Tales of the Rays - Claire (GE3) vs. Gefion (Solo / Normal + Hard Mode)

Channel:

Muggshotter

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Published on May 3, 2021 4:17:28 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAcSzZu4lCw

Game:

Tales Of The Rays (2017)

Duration: 6:16

232 views

6

It's arc 1 last boss again, but you'll see that the run differs enough from the Yuri run to warrant an upload. Timestamps and write-up below.

0:00 - Normal Mode
1:39 - Hard Mode

Hypotheosis OC Remix - https://soundcloud.com/ocremix/3-09-hypotheosis-trev-wignall


I've been looking for a good time to do a run with one of the God Eater characters. While Rays is not the first game to allow you to play as established NPC God Eater characters, it lets you have them in an arbitrary 1-on-1 action game setting. It's enough to justify their existence to me, as I've enjoyed games from both franchises.

So what is so different about Claire taking on Gefion, then? Consistent aerial combos, ranged iron stance chipping and perhaps the biggest one, no side switching artes with invincibility.

This is one of the biggest changes as Claire has to deal with Gefion's tools head-on. However, she can fight at a range thanks to Drawback Shot which also doubles as her strongest Iron Stance chipper in this fight. Using this to whiff punish a freeze lancer at Gefion's side or after she has dropped a second icicle are some of the most consistent uses for it. You'll see I start the fights with backstep into two Drawbacks and that's because if she begins approaching you, you'll get two Drawbacks for a consistent iron stance break with the next approach. If Gefion drops an icicle, you have to see if she cancels the first one into a second one, backstep it and then do one Drawback. I just commit to the ideal starting sequence regardless which is why you see me getting hit at the beginning of the Hard mode fight like a dummy. I guess rng strats are in the spirit of a gacha game.

After softening the iron stance, the approach is a bit open-ended. You can do a third Drawback (given the chance), sprinkle a bit of damage with Dive or go in with Devour into Dive. Devour has 0.25 seconds of invinciblity on start-up, heals on hit as well as activates Burst mode which grants a damage + movement boost as well as minor iron stance on the user. With 2x Drawbacks beforehand, the iron stance works in Claire's favor as it lets her tank enough of Gefion's freeze lancer to break her iron stance with Dive.

Once you break the iron stance, Claire can comfortably loop with a few repetitions of Dive and an occasional Firm Flip to ensure Gefion stays in the air. If you break with Drawback you can actually repeat it once (even without critical hits) and follow up with Rebellion Blitz (not shown), but the damage is with Dive and so all combo routes will eventually lead to it. The damage adds up and I got lucky a few times to get critical hits, not that they're necessary to do essential combos with it.

In the Normal mode fight you'll see Victorious Soul being used as combo filler, but it has a few problems. The slow start-up requires Firm Flip to set it up and the damage output is not very good. I wanted to showcase it here however, because on Hard mode the question isn't about combo variety, but about sustainability. Victorious Soul does not do enough in the field it's covering to justify taking it over Devour or even Rebellious Blitz for close-range iron stance chipping / combo starter.

So how does Claire stay alive on Hard mode? First, I caved in on a couple tier 2 tower skills. One with permanent 20 % run speed boost and one that heals 400 HP with each successful backstep. With the existing tier 1 backstep heal worth of 200 HP they stack for a hard cap of 600 hp heal per backstep. This is enough to compensate for blocking freeze lancers and come back after tanking a hit or blocking a Black Hole (which she didn't get to do, thankfully).

Second, Dive. This 5-star arte does a lot for Claire! Fast start-up, good damage, gap closer, combos into itself and if used twice in a row up close it lets her cross up Gefion to evade immediate damage while also reducing iron stance. This move is so fast that even if you break iron stance with Drawback from afar and miss with the first Dive, the second Dive will make it in time for a combo.

This move, along with faster running speed allows her to consistently maneuver around Gefion. Walking to her side to bait freeze lancers is good, but she won't always do it. Backstep heals carry hard either way. That also made the home stretch of the Hard mode fight awkward as she wouldn't leave the corner but I also didn't want to give her time to cast Black Hole, her full-screen multi-hit spell, so she was stuck with me in a way.


I did not account for an MA finish on Hard mode, I was saving it to cancel Black Hole casting or save myself from dying but the corner ended up working out well so I didn't have to worry about Claire's MA leaving her in front of Gefion after all. I got a bit lucky with her not doing a mirrage arte after getting hit a couple times half-way through, but I'll take the win. It wasn't very easy, but I hope you like this little showcase of God Eater 3's Claire!


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