A thread for the Legendary VR Missions

[BusyFace13]

Beat the Zack fight using the aero spam earlier today. It's definitely a lot safer than the Darkside unga bunga build.

 

Anyone used the aero build for the Sephiroth fight? I noticed he doesn't have Faith or Haste, and I'm not sure if I wanna give them to Cloud at the expense of some of his other materia.

 

Edit: It's done. Platinum complete after 152 hours. I switched the Enemy Skill materia for Empowerment and didn't bother with Haste.

Edited March 23 by BusyFace13

[SublimeHawk]

Can anyone share what their strategy was for the Adamantoise as Barret? The Powerpyx guide says you can stagger it with 2 Focused Shots after Fira, but that only gets it to around 80% stagger for me. Then I get bodied by fireball spam and enraged charge.

[BusyFace13]

1 hour ago, SublimeHawk said:

Can anyone share what their strategy was for the Adamantoise as Barret? The Powerpyx guide says you can stagger it with 2 Focused Shots after Fira, but that only gets it to around 80% stagger for me. Then I get bodied by fireball spam and enraged charge.

I used the below build that @Surgical_Assault posted earlier on in this thread, and it worked great:

 

Weapon Fafnir
Accessory: Chocobo Mantle , can use Gotter 
Materia Weapon: Fire-MP Absorb,  Fire Swiftcast,  Atb boost,  First Strike
Armor: Fire&Ice MP 50%,  Fire TP Absorb, Fire-Elemental,  Magic Boost TP Boost.

Just spam Fira no need healing.  On turtle use Bonus Rounds spam Fira ez stagger On the last one u can actually heal urself quite a bit when he uses reflec, just use fira he will reflect it and u absorb the damage, its about 3k heal.

[GibiusMaximus]

God, I am so ready to delete this game from my hard drive at this point.
 

Even with the ‘cheese’ build I can’t get any further than Round 3 … they couldn’t have given Zack at least a couple purple materia? He’s so slow and squishy. He legit just seems to die - playing specifically to keep the aggro off him but to no avail.

 

Also I must just be a special level of stupid because the damage output you guys get and the damage output I get do not align by a considerable margin and I don’t know where I’m going wrong. Darkside + Prime Mode + Debrave + Bravery and I’m barely making a dent in anything. Tried the Magic build posted earlier too. I’m gonna put this game down for a bit because I’m just too frustrated. 
 

Bahamut is the absolute worst. I rage quit Bonds of Friendship and tried To Be A Hero instead … got to Round 9, it’s considerably easier for sure but Bahamut just fucking blows dude. 

 

10 rounds is just ludicrous, I’ll say it again but it’s a terrible and outright stupid design choice. The Dev team simply does not respect the player’s time with these slog ass challenge runs. 
 

They couldn’t at least allow us to practice individual rounds without having to sacrifice hours of our time just to get to specific fights? Shit’s lame. 

[BusyFace13]

1 hour ago, GibiusMaximus said:

Also I must just be a special level of stupid because the damage output you guys get and the damage output I get do not align by a considerable margin and I don’t know where I’m going wrong. Darkside + Prime Mode + Debrave + Bravery and I’m barely making a dent in anything. 

Confirm you have the Genji Gloves equipped? That's the only way to exceed 9999 damage.

Edited March 23 by BusyFace13

[MiguelStein]

1 hour ago, GibiusMaximus said:

God, I am so ready to delete this game from my hard drive at this point.
 

Even with the ‘cheese’ build I can’t get any further than Round 3 … they couldn’t have given Zack at least a couple purple materia? He’s so slow and squishy. He legit just seems to die - playing specifically to keep the aggro off him but to no avail.

 

Also I must just be a special level of stupid because the damage output you guys get and the damage output I get do not align by a considerable margin and I don’t know where I’m going wrong. Darkside + Prime Mode + Debrave + Bravery and I’m barely making a dent in anything. Tried the Magic build posted earlier too. I’m gonna put this game down for a bit because I’m just too frustrated. 
 

Bahamut is the absolute worst. I rage quit Bonds of Friendship and tried To Be A Hero instead … got to Round 9, it’s considerably easier for sure but Bahamut just fucking blows dude. 

 

10 rounds is just ludicrous, I’ll say it again but it’s a terrible and outright stupid design choice. The Dev team simply does not respect the player’s time with these slog ass challenge runs. 
 

They couldn’t at least allow us to practice individual rounds without having to sacrifice hours of our time just to get to specific fights? Shit’s lame. 

 

If you arent controlling Zack he's at range at all times , nobody focuses him at least in my game. So i dont know how he's getting deleted in yours. 

 

And about the damage, you sure you have Genji Gloves? Titan dies in 1 stagger, and Alexander, and Phoenix and almost every enemy. But you need genji gloves.

[GibiusMaximus]

7 hours ago, BusyFace13 said:

Confirm you have the Genji Gloves equipped? That's the only way to exceed 9999 damage.

 

6 hours ago, MiguelStein said:

 

If you arent controlling Zack he's at range at all times , nobody focuses him at least in my game. So i dont know how he's getting deleted in yours. 

 

And about the damage, you sure you have Genji Gloves? Titan dies in 1 stagger, and Alexander, and Phoenix and almost every enemy. But you need genji gloves.

 

Definitely have the Genji Gloves equipped, it's how I nuked the shit outta the Aerith Bout.

 

My highest damage with the Darkside strategy was something piddly like 14K, no 50K Infinity's End for me - so must be doing something wrong. On my final attempt, Titan was just constant Mountain Crusher + Grab + Thwack to Zack and I only ever used him from the menu to cast Bravery lol.

[BusyFace13]

27 minutes ago, GibiusMaximus said:

My highest damage with the Darkside strategy was something piddly like 14K, no 50K Infinity's End for me - so must be doing something wrong. 

Hmm interesting. Are you definitely activating the Prime Mode damage buff? There's two stages to it depending how many hits of the holding square combo you land. It looks like a monster face on an orange background next to your other buff icons.

[GibiusMaximus]

16 minutes ago, BusyFace13 said:

Hmm interesting. Are you definitely activating the Prime Mode damage buff? There's two stages to it depending how many hits of the holding square combo you land. It looks like a monster face on an orange background next to your other buff icons.

 

Yeah; I definitely wasn't using Prime Mode fully, rewatched the video as it was getting late last night when I tried this. Determined to finish these off today for sure.

 

But another issue I noticed that I'm not 100% sure on with the Magic build is that MP Absorption & HP Absorption just don't seem to be working for me. I'm about to Max out these Wind Materia as I only had 1 Wind Maxed, and Lightning + Wind Maxed. I think what's happening is that the HP/MP Absorption is tied explicitly to the level of the spell the Matera is capable of casting. So if you put a HP/MP Absorption with a Level 1 Materia, when you go to cast the Level 3 spell, it won't work - but it will work for the Level 1 spell.

 

So just because I can cast Aeroga on the back of the Lighting + Wind Materia, that doesn't mean it will absorb the use of that Aeroga. 

[GibiusMaximus]

16 minutes ago, GibiusMaximus said:

 

Yeah; I definitely wasn't using Prime Mode fully, rewatched the video as it was getting late last night when I tried this. Determined to finish these off today for sure.

 

But another issue I noticed that I'm not 100% sure on with the Magic build is that MP Absorption & HP Absorption just don't seem to be working for me. I'm about to Max out these Wind Materia as I only had 1 Wind Maxed, and Lightning + Wind Maxed. I think what's happening is that the HP/MP Absorption is tied explicitly to the level of the spell the Matera is capable of casting. So if you put a HP/MP Absorption with a Level 1 Materia, when you go to cast the Level 3 spell, it won't work - but it will work for the Level 1 spell.

 

So just because I can cast Aeroga on the back of the Lighting + Wind Materia, that doesn't mean it will absorb the use of that Aeroga. 

 

This is totally what the issue was. I was getting into the 2nd fight with 54 MP remaining after the 50% Recharge, I must not have been absorbing HP and MP as intended, which is probably why I was having so much difficulty with this. Gonna see what I can do after I make my kids lunch. 

[IceKingzV2]

Was able to beat the Bonds of Friendship (Zack) simulation using the Aeroga build posted earlier in the thread.  Highly recommend it. 

 

Don't forget to utilize Zack as a support throughout the fights.  You want to priotize Haste and Faith at the start but he can cast Stop on a few bosses to help get some extra time during staggers.  Also has defensive spells to keep Cloud safer in fights. 

 

I used a similar build for the Sephiroth one.  The big change was I got rid of ATB Boost and Enemy Skill to add a Fire/Ice Elemental resist.  This made Phoenix, Kujata, the fire Dragon, and the Zu fights significantly easier.  Zu most importantly.  Losing on round 8 to Swan Song was rough.

 

Sephiroth not having Haste or Faith made it a bit more difficult but I tried to rely on his defensive spells to compensate.  Had to rely on Reraise for Bahamut because the reduced damage made it really difficult to take out his wings in time.  Other builds might be a bit better but Aeroga does still work here.

 

Good luck!

[Xylobe]

51 minutes ago, GibiusMaximus said:

But another issue I noticed that I'm not 100% sure on with the Magic build is that MP Absorption & HP Absorption just don't seem to be working for me. I'm about to Max out these Wind Materia as I only had 1 Wind Maxed, and Lightning + Wind Maxed. I think what's happening is that the HP/MP Absorption is tied explicitly to the level of the spell the Matera is capable of casting. So if you put a HP/MP Absorption with a Level 1 Materia, when you go to cast the Level 3 spell, it won't work - but it will work for the Level 1 spell.

 

It sounds like you figured it out yourself, but in case anyone else falls into this trap, this is indeed how it works. Say you have Magic Efficiency connected to a level 3 Fire and Magnify connected to a level 1 Fire: in that case, every level of the spell would have a reduced MP cost, but Fira and Firaga would be missing the Magnify toggle.

[Attenziono]

I've long finished with the game, but since I miss it I've been dabbling with trying to do Bonds of Friendship, but without Zack.

 

So "Bonds of Solitude" Cloud Solo. I'm using the Aeroga build, but decided to swap it for Thundaga. You lose the advantage against Titan and Hueyacoatl, but it's the same for everything else (you gain considerable advantage against the Iron Giant and Alexander. Since the other two are right at the beginning, I believe it's the better choice).

 

Surprisingly, I hit a wall in the most unthinkable of places: Mindflayer.

 

Mindflayer is structured to be resistant to magical attacks and can only be pressured by Synergy Abilities, so the amount of MP and HP healed through -ga magic is substantially reduced, and a couple of wrong moves can put you really low on health. 

 

I don't have HP and MP absorption to the max level sadly, and at this point I should focus on levelling materia, but everything is a long and grueling process, so I'm holding it off for now.

 

But yeah, clearing the whole challenge solo is totally doable. Bahamut is probably a pain, but if you manage to clip his wings at every turn, it can be done. And if you manage not to get Stop'd by Odin, he's doable as well.

 

If anybody is up to the challenge, I believe nobody has yet done this.

 

(It's crazy that I got from "this challenge with Zacl is bullshit hard" to "got to round 8 Solo no problem". If you ever feel discouraged, remember that it's definitely doable)

 

 

Edited March 23 by Attenziono

[GibiusMaximus]

This whole challenge is just aggravating the shit outta me because it's so many rounds and simple mistakes cost you the whole thing. I will complete it today, and then I'll be done with Rebirth forever.

 

In addition, the randomness of the AI can be more or less punishing depending on how the dice rolls. I got into Alexander on my first attempt this morning, but got stomped out of it immediately by him doing one of his area wipe abilities back to back with no opportunity to hold square to get off the floor. A second attempt I got to Alexander and he literally just stunlocked the shit out of me and got all of his pillar attacks, radiant wave etc off without me being able to move period. Complete bullshit.

 

The addition of the Intel Region Bosses feels completely unnecessary here as the summons are challenging enough, it's just more fights for you to potentially make mistakes on that waste your time both if you win and if you lose, and for whatever reason their AI seems way more aggressive than when you fight em outside of the simulator - or am I imagining that Hueyacoatl, Brineborn Demon etc have significantly higher damage output in the sim vs. outside the sim? 

 

Going to take another break for a couple hours and try again later when my kids go to bed cuz can't concentrate worth shit.

Edited March 23 by GibiusMaximus

[GibiusMaximus]

2 hours ago, GibiusMaximus said:

This whole challenge is just aggravating the shit outta me because it's so many rounds and simple mistakes cost you the whole thing. I will complete it today, and then I'll be done with Rebirth forever.

 

In addition, the randomness of the AI can be more or less punishing depending on how the dice rolls. I got into Alexander on my first attempt this morning, but got stomped out of it immediately by him doing one of his area wipe abilities back to back with no opportunity to hold square to get off the floor. A second attempt I got to Alexander and he literally just stunlocked the shit out of me and got all of his pillar attacks, radiant wave etc off without me being able to move period. Complete bullshit.

 

The addition of the Intel Region Bosses feels completely unnecessary here as the summons are challenging enough, it's just more fights for you to potentially make mistakes on that waste your time both if you win and if you lose, and for whatever reason their AI seems way more aggressive than when you fight em outside of the simulator - or am I imagining that Hueyacoatl, Brineborn Demon etc have significantly higher damage output in the sim vs. outside the sim? 

 

Going to take another break for a couple hours and try again later when my kids go to bed cuz can't concentrate worth shit.

I got to Odin for the first time, was a cast away from victory and he Zantetsuken’d me. I’m absolutely just, utterly defeated. 
 

Can Manawall / Barrier etc mitigate that any or is it just designed to be a 1HKO?
 

Man I’m so pissed off, that was totally a win; and it was stolen at the last. The stun locking in this game really is brutal.   🥴

Edited March 24 by GibiusMaximus

[KhalifaReplays]

14 minutes ago, GibiusMaximus said:

I got to Odin for the first time, was a cast away from victory and he Zantetsuken’d me. I’m absolutely just, utterly defeated. 
 

Can Manawall / Barrier etc mitigate that any or is it just designed to be a 1HKO?
 

Man I’m so pissed off, that was totally a win; and it was stolen at the last. The stun locking in this game really is brutal.   🥴

Always a 1HKO but I believe it can be mitigated with Reraise.

[Attenziono]

22 minutes ago, KhalifaReplays said:

Always a 1HKO but I believe it can be mitigated with Reraise.

Yes, Reraise or Reprieve. But if you're using the Aeroga build you won't have Reprieve. I think Phoenix is the best choice as it can bestow Reraise MP free for 2 ATB bars.

 

But if you play well against Odin you shouldn't really need it, as Zantetsuken is called only when you get hit too many times

[GibiusMaximus]

1 hour ago, Attenziono said:

Yes, Reraise or Reprieve. But if you're using the Aeroga build you won't have Reprieve. I think Phoenix is the best choice as it can bestow Reraise MP free for 2 ATB bars.

 

But if you play well against Odin you shouldn't really need it, as Zantetsuken is called only when you get hit too many times

Yeah, pain in the arse. I don’t find this remotely fun anymore, but being this close to completing it all I feel obligated to try complete it. Have put it down for now and won’t touch it for a couple days, just too frustrated. 

[AnthonyAmato]

For anyone struggling on Barret challenge, this helped me get it on my second try. Thanks to @Optinooby

 Hope you have the others uploaded soon 😃

[illumiMatty]

20 hours ago, BusyFace13 said:

Beat the Zack fight using the aero spam earlier today. It's definitely a lot safer than the Darkside unga bunga build.

 

Anyone used the aero build for the Sephiroth fight? I noticed he doesn't have Faith or Haste, and I'm not sure if I wanna give them to Cloud at the expense of some of his other materia.

 

Edit: It's done. Platinum complete after 152 hours. I switched the Enemy Skill materia for Empowerment and didn't bother with Haste.

could u tell me what u did for the Too Be a Hero Bout i just finished the bonds of friendship and idk what to change on cloud 

[PostGameBlues]

Holy shit I just cleared Bouts of Friendship around 16min. Killed Odin as soon as he was about to finish casting Zantetsuken lol. Crit Braver for the win.

 

Somehow Odin on Hard mode just fucks me up, he's got so many moves I never even knew existed. I'd clear the first 9 rounds easily with no deaths then I'd get to Odin and after spatial distortion/temporal imprisonment resolves he just does so many moves I'm not familiar with at all. Cloud would always get killed cause I was panic rolling and had berserk on lmao. Good thing Zack had zero mp cost for those Arise. 

 

I will say though that if you aren't already doing so, abuse the hell out of Counterfire. Titan's stomp, 80% of Phoenix's attacks even Incandescent Burst/pointblank aoe can be Counterfire'd. Bahamut's Thruster Spin and Flame Breath, along with his machine gun attack, all made useless with Counterfire.

 

It was so clutch, hopefully Cloud & Sephiroth is easier, I was basically just using Zack as a buff machine cause the tutorial for Zack sucks. Enemies get killed so easily before I can even get the hang of Quick Charge. Let alone practice High Braver timing. This game really needed a dedicated Training mode like FF16. Sure the combat is simple enough, but some characters like Tifa (with her unfettered fury/trinity strikes), Cait Sith, and Zack really would benefit from it.

Edited March 24 by PostGameBlues

[BusyFace13]

1 hour ago, illumiMatty said:

could u tell me what u did for the Too Be a Hero Bout i just finished the bonds of friendship and idk what to change on cloud 

Hi mate. I experimented with a few things. Having Fire+Elemental definitely helps, potentionally instead of ATB Stagger + Enemy Skill. I also tried replacing HP Up with Time but that just made Cloud way too squishy, even with Sephiroth's magnified Barrier.

 

In the end, the only change I made was adding Empowerment (Faith) instead of Enemy Skill. You lose out on some minor stats boosts, so the fights take a little longer (and the Odin fight is way more scary), but I found the other materia more valuable.

[diogoarez]

Bruh managed to reach Bahamut at 11 minutes... Only for the hitboxes on the wings to cause my loss because somehow hitting a wing directly sometimes doesn't take its HP 

[Attenziono]

29 minutes ago, diogoarez said:

Bruh managed to reach Bahamut at 11 minutes... Only for the hitboxes on the wings to cause my loss because somehow hitting a wing directly sometimes doesn't take its HP 

The wings hitbox is really a BIG issue. I found that the only way to consistently hit them is to aim completely from the side, or to use magic.

 

Thankfully it takes a while for Bahamut to get to Gigadrive and unleash Gigaflare, so some mistakes can be done.

My suggestion? Spend some time Solo against Full Might Bahamut, learn its moves and patterns, it's EXTREMELY useful

[Jitters84]

On 3/23/2024 at 5:46 PM, BusyFace13 said:

Is TP absorb and TP boost HP absorb and HP UP?

 

 

I used the below build that @Surgical_Assault posted earlier on in this thread, and it worked great:

 

Weapon Fafnir
Accessory: Chocobo Mantle , can use Gotter 
Materia Weapon: Fire-MP Absorb,  Fire Swiftcast,  Atb boost,  First Strike
Armor: Fire&Ice MP 50%,  Fire TP Absorb, Fire-Elemental,  Magic Boost TP Boost.

Just spam Fira no need healing.  On turtle use Bonus Rounds spam Fira ez stagger On the last one u can actually heal urself quite a bit when he uses reflec, just use fira he will reflect it and u absorb the damage, its about 3k heal.