Generation 12 Tips (Part Two) - Fighting in Falias

Having taken care of those pesky alchemists once and for all in the previous section, it's not time to deal with the more powerful forces at work.

A Goddess Remembers being in Danger (solo as Morrighan then solo)
The first part is a very fun mission and a good introduction to Morrighan's god skills which you will be using later. Try to always keep Wings of Eclipse active and use your Wings of Rage from a far distance (they'll move into range if they notice you) on the Daols to avoid multi-aggro. Your first hit won't kill them though, so be ready with a Silent Move (you won't be getting this :P) hot-key to evade their attacks. Don't worry too much if you fail as you lose nothing to try again.

The second quest though can be quite challenging. You need to destroy a number of arches in Falias and they are guarded by Aonbharrs - winged wolves that have heavy stander, instinctive reaction and really high protection and HP. You may want to make use of the Brionac to deal with them and certainly trans when taking them on. Dragon support is also available to wipe out one group. Beware too of the floating stones as like Cerberus they cannot be targetted, but these ones fire Thunder and Fireball (adv magic) so steer clear!

Collecting in the Connous Underground (fastest solo)
Gathering stuff for the Ark of Falias is pretty straight forward - you would have encountered treasure chests in the Solea caves already if you had run to Vales (see second post), so it's just the Connous Underground that may be new to you. To get in, use an advanced L-rod (the digging version, humans need to ally with either the elves or giants to get one - though a normal one may work too) and find spots on the great desert outside Filia, preferably in sand storm regions. Eventually you'll dig up a cloud and a warning message. Wander into the cloud and you should fall in. Shouldn't need to fight any of the denizens in here (especially the Ifrit if he's awake) so just explore till you find some chests. To exit, just keep making your way to the center of the map and run up the stairs - or goddess wing out, or continent warp.

Golden Apple (best bring full party)
While there's nothing you haven't fought before here, most of the baddies are on their strongest variation and will spawn in big clusters so unless you like the idea of fighting 8 shadow ghosts alone you'd better bring a full team. The boss room especially has super powered boars and deers that must die in the offering circle to complete the mission. Don't be like me and windmill stuff out of the circle or it prolongs the difficult combat and annoys your helpers! :P

Final Chapter (solo)
It's end game time so prep well before entering this mission which comes in four parts:

Part I - Repair the stuff you Broke
Use Shock (without Brionac equipped) and touch the lithograph in the middle to figure out which one you need to fix. Fragments dropped from Aonbharrs will reassemble them. Again look out for the floating stones with advanced magic. Use everything you've got to stay alive.

Part II - The Feather is Mightier than the Sword
Not really, main boss will be throwing all sorts of crap at you and you need to run like mad to evade. When he begins his "light sword attack" you are supposed to use Morrighan's feather on him at close range. He only does this when he is airborne. If he lands, he is only doing it to smash you with his fist so steer clear.

After Part II, it's time to be like Neo.

Part III - Not Running This Time
Woo, now you've got perma demi for the rest of the mission as well as Morrighan's powers. Try to keep Wings of Eclipse active on top of your mana shield and avoid the main guy while you take down his minions. Like before, the Daols can be bad news but the area is big enough to lure one using a long bow. As long as you maintain single-aggro and avoid their light spears you should be able to take these guys down easily enough. Run away if Wings of Eclipse is turned off and keep evading till you have it reactivated.

Part IV - Attrition is Fun
Morrighan will help you face the main baddie and should she die it is game over. She's quite tough but don't draw out the battle for too long because she will lose eventually. As you may have noticed your adversary has a lot of deadly attacks when flying so the trick is to keep him grounded by hitting him with Wings of Rage the same time Morrighan does. When he's on the floor Brionac his face using any move (other than Windmill since he usually resumes flight if you do that) as much as you can. He can hit hard and do a shockwave attack while walking but your Wings of Eclipse and Mana Shield should be able to take the blows. Repeat until you are victorious.

Treasure Hunting
Now that you've won you can jump back to Falias at anytime by using the Brionac with either shock or demi-god to open a portal. You'll also require a falias fragment each time you do this which is only obtainable through Keith's Part Time Job in Tara Bank. I suggest doing it after a server reboot to give yourself better odds. Back in Falias you can change your god-powers back to Neamhain's if you so choose and you can try recover some of those artifacts you had brought. This involves defending an area against waves of Aonbharr but since I again haven't done it myself I'll have to write about it another time. :)

Generation 11 Tips (Part 1) - We eat Demigods for Breakfast

You would think now you are a "demi-god" that things would be easier for you, but this story arc just ramps up the difficulty so much that it's almost like you need your new powers just to survive. There's a long list of trouble spots for this one so let's get right into it.

The not-so Hidden Page (fastest with some friends)
You'll be given a monacle to find a hidden page somewhere in the shadow castle. Fortunately these pages were written on sparkly paper and they emit a very visible shine when you are nearby, indicating when you should put on your eyepiece to pick it up. There are a few missions where these pages appear but for ease and speed I recommend running "The Other Alchemists" on basic and bring some friends to speed it up. You will meet a few new baddies here:

Blinker
The bane of castle missions, these multi aggro floating eye balls have a dendancy to hover around and using a spot-light, drain peoples HP. Prioritize them and open with a smash to hopefully take them out before they notice you. Supposedly sand-burst and frozen blast is good against them too but I'm no alchemist. For a change, windmill is not so good as if they survive it they usually do their hover attack. Also they can summon extra help if wounded too badly. If they cause you too much strife, use your new-found powers to wipe them out fast.

Python Soldier/Shaman
The extra help I was just talking about, though their AI is familiar enough. The soldiers are basically re-skinned shadow fighters while the shamans behave just like the hobgoblin shamans you would have already fought in G7 while looking for those artifacts. You didn't skip it like an idiot right?

Leprechaun (small and giant)
These jolly little fellows are very timid, weak, easy to read, and if you knock them down (without killing them) you can "harvest" their pants of loot. Yes, it is as wrong as it sounds. They've got pretty strong magic though so don't foo around too much. The "giant" version is a guardian of a mini treasure room where you need to shrink and go through a mousehole to reach. No point fighting him, just get a pet to distract him while you loot and escape!

Cerberus
Though you may not run into this in this particular mission I thought I'd add it now. It is an indestructable trap that appears in the middle of a room and will fire bolt magic or poison fumes every so often. You can duck into the corners to avoid the poison (it's eyes will glow purple as a warning) and use evasion for the bolts but the only real way past it is to clear the monster spawn quick. Poison spitters will never use bolt attacks and vice versa.

White Orb and Warp Rooms
Again you won't run into these right now, but you will eventually. In the "white orb" rooms one orb will glow white for a few seconds then move to another orb while you are fighting baddies - if you hit the white orb the door will open allowing you to cut short the combat. The opposite of this are the warp rooms, where you hit an orb (during combat) which opens a warp portal providing the only way out or face an unending spawn of monsters.

Basilisk
This large and heavy lizard has very high passive defense and will not be knocked down by anything, so just use the highest damage attacks you have available while you've got mana shield and pots keeping you alive. There are "gaming" ways to beat it in a less dangerous fashion but if you brought help and are running this on basic as I suggested, you should be fine especially with trans.

Royal Library (solo or with royal alchemist)
A short mission but the main problem is you will be facing a Blinker on "your level". Be prepared to use trans and demi-god powers to take it down. If it causes problems you can ask a Royal Alchemist for help.

Into the Frying Pan (solo with Gwelyas)
Now you will start getting killed by food. I kid you not. The main objective here is to "kill" 5 ~ 9 Fruit, 5 ~ 13 Flour, and 7 Eggs within the red circle and to hit the big spoon to exit after 7 minutes (important). These things have incredibly high protection so it helps to go after the things your NPC buddy has "tenderized". When the silverware starts spawning (behaves like flying swords) you can kill them to get a cooking knife for yourself which can help lower the defenses of the food. Expect to have to demi-god and pally or be prepared to be defeated by eggs and berries. I don't need to say that killing anything that shouldn't be in the dish within the red circle will stuff you up royally. :P

You probably need to trans/demi to beat these!

Strange Books (fastest solo)
An easy mission with a new enemy type. Strange books can launch explosive paper airplanes in random directions. They shouldn't cause too much problems to defeat however as they are just an upgrade of the mimic types. Windmill to open.

Getting the gang back together
Need to find some NPCs you've met before, and the first one is within the shadow castle again. You'll be fighting familiar spawn, just lots of them and by yourself (unless you have a royal alchemist buddy). Just trans and demi as needed, there's no time limit so you shouldn't be in a rush. Incase you've forgotten your priority should be wizard/archer -> lancer -> fighter. The next dude is in the shadow city, don't you miss this place? There are a few baddies that you can avoid, but for more fun I recommend dragon striking since you won't be able to use it for majority of this story arc.

Revenge (solo as Jenna)
To make it go a lot faster than the TV series of the same name, just stand far away from the multi-aggroing enemy alchemists and magnum shot all of them to death. Should be a piece of cake.

Caliburn Investigation (fastest solo with 2 NPCs)
The first of unfortunately many missions where you need to keep your stupid suicidal buddies alive. Expect to do most of the fighting and try kill things quick. It's the same baddies you've fought before but you may need to be more reckless this time since you're baby-sitting morons.

Generation 10 Tips - A Demigod is Born

Welcome to my quick guide for Generation 10! I am assuming you have read through the previous classes at this point which means you already have a good grasp of the majority of the enemies here. You've already survived G9 so you won't find G10 so bad. After the last quest line, the shadow forces are in withdrawal (I assume), but those pesky alchemists are still up to no good. Here are the spots I think may give you grief.

Survivor Rescue (solo)
Welcome to Shadow Tara! Ironically the first things you see will be some of the strongest bastards in this story arc. Those shadow ghosts are highly dangerous and for now it would be wiser to flank and avoid them to reach your destination. You will however need to fight some bone soldiers who are pretty much exactly like their shadow counterparts, so nothing new here.

Lezarro's Book (solo or with royal alch)
Standard fare of killing stuff in orb sections, just stick to the main roads. If you are having problems finding the orbs bring along some arat berries to radar them out until you get used to where they spawn. The boss room features zombie soldiers, who basically are just like the Tir Na Nog zombies. I hope you've been practicing your windmill - if not this could be a difficult fight and you may want to look for a royal alch to help you out. Or better yet, just practice windmill?

Lileas' Honey (solo)
Just want to point out your main target here are the honeycomb trees, not the bad dudes. You don't have to kill any of them.

Jousting Practice
The last bit of a large collection quest has you joust against an NPC in the arena. This is a pretty fun mini-game and it is worth paying the small amount of gold to get used to it even after you've completed this quest. You'll need at least a mid-level proficiency in it (reading NPCs) later on.

It's come a long way huh? :P

Cubic collection (fastest solo)
Getting you exploration up should be easy by now if you've been doing the Cor circuit. When it's time to get the cubic stuff just load up on passes before heading out. Fastest collection is by only doing the first 2-3 rooms, wiping out mimics, then leave and repeat until your collection book is complete.

Third Wheel in Maiz (as Arenren solo then as Voight and Isla - you need a friend)
If you haven't yet gone to get your Final Hit quest (humans) then there's a high chance you've not been in the Maiz Praire ruins before, and you are in for some tough opposition. When doing the 2 player version, Voight will be doing most of the fighting but Isla -MUST- still cover him. Use magic to buy him time to windmill or counter the multi-aggro mobs.

Slates
They behave like goblins but have very high protection (no passive defense though) and even higher damage. Using defense will probably still result in serious injury so windmill, counter, and smash if the opportunity presents itself.

Skeleton Ghost
Generally all ghosts in Mabi are bad news, at least this type has no passive defense. They do dual aggro quick and do very good damage in both melee and magic. Final hit may result in your death if two of them are on you, so you are better off luring one to a free corner and dealing with it the usual windmill, counter way. Be ready to take action if it charges up magic though as it will almost always move in for a melee swipe right after. They can also windmill.

Return to Longa (fastest with party)
Just variations of the critters you fought on your last run through here, the only thing new is the boss at the end - a familiar named alchemist. He tends to just behave like any other alchemist though, with the extra ability of healing to full if he yells "I am immortal!". Makes you wonder why he doesn't just keep doing it. Anyway, if you are solo just turn on trans and wipe the floor with him - get ready for the usual wind/water blast combo. If you have a group, just keep him on the floor so he can't do anything with smash-mill.

Fomor Mata (solo)
The fights to the arena should be nothing new for you, but when you get there your jousting skills will be put to the test against a fomor commander. Fail the joust and you fail the mission. Hope you've been practicing! Win the joust and then you have to beat him on foot. He is pretty much the same as the named commander in the previous story arc only in black armor instead of gold. Look out for his golems and his life drain and remember you can use the entire city to maneuver around if need be. Don't open with a smash as he has instinctive reaction. Poison may be useful against him if you or better yet, a pet has it.

Couracle's Heart Again, because you forgot to pick it up last time (bring full party)
Basically you'll be fighting a zillion baddies you've already fought before - just all at once. To this end bringing a full party is recommended. In the final area you'll be joined by NPCs from Tailltean who once again must survive the encounter. Don't worry, it's not as bad as the "Last Battle" in the previous story arc. Those shadow ghosts you avoided in the first mission will be here again, and this time you'll need to fight them. They have thunder (perhaps your first baddie with adv. magic) which can easily kill anyone and heavy stander so make sure they don't get to cast by standard gang smash-mill. One skilled person can disable the ghost long enough for his buddies to kill the rest then help out. Alternatively 2 should be able to take out a ghost directly by keeping it on its ass.

The only thing in your way is yourself (solo or with royal alch)
Before entering the shadow realm prep a cylinder in one weapon slot and your primary weapon in the other. Also prepare a hotkey for "life drain" even if it is at novice rank and move all your current life drain crystals to the top left of your inventory if you have any. The finale takes place in a very familiar place and has two stages. Your enemy will be using alchemy skills that you can use evasion to dodge plus demi god abilities which are evadable by just running around. Any damage you do to it will hurt you by 50% - but this is not a bad thing. Punch its face once (cylinder equipped) to injure yourself then evade like crazy. After it does the "area" attack (as opposed to the light spear attack) it will taunt you so use the music box to make it go crazy temporarily. As soon as this happens hit your life drain hot key and drain the bastard (if you brought a royal alch this is his job). To proceed to the next stage the life drain must restore you to full health, so you cannot be too injured (unless your life drain skill is unusually high) and not be on full health to start with. If you run out of dark life drain crystals or he kills you, you may as well restart the mission and save any nao stones you were planning on using for stage two.

Second stage has him summon some buddies but now you have the demigod power. Don't be hasty as it doesn't make you invulnerable! Your regen will be much higher now and you should be able to outrun all your enemies, but having HP and Mana pots in reserve is a good idea (you should know to be using mana shield by now). If you followed each story arc then the best thing to do now is stand in a clear side of the circle and call for a dragon strike on those bastards then work on slaying the main guy. He will resummon all his pals if you kill all of them, so if possible leave one or two far away so you can deal with the main baddie in peace. You can then go berserk using your new abilites on your foe to destroy it quicker. Ho ho ho, now you have demi-god mode. :)