[SPOILERS] When's the ideal time to face the story bosses?

[Stitch]

I'm on day 2, normal difficulty, only two (real) minutes left till 6 AM.

It seems like I won't be able to beat Noel. I only managed to take like 3/4 of his HP. So... as the title says. Am I even supposed to fight him now? I have no idea. I completed most of the side quests in Luxerion, went to the second area (Snow's city, don't remember the name yet) and finished the Family Food side quest. I also noticed that the game allows me to continue the story even when I've not finished the first chapter just yet.

Any good builds against Noel? I tried to google, but those guys are usually much further in the game and the boss is a piece of cake for 'em. Or should I just stop trying, move on and try to kill him later?

This game is much tougher than Dark ♥♥♥♥♥♥' Souls, I tell you that...

[Marsson]

I beat Noel on day two, he's pretty easy as long as you're good at staggering him.
You can fight the story bosses as soon as you like (when you get to them of course) but the general rule is to finish most of the side quests in the area first, since you power up quite a lot when you do that.

It's not harder than Dark Souls, you just have to come up with good schematas.

[Mochasky]

For staggering Noel, most people just go with the easy way out and use Lightning & Blizzard as he staggers pretty quick to them. Remember that any bosses not cleared will get stronger as the days go by, so if you want to fight a certain boss at max strength, you can wait till the last moment.

[LightGecko]

Originally posted by SkylXTumn:

For staggering Noel, most people just go with the easy way out and use Lightning & Blizzard as he staggers pretty quick to them. Remember that any bosses not cleared will get stronger as the days go by, so if you want to fight a certain boss at max strength, you can wait till the last moment.

That's not quite true. Noel and the boss in Dead Dunes only powers up once. Snow has three different versions (so powers up twice), and the Wildlands boss doesn't power up at all.

[Stitch]

Thank you all guys!

I managed to beat him, but had to use all my remaining potions... (had three of them).

[PerfectLife]

I'm finding I really have to go all out and have a good plan of attack for the bosses, they're easily the most challenging thing in an area. Granted I'm still horrible at the guard and attack boosting, but I've already done two MQ's by day three so I think I'll be fine for time unless I do something super dumb.

[Scarlet Crusade]

The accepted general rule is to do Noel then Snow then Wildlands and Dead Dunes in some order. The boss from the Dead Dunes is a complete joke powered up or not so you can save it last without worrying, and, as LightGecko said, the boss form the Wildlands never gets any more powerful, so there's no rush. If you're looking to fight powered up versions of bosses, probably best to wait until NG+ to do that.

[Stitch]

Aaand I'm glad that Noel recovered his senses. I kinda like that dude, would be sad if he died.

Thanks for the new answers as well. I appreciate them all.

[PerfectLife]

Originally posted by Scarlet Crusade:

The accepted general rule is to do Noel then Snow then Wildlands and Dead Dunes in some order. The boss from the Dead Dunes is a complete joke powered up or not so you can save it last without worrying, and, as LightGecko said, the boss form the Wildlands never gets any more powerful, so there's no rush. If you're looking to fight powered up versions of bosses, probably best to wait until NG+ to do that.

Yeah, I've done Shadowhunter and Wildlands. Wildlands was significantly more difficult and required four attempts while Shadowhunter only needed the one. But, I'm going in mostly blind with no regards or care to "doing it best" so I'm basically hitting whatever content seems fun at the time.

[willaz]

Noel and especially Snow was incredibly hard for me the first time around I played on the PS3, but now that you can unlock Buster sword and SOLDIER outfit (don't even need to wait to day 10+ to unlock the other outfit which gives you the Slayer ability) , just make sure to grind up 3 or 4 stocks of EP before facing them and just spam Slayer whilst overclocked. Dies in one stagger.

Good luck! This is by far the most unorthodox FF spinoff to date so it gets a little getting used to but once figured out it's very rewarding!

[Pulse]

Just beaten it.

I went for Noel first
(What a Joke he is on Day 2, you can destroy him with Yunas Garb easily with Elementa*)

After that I went to the Dead Dunes on the same Day, had Cosmocrator equipped with it's respective Weapon and Shield. (HP was around 80-100, I only used it to deal tons of Damage against the Dead Dunes Boss) - (Thundara / Aerora are your best friend, after the first Stagger use any Element Strikes to get that thing into the second Stagger, use Deshell / Deprotect and then Cosmocrator it all the Way)

Wildlands was on the Third Day (Could have gone there on the second aswell but hurrdurr...)
Chocobo Eater (Nothing special, Stagger it, burn it)

Caius
(Easy Way, get Curse, Elementa, get him Staggered, use Thundaga to launch him into the Air, Deprotect / Deshell, Cosmocrator is a Choice else Elementa him to Victory or use Clouds Stagger Ability)

Snow was on my fourth Day (Some Bosses do have their Stats Upgraded after a few Days so he was actually a piece of cake...)
(Get a Fire based Garb, Stagger him, Clouds Stagger Ability works, Fire Strikes or Fire based Abilities do hurt, don't forget to Deshell/Deprotect him)

[Scarlet Crusade]

You lose the right to call anything a joke when you're using DLC garbs.

[Tiasmoon]

Originally posted by SkylXTumn:

For staggering Noel, most people just go with the easy way out and use Lightning & Blizzard as he staggers pretty quick to them. Remember that any bosses not cleared will get stronger as the days go by, so if you want to fight a certain boss at max strength, you can wait till the last moment.

The boss in the wild lands is an exception to this. That particular boss is always the same strength. Also, most bosses have 2 difficulty levels, with the one in Yusnaan having 3.

Originally posted by Scarlet Crusade:

You lose the right to call anything a joke when you're using DLC garbs.

Indeed. I think'll be very amused once I buy this on steam and see how broken those DLC are. (I played on the 360 without DLC)

[Pulse]

Originally posted by Scarlet Crusade:

You lose the right to call anything a joke when you're using DLC garbs.

You'd be surprised, the DLC Garbs are harmless compared to ailment buffered Elementa and Flamesparka. Superbosses die with that in under a Minute.

[DetectionSaber]

Beated Noel today without using any of the DLC garbs, i used a Thunder Schemata that gave me Thunder+, one that gave Deprotect and Deshell, a regular attack one with Blitz. I also got Mediguard while exploring Dead Dunes which helped A LOT, the fight was pretty much Deshell -> Thunder+ -> spam attack/blitz if staggered.