Orange Bouncing Balls of Doom

[deathgirlkira]

As the title says. I was doing a mission and came upon orange bouncing balls with smile faces on them. I did not think nothing of them until they gave me a good beating. The have high defense and throw high end spells at you. Anyway of defeating them without getting killed. Then again Final Fantasy creators always find ways to make some random enemy tougher than your story lined boss.

[Hyala]

any of the punches, Goblin punch, costly punch, hammer punch, or magical punch will murder them as it ignores their defense.

[deathgirlkira]

Thank you so much for the advice. I will give it a try.

[Tetonka]

Also, Darkness.

[Velesianus]

Originally posted by Tetonka:

Also, Darkness.

Aka costly punch lite. Imo, as someone with hundreds of hours in CC, Darkness is legit the second best attack in the game.

It's AoE is massive, it hits air and ground targets, it ignores barriers plus nat defense and it does mad damage with Costly Punch builds (99k hp + min/maxed spr/vit).

You also can get it from 4-4-2 long before you get any of the punches. So basically do the materia room quests to get Gravity at the start of the game then use that to defeat 4-2-6 to open up 4-4-x.

The first punch available is GP, stolen from 4-4-4. Then you need to do 30% of side quests to get the fastest DMW materia (rush) to upgrade GP to Costly Punch.

edit:also pick up brutal and adm acc of course so you're not gimped

[ar2games]

Gravity (specially graviga) hits them hard and you can do it from a safe distance.

[Velesianus]

Originally posted by ar2games:

Gravity (specially graviga) hits them hard and you can do it from a safe distance.

True and if you lack punches or darkness that's definitely the way to go.

However, "movers" actually don't have very high HP pools so grav doesn't do it's usual 9999. Typically it's only 1 to 2k on hard mode.

What makes them damage sponges is their astronomical vit and spr (in the 200's). Since Darkness and Punches ignore both, they each do more damage than Gravity and Graviga respectively, as is the case with most enemies.

[Just Chill]

But doesn't Darkness also damage Zack?

[Xengre]

Originally posted by ar2games:

Gravity (specially graviga) hits them hard and you can do it from a safe distance.

This is the best method, by far, if you are doing the missions with movers EARLY such as in chapter 2 as you wont have the punches for a while, especially costly punch, and even when you get them their dmg is very poor early and they (at least costly definitely does) cause the AI to flag and instantly attack with Delta (this can be dodged). Due to Mover behavior at the start of battle and how Demi spawns above target you can probably 99% of the time guarantee 2-3 Demi on the Mover before you have to start moving/dodge, at which point they're low enough to 1-shot remaining health at zero risk with a punch or Darkness.

If you are further in I'd go with Darkness or a punch and straight 1-2 shot them as Vele mentioned.

Originally posted by Just Chill:

But doesn't Darkness also damage Zack?

Yes, its fairly low dmg but it does. I'd just buy 99 potions and pop one after each battle if you use it regularly, or just do the Gravity > Darkness/Punch method for finisher so it takes less HP overall.

[Just Chill]

Originally posted by Xengre:

Originally posted by Just Chill:

But doesn't Darkness also damage Zack?

Yes, its fairly low dmg but it does. I'd just buy 99 potions and pop one after each battle if you use it regularly, or just do the Gravity > Darkness/Punch method for finisher so it takes less HP overall.

I see.
Well, even in FF8, I used amnesia greens on Darkness and even Kamikaze (which was quite the thing as that one was exclusive to the Cactuar GF), as I do not like attacks that also harm or even destroy the char who uses it. ^^

[Velesianus]

Originally posted by Shirayuki Mizore:

Originally posted by Velesianus:

Aka costly punch lite. Imo, as someone with hundreds of hours in CC, Darkness is legit the second best attack in the game.

It's AoE is massive, it hits air and ground targets, it ignores barriers plus nat defense and it does mad damage with Costly Punch builds (99k hp + min/maxed spr/vit).

You also can get it from 4-4-2 long before you get any of the punches. So basically do the materia room quests to get Gravity at the start of the game then use that to defeat 4-2-6 to open up 4-4-x.

The first punch available is GP, stolen from 4-4-4. Then you need to do 30% of side quests to get the fastest DMW materia (rush) to upgrade GP to Costly Punch.

edit:also pick up brutal and adm acc of course so you're not gimped

In Reunion Costly Punch is nothing special anymore. With the introduction of Buster Mode that heavily boosts damage of Command Materias any yellow materia (Assault Twister+ especially) or wide AoE materia (Darkness) can reach the same or even bigger damage than Costly Punch, especially if you equip SP Turbo or two (their SP drain is extremely tiny, 100sp per hit if I recall)

With Darkness in Buster Mode you can deal AoE 99k to any being in the game including Super Bosses. Assault Twister+ can deal 3x99k. Aerial Drain will deal 99k and heal you for 99k as well (it is also fast and allows you to avoid attacks entirely).

Buster Mode really changes a lot and the best part is it doesn't require grind. Command Materia boost is from the start and it doesn't increase with proficiency bonus.

Costly Punch was fun on PSP but now it is quite average.

I was actually including this in my assessment of Darkness. Before it got nerfed, Costly Punch used to only cost 1.5% hp instead of 15%. This made Darkness obsolete except vs large mobs as it cost 12.5% hp for way less damage.

The reason I'd say Costly Punch it's still overpowered is because you can get it so early.

Even if you wait until the slum church at the start of chapter 4 so you can snag the brutal and adaman acc, it's still the only way to deal 99k at that point and for some time to come.