Useful tips for defeating Mueller on Nightmare Mode.

[xXiaoDrag0n]

Hey there fellow Nightmare players out there (if there are still any).
I guessed you already know that defeating Mueller on Nightmare mode sounds impossible and insane, but it's doable if you follow Hunter Rassius guide here http://steamcommunity.com/app/251290/discussions/0/485622866438759464/?ctp=2

But I have to say this. The guide WILL NOT bring you to victory UNLESS you have this four key factors in you. DETERMINATION, ADAPTABILITY, PERSEVERANCE, AND NO MASOCHISM.

Apart from that, I would like to give you some helpful tips that may help you, especially for the "double turn" thing.

If you can't keep up with knowing when your "double turn" would be, the Craft Menu should able to help you with that provided if you kept up with Clocking Down Mueller and Clocking Up Joshua.

Move the highlighted bar over to True Dual Strike followed by True Cloak and Dagger.

If you are able to get another turn with True Cloak and Dagger but not on True Dual Strike, your next turn would most probably be a double turn.
If you are able to get another turn with both True Cloak and Dagger and True Dual Strike, you are on your double turn, which also means that Mueller's finishing move Blade Dancer is round the corner as well.

It's obvious that every action you made has a delay in it, but knowing how long exactly those delay are is useful as you could potentially squeeze in a "double turn" to your 2nd turn or bring forward your double turn if you have again, Clock Up and Clock Down on.
I will list in down the length of delays for every common action from the longest to shortest in my own perspective, it's not 100% accurate, so don't screw me over if it's wrong.

Longest to shortest:
Clock Up
Clock Down
True Dual Strike
True Cloak and Dagger
Teara
Sylphen Guard
Tear
Items

Tear/Sylphen Guard, and Items are useful to hijack bonuses from Mueller if you can't do it with True Dual Strike, True Cloak and Dagger, and Teara.

It's better (to me) to use True Cloak and Dagger instead or True Dual Strike since True Cloak and Dagger has lesser delay than True Dual Strike. Although there's a slight difference between the damage it does, you could also use True Cloak and Dagger to bring forward your double turn to your current turn if you need to lay both an offense and/or heal and/or buff and/or deduff earlier if you need to.
It will also be useful if you want to brace yourself for the upcoming Blade Dancer while hijacking any bonus that Mueller can get during his turn.

Fun fact:
Blade Dancer on a critcal bonus turn does at least 7500 damage I know this because I didn't see that coming at all.

Other than that.

May Adidos bring you to victory. Onward!

[Hagen2900]

There is a semi-recent update out on GoG com for Trails SC. All manner of stuff is now working including Sylphen Guard. I was able to defeat Mueller on my first try after installing the update. Previously, beating Mueller on the GoG version was almost impossible without obscene grinding (like 3 levels at a 1 exp per monster rate). Just a heads up for fellow GoG players.

Edit: This is about Nightmare difficulty obviously.

[Walke_893]

Actually, using True Cloak and Dagger over True Dual Strike is a bad idea and actually goes against the double turn concept. The main reason you use True Dual Strike to determine the double turn is because it has the longer delay over all other actions that you will use. Thus if you get a double turn on True Dual Strike it means that you can take more guranteed actions.

The biggest problem with using True Cloak and Dagger is that you are actually increasing the instances of you having less reserve delay, which results in more turn shuffling and at times not being able to get key arts off. The battle with Mueller is not about more turns, it is about predictable and controllable turns.

True Cloak and Dagger has a place but to use it solely over True Dual Strike disrupts the flow of battle. Of course only using True Dual Strike is also bad since you need to be flexibile at times. The battle against Mueller is tough, and even with the strategy you won't win against him 100%. Thus the key is to reduce variability as much as possible.

[HunterRassius]

Originally posted by Hagen2900:

There is a semi-recent update out on GoG com for Trails SC. All manner of stuff is now working including Sylphen Guard. I was able to defeat Mueller on my first try after installing the update. Previously, beating Mueller on the GoG version was almost impossible without obscene grinding (like 3 levels at a 1 exp per monster rate). Just a heads up for fellow GoG players.

Edit: This is about Nightmare difficulty obviously.

That's so good to hear Hagen. I still feel like a total moron when a GoG player came onto the boss thread and said "Hey Slyphen Guard doesn't seem to help at all!" and my reply was an almost total dismissal. It was something like "What? No way! You're totally kidding!" Biggest /facepalm moment of my life (some kind of "professional" I was). I'll definitely remember it for next time... I still need to apologize to that guy. I have a feeling Sara had probably fixed it long ago but GoG was SUPER slow on the update.

Originally posted by Walke_893:

The biggest problem with using True Cloak and Dagger is that you are actually increasing the instances of you having less reserve delay, which results in more turn shuffling and at times not being able to get key arts off. The battle with Mueller is not about more turns, it is about predictable and controllable turns.

True Cloak and Dagger has a place but to use it solely over True Dual Strike disrupts the flow of battle. Of course only using True Dual Strike is also bad since you need to be flexibile at times. The battle against Mueller is tough, and even with the strategy you won't win against him 100%. Thus the key is to reduce variability as much as possible.

Didn't quite catch the entirety of Xiao's post. I'm with Walke on this one. While it's actually really sound advice to check your delays with True Cloak and Dagger to see if you will get another double turn it's a bad idea to actually use it. As a player doing a NG Nightmare run on Mueller you've generally have enough on your plate to keep track of without disrupting your double turn order. Buffs falling off? Mueller Blade Dancer in 2 turns or 1? How the ever living hell am I going to deal with that double crit turn + str 50 2 turns after? Stuff like that. Half the reason you don't want Mueller hitting you with Hound Gale is so it doesn't screw up your delays. Nothing like sitting there on the turn that should've been your double with Mueller glaring at you because he just axed Josette one turn early. I spent half of one fight one time just trying to get my Slyphen Guard up. I can tell you one thing... getting your "flow" disrupted sucks.

There's a certain irony though that all my wins have been AFTER he's smacked me with the Gale.

[Hagen2900]

Originally posted by HunterRassius:

That's so good to hear Hagen. I still feel like a total moron when a GoG player came onto the boss thread and said "Hey Slyphen Guard doesn't seem to help at all!" and my reply was an almost total dismissal. It was something like "What? No way! You're totally kidding!" Biggest /facepalm moment of my life (some kind of "professional" I was). I'll definitely remember it for next time... I still need to apologize to that guy. I have a feeling Sara had probably fixed it long ago but GoG was SUPER slow on the update.

That was me. :D Initially I was put off a bit. But you and Walke were super helpul even though you didnt believe me. So don't worry about it. And yes GoG was slow to upate stuff. For instance, Time Gem and Heaven's Eye were also bugged and are now working as far as I can tell.

[HunterRassius]

Was it? I swear i'd forget my own birthday if it wasn't tatooed on my back. Well.. sorry about that man. Regardless, it won't happen again. As a sidenote, love how basically every important art/quartz was bugged... man that sucks.

Edit: Gratz on the win btw. Wait did I already type that? Cripes! I swear i'm slowly losing it...

[Walke_893]

One thing I will say in support of Xiao is that once you know how the Mueller fight goes, then you can actually beat him with almost any combination of attacks. The key is to understand how delay works in relation to everything. For first time Nightmare players though, the Dual Strike method is more reliable and easier to learn.