Neochu (Final Fantasy XIII)

The Neochu is a Mark in Final Fantasy XIII fought in two separate missions: Mission 45 and Mission 55. Like its weaker variant, the Ochu, the Neochu is not fought on its own, as it can spawn four to five Picochus to fight alongside it when its health reaches certain thresholds.

Neochus resemble Ochu, but are brown instead of green. Fighting Neochus is optional and quite difficult, but the rewards for completing the missions are worth the effort: Mission 55 gives a Growth Egg that doubles CP gained from battles, while Mission 45 rewards the party with Hunter's Friend that casts Libra on defeated enemies.

Battle
Neochu are immune to preemptive strikes, rendering Deceptisol useless. They are slow but use strong attacks, some of which also inflict status ailments. They have four attacks:


 * Screech deals high damage to the party and removes four buffs.
 * Seed Dispersion summons Picochus.
 * Pollen fully heals any Picochus, grants them Bravery and Haste, removes buffs from the party and inflicts Poison, Deprotect, Deshell, Imperil, and Curse.
 * A basic physical attack dealing moderate damage and knocking its target into the air.

Strategy
The battle is easier if all characters have over 10,000 health. The player should use all the physical defense accessories and Earth-resistance accessories on the Sentinel. Aegisol and Fortisol are also helpful.

Neochus are immune to preemptive attacks. A Sentinel is nearly essential at lower levels as they will reduce damage to the entire party. A Medic or two is also essential. Recommended Paradigms include Cerberus (COM/COM/COM), Consolidation (SEN/SEN/MED), Delta Attack (COM/SEN/RAV), Solidarity (COM/SEN/MED), Attrition (SAB/SEN/MED), and Strategic Warfare (COM/SEN/SYN).

The player should start off in Cerberus and attack the Neochu until the party needs healing, then change to a Paradigm with a MED or two depending on how much healing is needed. SENs reduce the damage to the entire party as long as they are in that role. When the Neochu uses Screech, the player should immediately swap to Consolidation, and once the healing is complete, switch back to Cerberus. When the Neochu uses Pollen, one should swap to Strategic Warfare or any Paradigm with a MED to remove the status effects and re-buff the party. Haste, Protect, Bravery, and Faith are the buffs the party should keep up, then proceed to pummel the Neochu with an offensive Paradigm.

When the Neochu reaches half health, it will use Seed Dispersion to summon four or five Picochus. It is best to have a SEN and MED out when this happens so they all focus on the SEN while the MED keeps the party alive and the third member attacks them. Picochus deal a lot of damage in a short time, especially if they have been buffed by the Neochu's Pollen. When it is safe to swap Paradigms, the player should swap to Delta Attack and focus on taking one Picochu out at a time, switching back if anyone needs healing. The Neochu will buff its minions with Haste and Bravery as well as fully healing them when it uses Pollen. If it uses Screech while the party is dealing with the Picochus, the player should swap to Consolidation and spam Potions while the MED heals the party until they are ready to change back. Area of effect damage is advisable when there are three or four Picochus, but single attacks are advisable to pick off any with low health. If a Picochu is at low health, it will use Plead on the Neochu which provokes the Neochu to use Pollen, although this rarely works.

Once the Picochus are dealt with, the party should heal as necessary, cast re-buffs and remove ailments as necessary, then swap back to Cerberus. Neochu uses Seed Dispersion again at quarter health. If things get bad, the party can use a summon to fully restore the party, and it will add some extra damage to the enemies, especially useful against the Picochus.

Once the Neochu is down, if there are still any Picochus left, the party can use Dispelga to remove any buffs they have, then use Delta Attack or Cerberus to finish them off. Quake is also effective at dispatching them at low health.

Death Strategy
Neochu is susceptible to Vanille's Death attack. The player should have Vanille as the Saboteur/Medic, Fang or Snow as the Sentinel, and Hope as the Medic/Synergist. Player should set the Paradigm to Attrition (SAB/MED/SEN), Combat Clinic (MED/MED/SEN), Premeditation (SAB/SYN/SEN), Protection (MED/SYN/SEN), and Entourage (RAV/MED/SEN) or Diversity (RAV/MED/COM) and follow any of the above recommended defensive techniques to ward away damage and status ailments. Hope should cast Haste on the entire party, but specifically Vanille. Then, as the Neochu wails away at the Sentinel, Vanille can repeatedly cast Death, and switch to Combat Clinic when hit by Screech and Pollen. To speed things up, the player can switch over to Attrition once a few status ailments have been removed. Hope will cast Esuna as Vanille casts Death. Eventually the Neochu will succumb to the spell. If there are Picochus left the party can switch to Entourage and Diversity to finish them off.

The battle can last an undetermined amount of time, anywhere from 20 seconds to 30 minutes. Death works like a roulette wheel. The possibility of it working on the Neochu is reset each time it is used, so the party might be in the fray for a good 20 minutes. It is a good idea to restart the battle when the Neochu summons Picochus at half its base health, since things can quickly become complicated.

For Mission 55, the player can summon Hecatoncheir, getting a reasonable Gestalt bar and then go into Gestalt mode. The Neochu and Picochus are susceptible to Earth damage, so the player can take a good amount of HP off the Picochus, and if one is lucky, killing most of them. Then the player can go into Diversity to pick off the last of the Picochus, and then to Attrition to spam Death.

Instant Chain Strategy
Neochu can be defeated with the Random: Instant Chain synthesized ability, as it is quicker than using Death. Instant Chain has a small chance of filling the target's chain gauge immediately, and when this happens, one is able to kill Neochu quickly because its stagger threshold is so high. Depending on luck, it might take a while, but should be less than ten minutes.

To get Random: Instant Chain, a character must equip any two or three following items:
 * Weapons
 * Hauteclaire
 * Durandal
 * Lionheart
 * Ultima Weapon
 * Rigels
 * Polaris Specials
 * Procyons
 * Betelgeuse Customs
 * Unsetting Sun
 * Midnight Sun
 * Alicanto
 * Caladrius
 * Heavenly Axis
 * Abraxas
 * Taming Pole
 * Venus Gospel
 * Accessories
 * Survivalist Catalog
 * Hunter's Friend
 * Speed Sash
 * Energy Sash
 * Champion's Badge

Good characters to use as party leader are Lightning or Sazh, if they have learned their Full ATB Skills. Sazh's Full ATB Skill hits 17 times, and Lightning's hits 11, and each hit has a chance of activating Random: Instant Chain.

Related Enemies

 * Ochu
 * Microchu
 * Picochu