This is my 2nd clear of Depth 999 with Ranger. This was day 1 for me, so lots of room for improvement.
For depths 1-998 I just facetanked and bruteforced my way through with Ranger/Etoile, using charge moves like Satellite Cannon in the open field and spamming Launcher CPA. Average time for the climb was about 3min 40sec per depth.
What you see with this Depth 999 run was a gameplan I devised from scratch, using Launcher for the first phase followed by the more agile Rifle for the following phases. It's a slow run because I wanted to play it safe. Ended up getting clipped 2 more times than I wanted to, 1 due to potato brain and 1 due to weapon switching on controller problems, but its still a clear so I'll take it.
If you're looking for a perfect no damage Ranger clear (rifle only btw), this is the video: • Video