins as the 3rd character in Act 2 (Hendrik is already controllable but absent from the fight in the video), and now our party is beginning to look like something that can function.

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