Game:

Final Fantasy IX (2000)

Duration: 0:00

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3

At least we don't have to jump on top of it! Battle on at: 0:16

At some point, the game apparently expected us to have gained 16 levels as Ark is level 38. Sure, I'm not doing that. The better damage would be nice, to get through its 20k HP, but gaining more HP would make this rather trivial.

The unique caveat for this boss is that magic is completely unusable in this dungeon. I assume this is why Ark can only do mild aoe damage, as you can't efficiently heal the party all at once. As you may or may not know, you're forced to divide the player characters into 2 groups of 4 for this part of the game. Eagle eyed amongst you will be wondering why on earth Freya isn't here, Reis's Wind would certainly be very helpful, but more on that in the next video!

Ark has 4 attacks: Boomerang (physical AoE), Whirlwind (wind AoE), Photon (Set 1 character to 1 HP), and Propeller Wind (Confuse AoE). Propeller Wind is the most dangerous here, as I can only protect one person from Confusion, everything else we can handle. To make matters worse, there are no items that cure Confusion. The only ways to cure Confusion are Esuna, which is Eiko exclusive and spells are sealed here anyway, be hit by a physical attack or wait out the duration. Attacking allies got tricky with the 1.5 * Ally Damage and with Dagger currently failing commands due to story reasons.

I was at a bit of a deadlock until I was testing Dagger healing with the Healer support ability (normal attack restores HP) and I noticed that these attacks, despite healing the target, still remove Confusion. Now with Dagger's low strength and chance to fail commands, this was not very reliable; but wouldn't you know it, Amarant has Healer, too! By giving Amarant Clear Headed (prevent Confusion) and Healer, we have a perfect way to deal with Confusion and heal allies. We then stack for Magic Eva and it shouldn't be too often everyone gets afflicted with Confusion.

Dagger with Chemist and Auto-Potion makes her completely invincible in this fight and she can still do a great job healing with Hi-Potions, even if she misses a few turns. Steiner or Zidane can pile on the damage with Bird Kill and MP Attack, Amarant can even restore the MP Attack drain with Chakra! The other can play it safe from Boomerang and Whirlwind by being in the back row with Long Range (same damage from back row) and a Gold Choker to reduce wind damage. Abilities we want to avoid here are Distract and Counter, they still activate against Amarant's Healer attacks or Confusion attacks.

Overall a very fun fight with some cool strategy, exactly what I was hoping for from the No Shared Abilities/Gear restriction.

Runner's note: I did as much chocobo treasure hunting as possible before now and we have access to a lot of late~end game items. Using them in this fight, I easily got Amarant to hit the damage cap (5000 with my settings) which made this fight a complete joke. Ark is weak to Wind, Amarant's Kaiser Knuckles are Wind Elemental, Black Belt raises wind elemental damage, Bird Killer, MP Attack...That's (77 weapon power + strength etc) * 1.5 * 1.5 * 1.5 * 1.5. I tested this with no cheat engine modifiers and break damage limit enabed: He hit for 10650 damage.

[Important Levels/Gear/Abilities]
Zidane: 24 | Twist Headband, Jade Armlet, Gaia Gear, Gold Choker | Long Reach
Dagger: 24 | Mantra Band, Magic Armlet, Magician Robe, Magician Shoes | Chemist, Auto-Potion
Amarant: 24 | Green Beret, Egoist's Armlet, Power Vest, Anklet | HP +20%, Healer, Clear Headed
Steiner: 24 | Glass Buckle | HP +10%, Accuracy+, MP Attack, Bird Killer

[Run Restrictions] (See playlist description for details:    • Final Fantasy IX [Hard Mode-No Shared...  )
• Hard Mode
• 0.5 * Enemy Damage
• 1.5 * Ally Damage
• No Shared Abilities
• No Deaths
• No Broken Abilities
• No Trance
• Same level or lower (38)

[Modifications]
• Moguri Mod
• Memoria Engine
• PSX SFX
• 100% Steal
• AP gain modifier

[Music Used]
• Kiss of Chaos - Final Fantasy XIV
• Exponential Entropy - Final Fantasy XIV
• A Victory Fanfare Reborn - Final Fantasy XIV