Shady Duo and Tonberry Ripper

[Nezkeys]

Ok...why are these in such an "easy"/early cup. Theyre impossible to beat and killing the fun of progressing. I even tried a magical masque songstress, reflect, and excellence for shady duo and flare and ultima still hit and do 9999. Tonberry does 50k to all my characters befofe i can even get a turn. My only chance is if both of these teams get beaten. Every other twam is easy

Ive already beaten grand cup:hard four times and was easy. Beginning to think i just got lucky in avoiding these two teams now. Ive beeen stuck at 4 wins for the past 5 hours because of these two :(

[Hinnyuu]

They're the gateway to the Youth League Cup, which does, after all, offer Mascot as its first reward. They're basically saying "you gotta be this tall to enter".

While Tonberry will take a lot of work to beat, Shady Duo isn't actually THAT hard to defeat. I recommend using a fiend team with a high-STR fiend (like e.g. Tonberry) and teaching it Darkness - firing off one or two will be enough to kill at least the elemental. You do of course have to get a little lucky not to get hit by Itchy Powder first, which will cripple your stats. Alternatively you can also use a fiend with a DEF-ignoring attack, like e.g. Flak Python's Full Auto. All this can be done in Chapter 1. As you progress to later Chapters, it becomes even easier with access to more stuff.

Beating it with YRP is much harder, as you need some serious levels on them to compete.

Tonberry the Ripper is more of an endgame enemy, as it above all requires a TON of defense to survive its attacks. Though if you're lucky and/or have the right stats, a high-AGI attack team can hit-lock it and kill it before it gets to do anything.

[Nezkeys]

Im only doing this because i didnt get mascot the story way. Besaid and killika screwed me as mentioned inanother post so im now trying to get it from the youth league cup. Is it a fair assessment to say if i cant beat shady duo...i will struggle with the youth league cup? They also have 9999 aoe attacks?

[Hinnyuu]

Youth League Cup has its own pitfalls, but yeah, if you can't beat Shady Duo you probably won't beat the harder YLC bosses like Nooj. Let alone the actual superbosses.

If you're already in Chapter 5, just go and grind to max level. You'll want that anyway, and it doesn't take very long. The best way is probably by fighting Hell Breeders over and over in the arena, or by unlocking the Frailea Gang in the Cactuar Cup and fighting them (depending on your setup they might be faster or slower to beat than Hell Breeders).

Once you're at 90+ Shady Duo should just fall over.

[Nezkeys]

There must be a chance that both these lose otherwise i wouldnt have 4 wins. This reminds me exactly like playing shinra at sphere break...easy unless he uses 1 as the core sphere. I resetted hundreds of times

[Hinnyuu]

I'm not sure I get the sphere break thing, the core sphere number changes every turn so even if he starts with 1 it's just one turn lost. Chances are very high to see 1 at least once every game, but that doesn't stop you from beating him. You shouldn't need anywhere near the max amount of turns to get to the total if you just chain combos.

As for those teams losing, it DOES happen but it's incredibly unlikely for you to get through the entire bracket without ever encountering either of them. Just level some more and you'll beat them. Or get your fiend team going.

It's entirely possible to beat them in Chapter 1 (with fiends), if you're in Chapter 5 it's magnitudes easier.

[Nezkeys]

Im 80 now and mushroom cloud is one shot as im doin 9999 damage but...even with highroads or firstrike accessory it can get an ultima off...which still one hits everyone 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️. Ive beaten this team a few times now if that doesnt happen. Tonberry ripper still doing 12k on his stabs and gets two off before i can do anything.

Hellbreeders always lose as well and i never get them first match 🤷‍♀️

[Hinnyuu]

You need really high defenses to survive them, or use fiends (which have much higher effective defenses thanks to the star gauge).

For Tonberry, you really want close to 255 DEF to comfortably survive its attacks.

I haven't personally tried to go through all the cups with YRP, and the fights I have done with YRP I've done using Mascots. I'm not sure what the optimal YRP non-Mascot strategy would be.

If you just want Mascot, I'd recommend just using fiends. With fiend teams, you can get Mascot even in Chapter 1.

[Nezkeys]

Originally posted by Hinnyuu:

You need really high defenses to survive them, or use fiends (which have much higher effective defenses thanks to the star gauge).

For Tonberry, you really want close to 255 DEF to comfortably survive its attacks.

I haven't personally tried to go through all the cups with YRP, and the fights I have done with YRP I've done using Mascots. I'm not sure what the optimal YRP non-Mascot strategy would be.

If you just want Mascot, I'd recommend just using fiends. With fiend teams, you can get Mascot even in Chapter 1.

I finally got one without tonberry. Also nothing in the youth league is as hard as tonberry. I completed it first try. nooj lost tho havent faced him yet.

First impressions of mascot are that it has some decent buffs and abilities...but the moment you get it the damage is terrible. I went from doing 9999k every hit to like 1-2k. Paines attacks are single target and the kupo spells were doing 900. Im hoping catcling gun is strong. Its stats are worse than dark knights too. Im guessing the hidden slot is break damage limit. This dressphere takes a lot of work to get and a lot of work to master (999 ap for ribbon🤷‍♀️). Not even kidding but a dark knights is better than an untrained mascot so far.

Massive let down tbh

[Hinnyuu]

Originally posted by Nezkeys:

I'm hoping catcling gun is strong. Its stats are worse than dark knights too. Im guessing the hidden slot is break damage limit. This dressphere takes a lot of work to get and a lot of work to master (999 ap for ribbon🤷‍♀️). Not even kidding but a dark knights is better than an untrained mascot so far.

Massive let down tbh

Cactling Gun is very strong, with a timed combo it can hit for very high damage on most opponents. Its main draw is the fact that it ignores defense, which is a big deal as two of the three main superbosses (Trema and Almighty Shinra) both have 255 DEF so your regular attacks hit like wet noodles.

Mascots have overall insane stats, and they come with Auto-Shell, Auto-Protect, and Ribbon. Moogle Curaja is also a ridiculously efficient heal, not to mention you can restore MP at will, too, and cast the equivalent of Hastega etc. Paine can also inflict stat debuffs, which are very powerful. Rikku's is a bit of a letdown, though, that's true. Great for fighting trash thanks to the AoE petrify and instant-K.O. but not that useful for bosses.

They do NOT come with breaks, though, so you'll have to get Break Damage Limit elsewhere for Paine to be most effective.

There's really very little Mascots can't do compared to other dress spheres - but they're still miles behind fiend teams, because, well, any dress sphere is. YRP just cannot compete with fiends, especially with their damage output.