Check description for info.
Battle Conditions:
- Limited Crystarium Use
- No Equipment Upgrade
- No Shrouds
- No Auto-Battle
- Starting Weapons Only (Vega/Binding/Bladed)
- Doctor's Code Accessory Only
- Sub-4:00 Battle Duration (3:06)
Full Playlist:
• FFXIII - Low Developme...
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=Recommended Equipment=
Sazh: Vega/Procyons, Doctor's Code, Str+
Vanille: Belladonna Wand, Mag+
Fang: Pandoran Spear, Str+
=Useful Abilities=
(ability) - Not activated in this battle
Sazh:
COM: Blitz, Jeopardize, Adrenaline, (Accessory)
RAV: Tier 1 Spells, Flame/Sparkstrike, Overwhelm, Renew, (Fearsiphon)
SYN: Bravery, Faith, Vigilance, Haste, En-Element, (ATB Level)
Vanille:
RAV: Tier 1 Spells, Tier 2 Spells, Overwhelm, (Fearsiphon)
SAB: Deprotect, Imperil, Dispel, Jinx
MED: Cure, Cura, Curasa, ATB Level, (Raise, Curaja, Accessory)
Fang:
COM: Attack, Scourge, Smite, Adrenaline, Faultsiphon, (Jeopardize, ATB Level)
SEN: Challenge, Mediguard, Fringeward, Deathward, (Accessory)
SAB: Slow, Dispel, (Deprotect, Jinx)
RAV: Fire, Thunder
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=Start of Battle=
- Use Libra so the Saboteurs don't waste their first turn figuring out which debuffs Dahaka is susceptible to. Those would be Deprotect and Imperil from Vanille, and Slow from Fang. Fang can learn Deprotect at Stage 8, but since Vanille already has access, there's no rush to have Fang learn it too.
- Have Sazh stick Vigilance and Haste first to make the most of the first turns of this battle. Dahaka's claw attack, in particular, has a high chance to interrupt the party which is why you'd want Vigilance up asap.
- Dahaka has a high chance to use Foul Utterance on its 3rd-4th turn which, ideally, Fang would tank. So it would be a good idea to apply Fang's buffs last since Foul Utterance can Dispel up to 3 buffs from the party member it hits. In this attempt, however, I got lucky since Fang managed to stick Slow on the first string, which is very veeery rare. Interestingly, I've noticed that the chances of Dahaka using Foul Utterance, before its first Fulminous Firestorm, reduces whenever Slow is applied.
=Notes=
- Imperil makes Dahaka weak to all elements in its first/normal form, so bestowing the party with En-Elements will double the damage dealt, in addition to making it faster to raise the Chain Gauge.
- It's far more ideal to not have Dahaka do Fulminous Firestorm, Bonechilling Breaker, or Diluvial Plague at all by keeping it Staggered as much as possible. Good thing that with the right ingredients, i.e. party, this would be easy to pull off. The only problem you may come across, though, is if Slow or Imperil falls off while Dahaka is not Staggered. You'll want to keep Slow up to lengthen the time before Dahaka uses those devastating moves, and Imperil to speed up chain building. Deprotect, on the other hand, you can wait until after Stagger to re/apply.
- That said, if you see Slow or Imperil fall off mid-Stagger, switch back to Espionage (SYN/SAB/SAB). Don't worry about it halting your damage output because reapplying debuffs is more important for the battle to go smoothly. It's also much easier to reapply debuffs when an enemy is Staggered, so you most likely won't stay in this paradigm for long anyway. In the mean time, take this chance to have Sazh refresh Vigilance and Haste on at least one party member since these two buffs last for only 90s, compared to Bravery/Faith's 150s and En-Element's 180s.
- While activating Fang's Ravager Role isn't exactly mandatory, it's extremely useful in not just this fight, but in any subsequent fights. Just because it's her Secondary Role doesn't mean she's necessarily bad at it. Make sure to activate both Fire and Thunder to have spells to alternate, thereby taking advantage of Chain bonus modifiers. In a nutshells, alternating commands (Fire/Thunder/Fire/Thunder) builds the Chain gauge faster than using a string of the same command (Fire/Fire/Fire/Fire)
- If Dahaka manages to pull off Diluvial Plague, the battle may look like a lost cause with all those Status Ailments. There is, however, a simple solution to this: Dispelga. It resets all buffs and debuffs in the battlefield and costs only 1 TP. All characters learn this early on in Stage 8. Seeing what Dahaka can do, now we know why.
- The reason why both Tier 1 and 2 of Vanille's RAV spells are useful is because Tier 1 is best used against a non-Staggered oppenent while Tier 2 (-ra spells) is best against a Staggered opponent when chain building. Aside from being an AoE attack, which is irrelevant to this fight anyway, Tier 2 spells adds bonus Chain when used on an enemy that is Staggered. For specific numbers, ignoring resistances and vulnerabilities, spells add:
* Tier 1 (1 ATB): 10
* Tier 2 (2 ATB, non-Staggered): 18
* Tier 2 (2 ATB, Staggered): 25
An exception is Aerora (3 ATB) which adds:
* Non-Staggered: 24
* Staggered: 33