A.C.E. Fresh File? Or for New Game+? (Edit: FIRST BOSS SUCCESS!)

[Kuro Dmon]

So, I haven't touched Epic Battle Fantasy in a hot minute, as much as I loved the series growing up.

I randomly give it a shot again while on a work break, and I beat ol' Mighty Oak on Epic, easy enough. (Only 1 level over, because I thought we meet Lance at lv 9, and I wanted the party all at the same level for a new run at things).

While switching the difficulty back down (because no need to grind on Epic when only the bosses on Epic are important), I saw the cheats and challenges options. And a bit of investigation later, I found about the A.C.E. thing: All Challenges Epic. Naive and curious, I restarted my save file to give it a try.

And for the life of me, beating the first boss on All Challenges Epic at level 8 seems IMPOSSIBLE. Even with Protect (which I can only get 1 rank in) up, and keeping my defense bonus no lower than 45%, he frequently one-shots Naz or Anna. Mat ain't looking too bulky either, for that matter. I feel like even if I somehow had enough money to buy a bunch of items instead of the stickers, I'd probably still run out of enough Coffee to keep going.

I admittedly also never played the game to get New Game Plus, or New Game Plus Plus, before. So I wonder if I should wait until I have beaten the game and gotten all those rad equips before subjecting myself to this challenge. Because there's no point in beating my head on the wall if it legitimately is significantly impossible.

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And then I decided to change up how I did things, and managed to make it work after all!

[TTRM]

It's probably possible to clear the new achievements on a fresh file (strategy, grinding, whathaveya), but doing NG+ is probably the best option.
(And here I thought I was about to read something about ACE (Arbitrary Code Execution)... lol.)

[Kuro Dmon]

Originally posted by TTRM:

It's probably possible to clear the new achievements on a fresh file (strategy, grinding, whathaveya), but doing NG+ is probably the best option.
(And here I thought I was about to read something about ACE (Arbitrary Code Execution)... lol.)

Heh. No Dark Souls online scare here.

I *figure* I could probably grind enough to overcome it (depending on when the level cap is at least in NG, I imagine the final boss and Battle Mountain might be a bit of a scare), but unless I was doing something *super* wrong, I don't know what strategy I might have missed without grinding, at least for Mighty Oak. Even spending all the stat items early on had little effect, starting the battle with all 3 Limits and then trying to keep Protect active...

I assume there's nothing about the game I might be missing to make sure I had the maximum amount of AP Possible with all 3 characters a single shrub away from level 9? I don't remember there being any sort of tech to gain more AP outside of grinding, and I assume there's no monster I should have fought repeatedly to ensure I maxed out my gains.

[Natzor]

Originally posted by Kuro Dmon:

Originally posted by TTRM:

It's probably possible to clear the new achievements on a fresh file (strategy, grinding, whathaveya), but doing NG+ is probably the best option.
(And here I thought I was about to read something about ACE (Arbitrary Code Execution)... lol.)

Heh. No Dark Souls online scare here.

I *figure* I could probably grind enough to overcome it (depending on when the level cap is at least in NG, I imagine the final boss and Battle Mountain might be a bit of a scare), but unless I was doing something *super* wrong, I don't know what strategy I might have missed without grinding, at least for Mighty Oak. Even spending all the stat items early on had little effect, starting the battle with all 3 Limits and then trying to keep Protect active...

I assume there's nothing about the game I might be missing to make sure I had the maximum amount of AP Possible with all 3 characters a single shrub away from level 9? I don't remember there being any sort of tech to gain more AP outside of grinding, and I assume there's no monster I should have fought repeatedly to ensure I maxed out my gains.

While I didn't attempt Mighty Oak ACE with a full party, I gave it a shot with Solo Anna (Only for bosses however, since levels matter a ton when you have low Action economy so can't have loss of EXP before that), and even at level 11/12, he simply did too much damage, on top of losing a couple of ways to deal with the boss (mainly Poison being much harder to apply if I remember correctly). It doesn't help that him having access to Temper, and no real way to dispel it means you have to rely on evade to even remotely survive hits, which is unreliable (even being 2-3 levels above doesn't change the fact that he will take out 75-90% of your HP bar even with 45% or so Earth Resistance, with exception to Gaia Blossom).

I did however manage to do ACE on pretty much the rest of the bosses with Solo Anna (still applying the No ACE to regular mobs and forced encounters that weren't Mini Bosses and such), and it was actually not that bad (especially since the new patch adds a early accessable sword for Matt on Battle Mountain once you have the Axe to give Free Guardian buffs randomly), and some of the changes made to the bosses were pretty fun to deal with. And yeah stat items don't really start to kick in until you have gotten past level 25 or so, as the bonuses you get are small at first, and exponentially increase over time.

[Kuro Dmon]

Originally posted by Natzor:

While I didn't attempt Mighty Oak ACE with a full party, I gave it a shot with Solo Anna (Only for bosses however, since levels matter a ton when you have low Action economy so can't have loss of EXP before that), and even at level 11/12, he simply did too much damage, on top of losing a couple of ways to deal with the boss (mainly Poison being much harder to apply if I remember correctly). It doesn't help that him having access to Temper, and no real way to dispel it means you have to rely on evade to even remotely survive hits, which is unreliable (even being 2-3 levels above doesn't change the fact that he will take out 75-90% of your HP bar even with 45% or so Earth Resistance, with exception to Gaia Blossom).

I did however manage to do ACE on pretty much the rest of the bosses with Solo Anna (still applying the No ACE to regular mobs and forced encounters that weren't Mini Bosses and such), and it was actually not that bad (especially since the new patch adds a early accessable sword for Matt on Battle Mountain once you have the Axe to give Free Guardian buffs randomly), and some of the changes made to the bosses were pretty fun to deal with. And yeah stat items don't really start to kick in until you have gotten past level 25 or so, as the bonuses you get are small at first, and exponentially increase over time.

Ooof. Solo run. That sounds even more difficult, haha.

And yeah, definitely only going for the "ACE Boss" achievement. There's a huge difference between a healthy challenge and sadomasochism.

I might uncouple myself to my EXP OCD, and both not be bothered by the party not all being at the same level (poor Lance being left behind), and then try again while grinding a bit. Even if I used up all my items and such, just getting to the point where we aren't getting 1-shot unbuffed would make it significantly more doable.

[Kuro Dmon]

Double post just because the last edit made the thread get locked for a sec, but I legit just managed it today on my work break! And by it, I mean beating Mighty Oak ACE without being overleveled. Mono a Mono at Level 8 (obviously fluffed enough to be a shrub kill away from 9).

For one thing, I don't know why I even considered any attempts without using the Crimson Dragon on Anna. I had to replay the intro for a 3rd time because I wasted money on the Green Cross instead.

For another, I thumbed over Matt's equipment and ran into the Casual Shirt, and realized the effect makes using Cherries to heal the party even better than using Heal More on *any* character. Ended up prioritizing Natz and Anna dealing Damage instead.

It's still INCREDIBLY luck based. I'd always open with Matt summoning the Coal Bat, and reset if Oak didn't get debuffed. And even after that, you *really* want another successful Coal Bat, and potentially a Dispel or two when Matt *is* capable of attacking.

It's also obviously very item based. MP was never an issue, since Matt only has like enough for 2 busts of upgraded Fume, and Anna's almost better using her basic attack as long as the party has above 50 Shield. But Oak still hits like a truck, and without relying on misses or weaker attacks, he still easily 2 shots the party, or 1 shots with a combo attack. Once the Evasion buffs (used from Energy Drinks on Natz and Anna) + the Coal Bat debuff ran out, Matt was basically constantly healing while the other two went to town. And it was a matter of luck if Oak's attack of choice was grapple arm, earth magic, or a minor hit that could be recovered.

But I've done it like twice now; once to earn the achievement, and another with all but the [HP Bar invisible] Challenges turned on just to see how lucky I was.

I normally never rely on items so heavily; it was quite strange. Not needing to use Temper with Matt when someone can give him or Anna a Beer once comes time to use a Limit (I also taught Anna Power Blast, because Mother Earth was a complete waste with Resistances up).

My Natz set up was weird, too; she was the main person tossing out drinks at the start. But that was until after I needed to use Kyun, and then from there she spammed Maxed Fire 1, not Fireball, for seemingly the best use of my AP?

Relying on consumables.... boy that felt wrong. But I did the thing without grinding!