Hi all...long time, no visit. Actually I haven't even played for a long while. Jumped back in with Astrune Academy and enjoyed it. Completed with no problems. Thought to try Alter Age even though the gimmick sounded lame...and it kinda is...but on to the point of this post:
In the LVL 999 dungeon, the post-game uber-bosses, the old folks from the Rarities Shop, Ojei & Margret, are a PITA on Very Hard difficulty. I can barely stay alive for more than a few turns. Sometimes they even smite the whole party immediately. When I can get a few hits in, the damage is minimal. So if anyone has managed to smack the dentures out of these two please share your strategy! Even though I'm as old as they are, I still want to send them to a care home!
FYI, I've got maxed stats, maxed weapons and armor, all summoners, all passives maxed, the Secret Room maxed, and I think I have all the one-off strengthen items that can be purchased with gold and Relic coins.
I've even done a second playthrough with SP game thing...it doesn't seem to help even with damage boosts purchased with the bonus points.
TIA!
[center][i]Be silly. Be honest. Be kind.[/i][/center]
I haven't played the game yet (PC-only player), so this is merely speculation:
Usually, in Exe Create games that feature a really hard optional boss on the highest difficulty setting (like in Ruinverse), it's possible to obtain/buy (in the in-game's premium shop) items that make the enemy "flinch" (stun - prevents one action). Since the aforementioned bosses usually get two actions per turn, the player is totally expected to use the flinch-inducing items during these fights. These items are very powerful, which is why the games only make a few of them available for free (e.g. in treasure chests) over the course of a normal playthrough, so it's advised to save these items until the end.
Of course, this is completely useless advice if there aren't any flinch-inducing items in this game. Maybe the developers deliberately didn't include them this time so that the player can't "cheese" the strongest optional boss.
It sounds like your preparations are flawless. Maybe your party could survive by applying/sustaining buffs and enemy debuffs all the time, which is usually a prerequisite to win these battles. Also, it might be worth a try to inflict (other) status conditions (once). It's harder to inflict status conditions on boss monsters, and they recover from them very quickly, but it should be possible to inflict most status conditions once, and achieving that might provide you with the breathing room you need to have a fighting chance. Once again, though, it's just speculation based on past experiences.
If all of this doesn't help, wait until next year until I've played through the game on PC - I might come up with something more useful then.
Thanks for the tips, Prajna! Although there are no "Flinch" items or skills, your advice made me think on other status abnormalities.
There is a Premium weapon that lets you attack without waking the enemies from "Sleep". There's also a battle formation that nullifies all damage once, allowing you to survive long enough to try inflicting "Sleep".
It took a few tries to get them both down for a nap, but once down you can hit them with speed down and turn delay skills to get in attacks before the "Sleep" wears off.
The old folks are successfully off to the care home!
Oh, and just a warning about not reading full descriptions.... that bonus point damage boost you can buy for the SP game? Well, apparently not only does your party do 50% more damage, but so do the enemies. :facepalm:
Thanks again!
[center][i]Be silly. Be honest. Be kind.[/i][/center]
It's great to hear that you turned my food for thought into a winning strategy.
A weapon that can hit sleeping enemies without waking them up? That must be a first for an Exe Create game. They reuse many resources, but their games always feature a sufficient number of new elements to keep things fresh. Usually, the best premium weapon offers the highest damage multiplier, which makes it a safe choice, but it's never a bad idea to evaluate all other options.
Effects that increase the damage output of all units are great when you're sure that you can kill the enemy first, but they're normally not a great choice against dangerous foes in battles of attrition in which you need to survive long enough.
Just got done with this myself, it felt easier than Sword of Elpisia's superboss in hindsight. Although I didn't play on SP New Game. There's 12 Forging Tickets,
+1 via all 16 rare articles/one-of-a-kind items
+1 via Lv. 100 Aster Pass
10 via Premium Pass = Lv. 10 +1, Lv. 30 +2, Lv. 70 +2, Lv. 90 +2, Lv. 100 +3
and I did not get lucky with the Ultra Rare Sun and Moon Staff (STR & INT +32%. Enemies do not wake up from Sleep caused by allies, even from attacks.) I did get the Rare Oriens Sword (STR & INT +5%. Using the Alter command speeds up action order of 1 ally, and immediately allows for action.) and won with it, but I probably could've won without it.
I did have to spend $19.99 on 2600 Brave Stones because by the time I was done, I only had enough for 5/5 Physical Damage +20% (350x5) and 1/5 Magic Damage +20% (350). So I maxed out magic damage (350x4), then bought the Premium Pass (800) and The Twisted Key (500), but I didn't need their summons.
Sword Girl Summoner = [Void] Physical attack of 1200 power to all enemies. Power + triggered user's Lv. x3. (Max. +2500) Inflict damage hits go up by x2%. [Sword of Elpisia's Alice]
Evil Lord Summoner = [Void] Magic attack of 1000 power to all enemies. Power + triggered user's Lv. x3. (Max. +2500) Braver Hearts increase by 5 for all after trigger. [Wizards of Brandel's Mark]
In the Lv. 600 Orchard of Enticement and Area 999, you can acquire Heavenly weapons that function like Isekai Rondo's Abyssus weapons (increased skill power based on usage), so any of the damage increase forged weapons are theoretically inferior.
In Isekai Rondo, Abyssus weapons were (Skill Power + [Uses x 2]) x Hits, scaling multi-hits like Shaw's Picorn Bomb (24x30 with 48 uses = 120x30), Irminzur (66x10 with 86 uses = 238x10), and Viola's Heroika Braver (66x12 with 200 uses = 466x112) exponentially.
In Alter Age, Heavenly weapons roughly seem like (Skill Power x Hits) + [Uses x 1.5], for a more balanced flat increase across every skill. Since Arga's All or Nothing (1300 with 221 uses = 1631) increases the final skill power by +0.25x per Prickly'd enemy, this 1 hit skill ends up getting the most mileage. Assuming you have the 5~6/10 Braver Hearts though, Sedecim Slash (75x16 with 38 uses = 78x16) procs Octo Slash (80x8 with 109 uses = 100x8) which procs Quatro Slash (55x4 with 131 uses = 99x4) for beastly single-target damage, hit count, and fills the Rush Gauge quickly once Ojei's down.
Not only can you grind Area 999's C-Dragon on Easy ~ Hard for 10 Mighty/Perfect Seeds to max out stats, you can composte them to 13 Phantom Stars (x 9 runs = 117) to max out skills, and then convert 108 of them into 40 Relic Coins. Or sell them for 700k gold (x 9 runs = 6.3 million) to afford Elixir Bottles from City of Izora's Rishon Eburam.
As for my set up, it boiled down to giving myself as many turns as possible via Alter, which is now on a 5 turn cooldown and doing it basically de/buffs fully, and using Elixirs to sustain myself while also lowering the cooldown.
[Regular] Leave It to Me! - Using Alter command, activating this Battle Array speeds up the action order for Lillieka and immediately sets for possible action.
[Altered] I Said Leave It to Me! - Using Alter command, activating this Battle Array speeds up the action order for Elsie and immediately sets for possible action. [Probably not optimal.]
Arga = Lv. 0 Oriens Sword [With this, there's a 50% chance of the above two arrays accelerating both of the other 2 party members, but I had 471 uses on All for Nothing and should've done Heavenly Swords.], Lv. 60 Hot Water Pajamas (Skill rebound time -20%.), Change Belt (Cool Time after Ater is reduces by 1 turn. Grants Action Speed Up when Altering to Preteen. Grants Attack Up when Altering to Grownup.), Ribbon of Bonding (Attack Down to all enemies when using Alter. 2 or more equipped grants Defense Down. 3 or more equipped grants Action Speed down.) [This accessory needs to be equipped on different characters to apply the enhanced effect, unlike the Change Belt or Heart & Thumb Earrings which can be stacked on the same person.]
Elsie = Lv. 0 Heavenly Staff, Lv. 0 Heavenly Jacket (VIT & MND +5%. After Alter Rush is activated, Rush Gauge remains at 50%.) [Acquired in an Area 999 chest.], Change Belt, Ribbon of Bonding
Lillieka = Lv. 0 Heavenly Scythe, Lv. 43 Hot Water Pajamas, Change Belt, Ribbon of Bonding
Elixir Vial - Restores 1 ally's HP & MP by 70%. Does not use up turn, allows for another action. [300,000 gold x 20 quantity at City of Izora's Rishon Eburam, restocks. Or, 10 Relic Coins. This reduces Alter cooldown.]
Elixir Bottle - Restores all allies' HP & MP by 70%. Does not use up turn, allows for another action. [1,500,000 gold x 20 quantity at City of Izora's Rishon Eburam. Probably restocks. This also reduces Alter cooldown.]
Circulated Statue of Old (200 Relic Coins, permanent Alter Cooldown -2) = Town of Ramel, Coin Exchange (W) / Ridge Down, Coin Exchange (E) / City of Izora, Coin Exchange, SE
Timber Fay Summon - [Timber] Down to all enemies' action speed. Up to all allies' action speed. It also immediately sets for possible action. [Story unlock.]
If using the "I Said Leave It to Me!" array, you want to start as Grownup Arga. Initial turn order is always Arga > Elsie > Lillieka, so altering lets Elsie act again, assuming she survives the initial onslaught. I had to revive initially, but then set up Prickly to buff All for Nothing damage & Drenched for buffed critical rate/damage and proceed to deplete them with AoEs. Both Ojei & Margret are resistant to Enraged, so Lillieka can turn delay them with Like a red flame!/Flare Rampage.
"[Altered] Elemental - Activating this Battle Array grants Null effect on damage once to all allies." is probably optimal though, as starting in this array (Preteen Arga) lets you tank the initial onslaught. Ojei and Margret will outspeed your party and tend to use multi-hit attacks, but Ojei has a nasty 78k damage single-hit attack you'd want to avoid.
At the very least, I wouldn't consider using "[Altered] Foresight - Activating this Battle Array increases Arga's Braver Hearts by 3. Cool Time for the activated Alter reduces by 3." If you start in this Array (Preteen Arga), there's no CD reduction if you Alter. If you Alter to it from Grownup Arga, then it applies. There's an item to max out your Braver Hearts though, and All for Nothing AoE damage doesn't need that much BH unlike Sedecim Slash.
One more minor trick. This game (a first one from Exe-Create, AFAIK) has two interesting healing items which can be used without wasting a turn: Elixir Vial and Elixir Bottle. Both are quite rare, but one can be bought for Relic Coins, and both sometimes can be found in the Rarities Shop.
"In the Lv. 600 Orchard of Enticement and Area 999, you can acquire Heavenly weapons"
In particular, Arga's Heavenly Swords and Elsie's Heavenly Staff are obtained in chests in Lv. 600 Orchard of Enitcement, while Lillieka's Heavenly Scythe and the Heavenly Jacket are obtained in chests in Area 999. I don't have my save data anymore for further instructions than that, but with the items to reveal hidden passages and chest count per area, it should be straight forward.
Those areas are all post-game, so according to my notes,
After the event introduction, dungeons for high levels with various additional element can be experienced. Additional Elements: High level dungeons (for Lv. 200-999) have been unlocked at the Tegaraia Society first floor counter.
The "Sound Test" and "Gold>Relic Coin Exchange" characters have appeared in the City of Izora. Relic Coin Exchange is east near Relic Exchange, 6.4 mil = 40. Sound Test rabbit is right above.
New quests! The Evil Lord's Labyrinth (for Lv. 400 and up), which can be entered by purchasing Twisted Key at the Shop, appeared in the southwest of Izora.
On Very Hard, I found the RAGE title match quest and Lv. 600 & 800 bosses pretty tough, so I skipped them to loot the chests and level grind in the high-level dungeons before backtracking for them (get uses on Arga's All or Nothing). Even at Lv. 999 (~4000 stats for Elsie/Lillieka, ~6200 on Arga because I gave him all my stat boosters), C-Dragon on Very Hard was impossible so I needed to grind him on a lower difficulty first to stat cap to honestly beat him and eventually Ojei & Margaret.
Unlike other Exe-Create games (Sword of Elpisia, Isekai Rondo, Chroma Quarternion, Journey to Kreisia, and I think Miden's Tower) where you can access the secret arena's stat booster grind pretty early in post-game (Lv. 500~600), Alter Age gates it very late in post-game to C-Dragon in Area 999, so I couldn't easily steam roll them with stats otherwise.
I think the console port of Astrune Academy's identical mission system was 12x more generous (60/120/240) than mobile Alter Age's (5/10/20) and it was the only game where I emptied out the gacha box naturally, so for any future console players, acquiring the Sun and Moon Staff to attack while a boss is asleep should be trivial.
