Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster - Low Level Finale: Chaos

Channel:

MoogleBoss

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Published on May 27, 2023 1:43:53 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjDF7HUS2uc

Game:

Final Fantasy (1987)

Duration: 7:27

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Challenge playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbSv8zSDR9c2wEyTpx0c-SRM9yH3kWrJI

We finish the game with these levels:
Knight - lv. 1
Red Wizard - lv. 1
Red Wizard - lv. 1 (petrified)
Red Wizard - lv. 2 (petrified) - the level-up was necessary to beat Lich in the Cavern of Earth battle

Time and time again, we keep re-entering the Shrine of Chaos after farming more X-Potions and with the party set up in a different way each time. Why do we keep coming back again?

Right, we're here TO - KILL - CHAOS.

Chaos represents a huge jump in vitality compared to Tiamat Mk II, the previous boss, who had 5,500 HP. Only packing 2K health in the original, Chaos has had a whopping 20K HP ever since the GBA version of FF1, part of the Dawn of Souls compilation, was released.

According to the FF wiki, Chaos's chances to use one of the skills in his arsenal are as follows:

40% chance for a physical attack
10% chance for Blizzara
6% chance for Haste
5% chance each for Slowra, Firaga, Thundaga, Blizzaga, Flare, Blaze, Tsunami, and Cyclone
2% chance each for Curaja and Earthquake

As we can see, the most frequent outcome of any given turn is the final boss using MT magic, which can vary in strength drastically, from Blizzara dealing under 100 damage with resistances from Ribbon applied, and Flare dealing up to ~420 damage. Two Flares in a row can kill an ally (or the whole party) that had as much as 800 HP before the battle started, and it has happened before on my previous attempts (which is easy to understand, as any Flare is 1/20 likely to be followed up by another Flare). Haste, Slowra, Curaja and Earthquake (which always misses thanks to Ribbons being worn) represent a turn where nobody is dying or taking damage, but there's only a small 15% chance that one will be used. If anything, Haste is an unwanted outcome due to sheer hit-count and with it strength increase all future Chaos attacks will come with. A totally unbuffed character can take over 800 dmg from a hasted Chaos attacking.

A crucial part of our strategy is the manner in which we handle physical blows. Though only 40% likely, they're the primary means we can ever hope to buff the party with Giant's Tonics until we're eventually at 999 HP. Any MT spell being used when we're still in double-digit HP (base 30-35 HP might as well be 1 HP) leads to the game over screen, prompting a restart. Attacks and other single-target moves are not equally likely to target the party members. The rates are:

50% to target the first character alive
25% to target the second one
12,5% to target character three or four

I experimented heavily with different party compositions. Clearly, as the Tiamat battles demonstrated earlier, maintaining more than one character's health with Giant's Tonics and X-Potions is troublesome enough when magic is spammed so much.

The petrification strat seen in this video, pioneered in the speedrunning scene, has NOT ever been used before in any recorded boss battle in this challenge run. It is most effective when facing multiple enemies using exclusively or primarily physical attacks. Petrify the first two party members, and you only face a 25% chance of one of the other two being targeted. It makes otherwise impossible non-boss battles possible.

I didn't consider the strategy for Chaos very seriously at first, but the frequency at which physical attacks are used and their sheer power made me change my mind, though I tried different setups, including one and three petrified allies. Because petrified allies count as being 'alive' (still a game over when the other two die), they will be targeted over the actual living characters 75% of the time, giving me on average a 30% chance every turn not to incur any damage or face risk of dying to MT magic (45% if you factor the other support spells here too).

The first two turns are the riskiest by far, most resulting in failure. We need to get two Giant's Tonics in on one of the allies, then recover HP with X-Potion next turn. Then it's a race to keep the second ally alive, as they can keep dying to MT magic and at the same time sabotage the other character's chances of staying alive. Such sandbagging can carry on for a long time until you're lucky - or until you die. Afterwards, it's time to buff. Setting up at least one layer of Blink (which gives us 80 points of avoid or 80% avoid depending on the source, but nowhere near enough to tank Chaos attacks reliably) and Invisira seems like a decent idea, and Protect Drinks can come in handy, too, though I never actually tried using them to get to 255 defence in-battle or anything drastic like that.

(out of space; see the comment section for the rest of the video description)

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