Anyone have any strategies for the post-game bosses?

[Valentari]

I'm level 99 for all members, steamrolled the final boss, loaded my complete data and continued the game.

I've got all the best gear that is appropriate for my characters to wear but when I get to the Mine Depths boss with 5 enemies I can't seem to win. I can't even seem to get the healer dead before I'm obliterated.

Would love some ideas on what kind of party setups and strategies to go for. I did give everyone the status resistance and recovery passives since the fight I'd heavy with status effects.

[redwinger333]

I haven't quite gotten to this point myself, but I've read that stacking LUK and EVA is the way to go in addition to the status resistances (Silence II and Paralysis II orbs being the key) and MP recovery. This lets you avoid most of the damage coming your way, and take your time to focus down targets.

[VertVentus]

You can stack EVA Orb V and LUC Orb IV since it maximizes your physical evasion (LUC also helps your HIT, CRT, and Drop), but you still have magic damage and status ailments (Blind halves HIT and EVA, Poison is 15% DOT, Instant Death) to worry about. The line up of bosses are as follows (notable steals in parentheses).
Boss Rush 1 = Black Wolf (AGI Tome), Queen Hornet (HIT Tome)
Boss Rush 2 = Crag Mimic (DEF Tome) x 5
Boss Rush 3 = Death Cloud (MAT Tome), Mossy Anglerfish (HP Tome)
Boss Rush 4 = Ogre Lord (DEF Tome), Hydra (Ancient Gold Coin)
Boss Rush 5 = Viora (LUC Tome), Riko (MP Tome), Hugo, Akel (HP Tome), Emiil (AGI Tome)
Boss Rush 6 = Occultist, Aura (LUC Tome), Underbeast Alptra (DEF Tome), Baltazar (ATK Tome), Occultist
Boss Rush 7 = Rak'uul (Ancient Gold Coin), Robztep (Ancient Gold Coin)
*The boss rush is accessible by revisiting Robztep in the Ancient Ruins Depths 8, includes Hugo and friends and the Underbeast Alptra.

I played on Switch, but my team comp was
1. Samurai/Thief (stealer, secondary damage dealer)
2. Dancer/Sage (buffer, Song of War, Song of Protection)
3. Priest/Sage (healer, first turn the War Cry equipment skill)
4. Ninja/Knight (debuffer, Scale Slash, Flame/Ice/Lightning Pillar)
5. Samurai/Elementalist (damage dealer, Flesh & Bone + Quickdraw, Fire/Ice/Thunder Weapon)
The Samurai kit alone is OP for dishing out thousands of critical physical damage (Quickdraw's 270 Power, 2x critical damage), since magic damage in this game isn't as effective (even with the Starfall equipment skill and Offensive Magic UP for 230 +25 Power, no critical damage), so you can use more if you like (for example, Dancer/Knight and Ninja/Samurai). I didn't to have some variety in my character sprites. Monks have Obliterate, which is another high Power active skill, but the rest of its kit is arguably useless like the Tamer, Fighter, Archer, Explorer, and Wizard classes (Disenchant has a niche use, but isn't worth an entire subclass).

Weapon: CRT Orb IV, MP Absorb Orb III + Ninto Kagebashiri+, Holy Fist Rohgard+, Warhammer Borg+
Helmet/Armor/Boots: LUC Orb IV, Courage Orb IV + Headband of Gales+, Ninja Habergeon+, Dragon King Shoes+
Accessory: LUC Orb IV, MP Recovery Orb IV + Revival Bracelet+, War God's Belt+
Passive: Assist the Weak, Abnormal State Resistance, Luck UP, Fortified Conscience
Flexible Passive 1: Vanguard Attack UP, Mid Attack UP, Rear Attack UP
Flexible Passive 2: Katana Mastery, Fist Mastery, Club Mastery, MP Recovery
Formation: Mystic Cross
Faith: Ngunesis of Misery (quest unlocks Abn. State Res +1)

Note 1: 2H weapons just have more damage than 1H weapons and a shield isn't worth the rune slots (guard chance is for only regular attacks, EVA/AGI penalty). Heavy armor has the same EVA/AGI penalty. I'd avoid using elemental weapons, since 1/5 of the enemies are Lightning immune with 2 immunities for Fire/Water, and you can use the Elementalist for the Death Cloud's physical immunity.
Note 2: CRT doubles your damage and is the following formula: Weapon% + LUC% + 10% CRT Orb IV + 25% Fortified Conscience + 50% Flesh & Bone or 35% War Cry (essentially Weapon% + LUC% + 85% or 70%). I don't know how exactly LUC scales for CRT, but it should help for random encounters along the way where you need the AOE more.
Note 3: Abnormal State Resistance + Ngunesis of Misery means you're immune to every status ailment, and if your resistance is lowered they only last 2 turns (but effectively it's only one turn, since high AGI via light armor or a Dancer's Suppressing Dance can have enemies act at the end of the first turn so you only feel it for the duration of the second turn).
Note 4: The 3 Courage Orbs and Revival Bracelet or Holy Fist Rohgard is 100% Knock Out Defense (Guts), which keeps you alive against everything but poison and critical damage. Magic damage can't crit, your LUC + light armor EVA is high enough to dodge physical damage that can crit, and you have Poison immunity; you're basically immortal. Before the Revival Bracelet, you can use the Monk's Knock Out Defense passive skill to substitute it.
Note 5: Assist the Weak makes the most of your buffs so you can spend more times attacking. The Mystic Cross formation allows Dancer buffs (Song of War, Song of Protection) to hit your entire party, and putting your Samurai in the vanguard/rear so War Cry can hit the entire middle row is best.
Note 6: You don't really need the (Weapon) Mastery skills, since +30 ATK/MAT is low and at best it allows you to equip weapons outside your typical main job, but it's up to you whether you want to heal +13 MP per turn & ATK +30 or +23 MP per turn with the MP Recovery passive.
Note 7: For standard play/grinding, you can swap out those flexible passive skills (and Assist the Weak) for stuff like EXP Gain Up, Bountiful Harvest, Drop Rate Up, Monsterology, or Atlas.
Note 8: You can sub out the Courage Orb IV on your armor for EXP Up Orb IV if not at Lv. 99, and replace the LUC Orb IV on your accessory for Gather Orb II to 100% your blacksmith proficiency tree.
Note 9: I never really tried a Knock Out Defense + Near-Death ATK build, but dying removes your current debuffs so I refrained. It's doable in theory, and you just need to replace the CRT and LUC Orbs. In this case, you want to keep a shield for more rune slots (+25% ATK * 6 equipment) and to intentionally keep a Sage's Revive skill at Lv. 1 for 25% HP. This gives every class access to Inverted Strike via equipment skills (245 Power), a powerful physical attack if not Monk or Samurai.

[Valentari]

What's this "boss rush" and steal stuff, VertVentus? Is there a way to refight bosses? I haven't seen anything in like the arena or anything. If there's a way to re-fight them and steal tomes I'd love to know

[VertVentus]

After you beat Hugo's party at the Mine Depths, and the two post-game bosses after that, you get access to the boss rush mode including every boss in the game from the Outer Suburbs to final post-game boss. You can do it once per day, so really think over your team composition and rune slots.

[Valentari]

Originally posted by VertVentus:

After you beat Hugo's party at the Mine Depths, and the two post-game bosses after that, you get access to the boss rush mode including every boss in the game from the Outer Suburbs to final post-game boss. You can do it once per day, so really think over your team composition and rune slots.

Weird, I just got the trophy (I'm playing on ps4) for finishing all requests and beating all the bosses but boss rush didn't show up anywhere for me. Even ended the day and nothing happened.

[VertVentus]

With all requests and monster entries complete, it's really just seeing Robztep again at Ancient Ruins Depths 8 as noted in the remaining Story Notes.

[redwinger333]

Vert, the guidance from your post made the entire boss rush a breeze... With that party and gear setup, I entered the fight, stole from the bosses I needed, and just put it into auto-battle. If anyone's struggling, this is definitely an easy way to stomp through the back half of the game.

Just hit my 100% steam achievement status, so I'm putting this game to rest.

Cheers!

[TonySki]

VertVentus Thank you. I played on Xbox and my build was just enough to not get hit by the robo boss but not strong enough to damage through the heals. Your build worked great and had the battle over in 8 turns.