[FFX-2] best Mushroom Cloud setup?

[~🐣Venvetta🐣~]

I was planning to use a MC with my two Impale Machina because Pernicious Powder seems really good and also having a strong magic user for flexibility. So I was wondering what the best abilities, accessories, auto-abilities, GG and DS are. I currently use Black Sky as its main attack, but BS is supposed to scale with Strenght not Magic. Any recommendations for Mushroom Cloud?

[Hinnyuu]

The reason to use Black Sky isn't its damage.

It's that its animation is long AND it allows attacks to go off while it's playing. With two Impale machina, this effectively means you get a bunch of attacks in "for free" while BS is playing, effectively locking the enemy out of taking actions until the animation is over - by which time a lot of them will already be dead.

Personally, I don't like pairing Cloud with Impale because it's kind of redundant. Once you have high-stat Impales available you don't need Pernicious Powder. You can just slap Black Sky on a third Impale basically get the same thing.

My go-to for Mushroom Cloud is Almighty Shinra, and that's mostly for before I can get my Imaples to insane AGI levels, i.e. for early Major Numerus farming. I find rushing that more efficient than trying to level their stats with things other than Iron Duke.

MC is also great before that, i.e. to GET Shinra - if you can get off a Pernicious Powder before his Clione, the fight is an absolute joke ;)

[~🐣Venvetta🐣~]

Thanks. I actually have Machina Hunter/Ranger on Lvl. 99 and Machina Leader is also high-level. I was just contemplating getting a magic user for enemies like Aeshma. But I guess they are not really needed lol if I can just slap BS on my Leader. Does BS scale with Strength or Magic btw?

[Hinnyuu]

If you have a team with max stats, you can x3 Impale and just give one of them Black Sky - it'll work well for big bosses like Trema, but also work on stuff like Aeshma.

...although if you have three max-stat Impalers idk why you're still doing actual cups and not just fighting Numerus in the battle simulator :P

EDIT: pretty sure BS scales with STR, not MAG.

[~🐣Venvetta🐣~]

Well, I have two Lvl. 99 Impale Machina, the stats are not maxed at all though apart from Strength. I'm currently also in the middle of unlocking the Fiend Cup and I only have Break Damage Limit with my Machina Hunter.

[Hinnyuu]

Oh I see.

Impale really only starts taking off when you get their AGI maxed to machinegun out those attacks. They're still pretty good without it but nowhere near as broken, especially since you can basically only get one BDL before Numerus (unless you're insane and get The End).

Rush to Almighty Shinra and use that to get to Major Numerus farming, I'd say. Then feed your machina on Iron Dukes until they're big and strong and every single fight ends in 10 seconds max :P

You can use Mushroom Cloud + Impale + pretty much anything, even one of the girls. Chances are you won't have a BDL fiend that's S-size so if you want to maximize damage you could use something like Flak Python, or if you're on NG+ you could use Logos - they're fiends with a multi-hit attack move that can help you deal a lot of damage without BDL. If you're using a girl, you can get BDL from gates on various GGs, easiest is Higher Power but Peerless is also not that hard to get.

[~🐣Venvetta🐣~]

Any tips for defeating Almighty Shinra? I feel like I need him and the Fiend Cup as a next step to get some good accessories, but I'm not sure how I should prepare for him. Maybe just farm Shmooth Shailing to improve all my stats (including Agility)? Or just farm more Titanium/Crystal Bangles for HP?

[Hinnyuu]

If you can land a Pernicious Powder, it's a very easy fight. But it can be hard to do, because the first thing Shinra does is Clione and surviving that with MC can be a challenge.

Having max DEF certainly helps, as does HP. I can't remember if the unmodded AS goes above 9,999 with Fireworks, but if so you might need some BHPL somewhere to survive it (as it ignores DEF).

There's various strategies to beat him. One is taking some girls (with Mascot) along, as they can use a GG to get both BHPL and BDL, and then you can use a Stamina Tonic to double max HP for a comfortable buffer. Yuna + Paine + Impale works fine, for example. Or you can use Mushroom Cloud, give it First Strike, and hope it gets a turn before Shinra to place Powder; it's certainly not impossible.