Dragon Quest XI - Low Level (Draconian) Part 24: Alizarin

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Published on April 23, 2021 3:00:32 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jouVayZvL8E

Game:

Dragon Quest XI (2017)

Duration: 6:28

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

Another challenge revived after a lengthy break. With the game conveniently circumventing the low level direction of the challenge by forcing characters to rejoin at new fixed levels in Act 2, everybody but Hero isn't terribly underlevelled at this point, and Hero himself can be switched out in favour of Jade, who's recently joined the party. Jade had a lot of points to funnel into new skills and bonus stats, but nothing's particularly useful, Multithrust remaining more than enough for our damage dealing needs.

Erik has also rejoined the party by this point, though his abilities are forgotten until after the next boss battle. There's not much Erik can help with when his skills are lost, though I did try to make his pep power with Hero & Rab to work, hoping Fire and Grimstone would penetrate exactly the right boss weakness and result in a ton of damage. The resulting status condition only led to minuscule damage incurred at the end of each point for the few turns it's up, so I discarded the idea of trying to use unskilled Erik in this battle.

I still kept using The Fight Fantastic with Hero and Erik to start each attempt when taking on this boss, but soon realised Jade is essentially the only one who should be attacking at all times - the boss's destructive potential is some of the most overwhelming we've faced in this run, though it can be managed well by directing most actions towards survival and not all-out offence.

The boss alternates between attacking a single target with a strong physical attack or a fireball, using AoE wind magic or attack the whole boat for more modest damage. All of these attacks become devastating under crimson mist, so the right measures need to be taken to survive. Asbestos Earring are given to everybody for +50% fire protection, minimising damage from fireballs, as an unresisted fireball generally leads to a KO when the boss opts to attack the same character with his other attack, which is likely considering his extensive AoE movepool.

Jade is our main offensive force. Her attacks don't deal much damage at first, but with Jade given the maximum attack boost from Sylvando's recently learnt Oomphle! and the boss under Sap she starts dealing 1,100-1,200 damage per turn, which is still relatively meek considering the boss appears to have well over 7K HP on Stronger Monsters / Hard Mode. Belle's Bow is given to Jade so that she doesn't have any MP issues no matter how long the battle goes on because, if it does, nobody will likely have any time to restore her MP with a Sage's Elixir.

Sylvando is one of the three units supporting Jade and the party. Oomphle being set early on and renewed before running out is a definite must, after which Sylvando can be expected to spend most of his turns using Hustle Dance, his gear build heavily favouring Charm over raw defence for maximum healing on all four units. He shouldn't ever run out of MP thanks to Hustle Dance's low MP cost relative to its optimal potential. If Sylvando gets an extra turn, he can technically use Gold Rush for around 300 damage for the price of 1K gold, but Jade deals so much more damage in any one of her attacks anyway.

Rab is the most useful character for debuffs. Sap is imperative for the hardest-hitting Multithrusts, but trying to maintain some Blunt debuffs can prove vital for surviving the merciless Crimson Mist turns in addition to Hendrik's contributions on the buff side. Rab always has decent single and multi target healing when that is required, though the AoE healing pales in comparison to Sylvando's Hustle Dance. The boss has no resistance to debuffs, yet paradoxically both Sap and Blunt will sometimes miss, with all the imaginable consequences following. This is pretty much why I don't even bother with Dazzle in this fight.

Hendrik's the last support unit, though he could definitely dish out really respectable damage with his axe if given Oomphle. Kabuffs and Magic Barriers really help the party's survival, and he can help out with okay single-target healing at times. Parallax could shine here, but this isn't really the boss battle where you'd risk having too many units attack.

There aren't that many bosses left until the end of the maingame, and they generally stay healthy and dangerous. Things ought to be fun.

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