Page Forty- King of the Steppe. - FlamesofRebirth
Completely Random Introductory Quote-
Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
King of the Steppe[]
The time to prove your mastery of the FFXIII battle system is at hand. If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. Head back to the Archylte Steppe, Eastern Tors, and prepare for Armageddon.
Long Gui[]
This is far and away the most powerful enemy in the game, defeating it will earn you the "Adamant Will" trophy in recognition of your badassery. It has even more HP than Vercingetorix, and every one of its attacks are utterly devastating. And yet, it can be easily defeated without any level grinding or equipment upgrades, and it won't even require the use of shrouds. I will offer several strategies here, starting with the one I used in this no grinding save file, then moving on to the "holy shit I didn't think it was possible to deal that much damage" strategies for fully upgraded parties.
Vital Statistics[]
| Long Gui | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Strategy 1- The quick and dirty, "Get my trophy and GTFO" method.[]
This is the one I used to beat him without any level grinding or equipment upgrades right after finishing mission 62. Here's the party setup:
| Paradigm Deck- Vanille, Fang, and Snow | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relentless Assault | Ravager | Commando | Ravager | |||||
| Aggression | Ravager | Commando | Commando | |||||
| Devastation | Saboteur | Commando | Commando | |||||
| Devastation | Saboteur | Commando | Commando | |||||
That isn't a mistake, put Devastation in there twice so you can switch between them to fill your ATB bars instantly. Start with Relentless Assault, and as soon as the battle begins summon Hecaton. If you want all the info for the datalog, you can put in Tortoise (Sen Sen Sen) and use that to survive the initial attack while you throw a Librascope before summoning. When he drops, get your long animation shift out of the way and then spam Poison until it sticks, also get Deprotect, Deshell, and Imperil on him before the summon ends. When the rest of the team comes back, use Relentless Assault to finish staggering him and then go to Aggression until his chain gauge maxes out at 999.9%. At this point, go to Devastation and have Vanille cast Death to do more damage than she would with a full bar of Ravager skills. After every other one you can switch to your other Devastation for the free full bar and cast again instantly. At some point before he gets up use that Elixir we found back in Orphan's Cradle to refill your TP, and as soon as Long Gui stands up you can summon again. Reapply Poison and whatever other debuffs you can to fill up the Gestalt gauge, then use Gestalt Mode and milk it by waiting as long as possible before using the 1 point, Up + X move. He died from Poison before the summon ended, but if he survives you will still have 90 seconds after Hecaton leaves before Gui gets up. Between you attacking and Poison still draining, he should be toast. This took me 5:20 out of a target time of 48:22, with level one weapons and no strength boosting accessories or shrouds. Poison kicks ass in this game.
Strategy 2- "Vanille is become Death, the destroyer of worlds."[]
You'll need to max out your Crystarium and upgrade some equipment for this to work. Have fun with that, let me know when you're finished and I'll just load up my old file where it's already done. [Twiddles thumbs while you spend a few hours grinding] Oh, hi, you're back already? You must have used my grinding tips from this page to help speed things along. All right, let's do this. The first time we were able to choose our own party I recommended making it Ladies Night, now it's time to show what my favorite party can really do.
| Paradigm Deck- Vanille, Lightning, and Fang | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Devastation | Saboteur | Commando | Commando | |||||
| Cerberus | Commando | Commando | Commando | |||||
| Smart Bomb | Saboteur | Ravager | Ravager | |||||
| Supernatural | Synergist | Synergist | Ravager | |||||
| Assassination | Saboteur | Saboteur | Ravager | |||||
| Rapid Growth | Synergist | Synergist | Synergist | |||||
Give Vanille a Genji Glove along with 3 maxed out Weirding Glyphs (or Magistral Crests if you have them) and her Belladonna Wand upgraded to tier 3 and max level. Refer to the equipment upgrade page for more info. Fang and Lightning should have whatever weapons give them the highest strength, but having them fully maxed out on Ultimate Weapons isn't required here. Give them your best strength boosting accessories to help out, but Vanille is the main show. My Vanille had 3,257 Magic, Fang had 3,507 Strength, and Light had 3,083 Strength. Start out with Rapid Growth so your partners cast Haste on each other, then summon right away to take out the legs and avoid Ultima. When he goes down, hit him with Libra if you don't have the info yet, then go to Assassination and hit him with Poison until it sticks. Depending on how strong you are, you may want to keep debuffing while your summon goes on, with the stats I listed I could get by with going Gestalt right away. Use the finishing move to get your party back ASAP, between you and Light you need Deprotect, Deshell, and most importantly
Imperil. By the way, if you have maxed out Ultimate Weapons on everyone you can wait and cast Poison now while Light puts up the rest, it will save you a few seconds if you're going for the lowest possible time (still do the paradigm shift before dismissing your summon). With all the statuses up, get into Supernatural and cast Bravera on your teammates and Faithra on yourself while Light gives you Haste and everyone Enfire. With this done, go to Smart Bomb and cast Death while the other two run up the chain. Get into Cerberus between them finishing their attacks and Death landing for maximum damage. Quickly get back into Smart Bomb and repeat, you need to get him staggered and up to 999.9%. Now when you use Death and get into Cerberus you should hit the damage cap- 999,999! That's only 1 HP short of a million. Wow. As soon as the damage comes up, go to Devastation and cast again, and again switch to Cerberus for maximum damage. Repeat until it dies.
With this plan, I was able to finish in one stagger with a time of 1:44. I did it again later with all three ladies absolutely maxed out- Vanille at 3,407 Magic, Light with 3,623 Strength (4 Kaiser Knuckles), and Fang with 3,867 strength (3 Knuckles and a Genji Glove). My best run was 1:27, a perfect one might shave about 3 or 4 seconds off of this.
Strategy 3- "Blitzkrieg Bop"[]
This one is for all of you Sazh fans out there. I told you all the way back on page one that his Blitz has the potential to be the most devastating attack in the game, now it's time to prove it. Sazh vs. Vanille- who’s the strongest?
| Paradigm Deck- Sazh, Snow, and Fang | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cerberus | Commando | Commando | Commando | |||||
| Cerberus | Commando | Commando | Commando | |||||
| Tri-Disaster | Ravager | Ravager | Ravager | |||||
| Malevolence | Ravager | Ravager | Synergist | |||||
| Espionage | Synergist | Saboteur | Saboteur | |||||
| Superiority | Saboteur | Synergist | Synergist | |||||
You will need to have all three party members loaded for bear if you want to pull this off. I gave Sazh a fully upgraded tier 3 Pleiades, Snow the maxed out ultimate form of the Power Circle, and Fang the powered up Dragoon Lance. All three of them should have 3 maxed out Kaiser Knuckles and a Genji Glove for an extra boost, or if you have more Knuckles give them to Sazh and Snow in place of the Genji Gloves.
If you don't have a ton of firepower and do everything smoothly you will run out of time and the Gui will stand up on you. Or you may have to milk Poison a little bit at the beginning, which wastes time if you're going for a speed run. Anyway, start with Superiority and summon right away, your teammates should have time to Haste each other first. When the Gui drops, spam Poison before going to Espionage and then using Gestalt and the finishing move as quickly as possible to get Brynhildr out of the way. If the first round of Poisons all miss, recasting it will really drag down your time, so retry if that bothers you. With the rest of the party back, give everyone Enfire (and Sazh Haste along with it), then go to Malevolence to build the chain while Fang passes out Bravera to everyone. You should use Cold Blooded twice at this time for maximum chain building, after the second one you will need to wait a second or two for Fang to finish buffing herself before going to Cerberus. Use a full bar of 3 Blitzes to take off some damage before staggering him, when the animation on the third one starts get into Tri-Disaster to chain him all the way up to 999.9%. Now use Cerberus to Blitz like crazy, every other time you use a full bar you should switch to your other Cerberus paradigm as soon as the animation starts on the second Blitz. This will give you a full bar instantly to start your next chain. This is very important so I'll repeat it- that's 5 Blitzes, then a paradigm shift during the animation of the fifth one to get maximum speed and win the race. This is because your teammates will be finished with their attacks at this time and you don't want them standing around doing nothing during your last Blitz. When you land the killing blow, the Gui will most likely be starting to stand up.
I was averaging about 47,500 damage per bullet from Sazh, so by my calculations 47,500 per bullet x 8 bullets per Blitz x 3 Blitzes per ATB bar = 1,140,000 damage per ATB bar. The only way you can beat that is with Highwind, but it’s not repeatable.
Using this setup, I got a time of 1:49 seconds with my best run. My strength stats were 3050 (Sazh), 3325 (Snow), and 3867 (Fang). I also tried again giving Snow a fully upgraded tier 3 version of the Sacrificial Circle, but the extra 95 strength only saved me 2 seconds, it took 1:47. I only tried this a couple of times because it's obviously not going to beat the time for the other method, I don't think it would be possible to shave much more than 5 seconds off of my time even with a perfect run. The main problem is that although Sazh and Vanille can both deal 1,000,000 damage per ATB bar, Sazh doesn’t have Bravera and so you need to rely on the AI teammates to cast it for you. They will always cast other unnecessary buffs first, wasting your time. You also need to cast Poison during the summon because you don’t have the Improved Debuffing with the old man. Final verdict- Vanille > Sazh, but not by much.
I didn't put down a strategy for killing him without summoning, because there's absolutely no point. With the Adamantoises, you need to do it so you can farm them for Platinum Ingots/ Trapezohedrons/ CP efficiently, but you only need to kill this thing once for the trophy. If you do try to fight it more fairly, you have to use Tortoise to survive almost any attack he does, but you can use Tri-Disaster to stagger the legs quickly, and Highwind to knock them out when about 1/4 of their HP are gone. Because you need healing/ damage reducing paradigms, you will have to knock it down twice to finish it this way.
Shaolong Gui[]
If you're trying to upgrade your equipment to get the Treasure Hunter trophy, you're going to want to fight a few of these to try to get Dark Matters. It's a 5% rare drop, so make sure you get 5 stars and equip a Connoisseur's Catalog to make the most of each try. These are both harder than their big brothers (because you can't knock them down) and easier (since they're not as strong), but they are definitely easier to farm. There is one on the hill right above the save point in Eastern Tors, and a group of 3 in between the two Long Guis. Since you won't need TP, you can kill all four of these quickly (probably in less than 10 minutes at max levels) and running back and forth between the two spots will cause them to respawn.
Vital Statistics[]
| Shaolong Gui | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Strategy 1- Low Level, healing is for wusses strategy[]
I don't know why you would want to do this without grinding first, since the only reason to fight them is for Dark Matter, which you only need for upgrading all your equipment, which you won't have the money to do until after you've done a lot of grinding. But since this is the only enemy in the game I haven't fought in this no-grinding game, I figured I'd give it a shot. I tried grinding this out with a more traditional party setup including a mage for healing, but it took about 6 or 7 tries and over 15 minutes in the winning battle. So I was like, "screw that, I can't recommend this strategy." Instead, I decided to take my own advice from all the way back on the Intro page and go with all out offense.
| Paradigm Deck- Fang, Sazh, and Snow | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Devastation | Saboteur | Commando | Commando | |||||
| Devastation | Saboteur | Commando | Commando | |||||
| Smart Bomb | Saboteur | Ravager | Ravager | |||||
| Premeditation | Saboteur | Synergist | Sentinel | |||||
| Espionage | Sabotuer | Synergist | Sabotuer | |||||
| Tortoise | Sentinel | Sentinel | Sentinel | |||||
With no grinding, I was very close to being finished with the three primary roles for everybody. If you have a couple CP to spare, get Snow Curse and use Espionage, otherwise you'll want Premeditation instead. With un-upgraded level 1 weapons all around, you're going to need two staggers to take down all those HP, so make sure you have a full TP bar in case you need to Renew twice. Luck will be a factor here, but you'll be staggering him very quickly and with Curse and Daze you will hopefully be able to delay and cancel most of his attacks. Give everyone a General/ Black Belt, Witch/ Rune Bracelet, and Clay Ring to help reduce damage. Snow and Sazh can take a Genji Glove, and give Fang whatever you want in the fourth slot. You should have a few Foul Liquids around in case you get stuck with Daze, but hopefully that won't happen here. Make sure Espionage is set as your default paradigm, and the preparations are complete. This took me three tries to get the plan ironed out and get the breaks to go my way, it was a hell of a lot easier than trying to grind it out the other way.
When the battle starts, manually select three Slows as quickly as you can, then fire them away and get into Tortoise to take Quake. When the damage hits, quickly get back into Espionage and spam Slow until it sticks, Snow will be hitting with Curse at this time. When you see Shaolong Gui about to stomp, go back to Tortoise to take the hit and
then get back to debuffing. After Slow hits, you can Auto Battle to get Imperil, Deprotect, and Deshell. With all of those (and Curse) up, manually use a full bar of Daze until it hits. Let Sazh fully buff you up while the enemy is stunned, but if his chain gauge falls too low hit him with Daze again to bump it back up. Make sure you use Libra at this point so you get Enfire. When you have everything Sazh can give you, use Smart Bomb and keep manually spamming Daze while you stagger him and run him all the way up to about 850-900%. You will most likely see Ultima during this phase, if you get very lucky you will stagger him at the perfect time and cancel it, otherwise use Tortoise as always to take the damage, and you'll probably need to Renew after this one. When you get the chain up high enough, go to Devastation and keep spamming Daze. Not only will this help keep him from attacking, when you attack a Dazed enemy it does double damage. You should have no problem cancelling the stomps, but you may get hit with Ultima or Bay. Bay is the worst one- it can debuff you and inflict Daze, along with massive damage. You can cancel this, just hope your Commandos are starting their attack when he tries to use it. You need to make it all the way through the stagger without going into Tortoise more than once or maybe twice, this will allow you to take out about 60% of his HP. I put two Devastations in there so you can switch after every other full ATB bar to speed things up. After the first stagger, get back into Smart Bomb and as always spam Daze to try to stagger him again before he can attack you, if he does Tortoise and Renew if you need to, I only had to use one but everything went right for me in that battle. Below half HP, he will start spamming Ultima, so you really need to keep him Dazed and hit as quickly as you can, because you'll need to Tortoise a couple of times during this stagger and you'll need a Renew. Get back on offense ASAP and you'll have time to kill him off before the gauge depletes. It took me 3:38 out of a target time of 23:51, and I snagged a Dark Matter.
Strategy 2- Maxed Out[]
This isn't very tough at all if you know what you're doing. The setup is almost identical to the low level method, there's just some minor tweaks. Use the same damage reducing equipment that I mentioned before.
| Paradigm Deck- Fang, Sazh, and Snow | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Devastation | Commando | Commando | Saboteur | |||||
| Devastation | Commando | Commando | Saboteur | |||||
| Smart Bomb | Saboteur | Ravager | Ravager | |||||
| Recuperation | Synergist | Synergist | Medic | |||||
| Espionage | Sabotuer | Synergist | Sabotuer | |||||
| Tortoise | Sentinel | Sentinel | Sentinel | |||||
Start out with Espionage and manually spam Slow until it hits, then Auto Battle until you get Deprotect, Deshell, Imperil, and Curse. At this point you need to hit him with Daze and then get into Recuperation so Snow heals you while Sazh finishes buffing. You should manually cast Bravera on Fang and Sazh, and Faithra on Snow, then get into Smart Bomb. You should just spam Daze continuously until you get him staggered, then get into Devastation and Snow will take over Daze duty while you attack with Fang. You will be getting 600,000 per hit if Daze is on, so this won't take very long. The only thing that can throw a monkey wrench into the plan is Bay, if you get hit with that you will have to use Foul Liquid and maybe a Renew to recover. If Bay or Ultima gets through, you still need to use Tortoise to guarantee survival, hopefully you will interrupt him every time he tries one of them. I didn't have an Ultimate Weapon for Sazh yet, but I was still finishing the battles in the 1:30's as long as I didn't get Dazed by Bay. You should be able to pick up as many Dark Matters as you will ever need in less than an hour.
"Didn't even break a sweat!" - Fang[]
That's all for battles, move on to the next page to put the finishing touches on the game.