Apollo is a cheater

[vortex]

We're supposed to be the same class, but he gets to completely ignore my attacks and hit me while I'm damaging him. Also when he beats me he fully recovers his health for the next round, but when I beat him I only recover a portion of mine. Can we ban him from the game?

[Honorable_D]

Yeah, he defs doesn't play by the same rules. He has way more dodges and even some crazy jump dodge thing he can do.

Get Calamity Trigger before the third fight for an easy time—it catches him in it and does tons of damage making it easy to win. The second fight was way harder...

[Jeff]

I tried to beat him in bergen trail with "prepare to hi" and "no mercy" modifiers recently. THAT'S what I call cheating. Though defeating him despite such disadvantage is much more enjoyable

[ManjiSanji]

He also demonstrably cheats at the Grand Krys'Kajo!

[R.Heart]

So there are a couple ways you can make this one of the easiest fights in the game. First is a technique known as "Perfect Guard," more commonly referred to as PG. In the split second before any attack connects, if you press the shield button you will block an attack, resulting in 0 damage and, depending on the enemy, initiate a stun state. But your timing has to be perfect. There's a couple ways to circumvent this.
One. It is possible to increase your window for activating a PG, using equipment modifier, "Royal Guard." Disciple Gloves have this modifier, they are found in Bergen Village after clearing the Temple Mine. Find Jean in the Omni Gilders Base and clear her quest to obtain them. Adept Gloves are an improved version of this equipment. You can acquire them by clearing Master Sensei's challenges in the lowest level of the Info Hub, back in Rookie Harbor.
Two. There are abilities which will do the job for you. Recoil Trumpet (fire) and Frozen Stance (ice). These will put you in a defensive stance which turn any melee attack into a PG. They are extremely powerful tools, but sometimes Apollo will even avoid those and wait for them to expire. The trick here is to wait for him to initiate his melee combo with your normal shield, and time it between attacks so that he is already committed when you activate these guard arts, and his attack will be reflected. Clock Block (shock) is also really good for this purpose and has the bonus of functioning even with projectile attacks, but personally I have had difficulty following up afterward. The AI still manages to jump out of the way if you try to attack.
When dealing with ranged attacks, your best bet is dodging, or a high defense stat/"Solid Guard" modifier. Dash arts are your best friend, particularly Crimson Strike, as the radius of the flames is often too much for the AI to dodge. Hitting with this enough times also incurs burn status, which will drain a chunk of their HP on top of everything else. As someone already said, Calamity Trigger is also very reliable. Another method is to litter the battlefield with icicles, using abilities like Snow Flawke and Icy Bastion. The AI will hit them every time because they are more concerned with avoiding your attacks.

If all else fails, use Blade Sphere on the neutral circuit. This ability can literally trivialize any fight.

[Tsuki Zero]

There are a few ways you can go about him:
→ Level 3 Heat Dash Art (Scarlet Rain) (Pray one of the hits connects though). It will rain down hell on him.
→ Level 1 Wave Dash Art (Warp Decoy). He should target the decoy.
→ Use rebound shots. He is well aware of sides and frontal attacks, but the ones from behind sometimes catches him by surprise.
→ If all else fail, use the Level 1 Guard Arts Recoil Trumpet, Frozen Stance and Clock Block. This is a bit trickier: wait until he decided to go into melee (block or dodge the shots and dashes), then block his combo and activate the Guard Art before the third hit of his combo. if it works, he will be stunned by the auto counter.

The last approach is my favorite when I feel like playing with him and Shizuka, as it is both cheap on the SP cost, guaranteed to work if you do it right, and he never learns from it.

[idiot5k]

also great is pin body to always send damage you defend against back to him

[Merim]

He's pretty easy if you combo between 3 hit combo to a whirl attack, a lvl 3 whirl attack (ice) would definitely trap him and drain alot of health. If you have health regen, you can retreat and focus on dodging while getting healed. If you also have SP regen, that can also be useful to recharge and then hit him with lvl 3 ice whirl attack again. Its surprisingly helpful and even beated him on the final duel (as well as in the arena).

Also, he does seem to cheat since he would complete the temple before you even when you cheat.

[idiot5k]

Originally posted by Merim:

He's pretty easy if you combo between 3 hit combo to a whirl attack, a lvl 3 whirl attack (ice) would definitely trap him and drain alot of health. If you have health regen, you can retreat and focus on dodging while getting healed. If you also have SP regen, that can also be useful to recharge and then hit him with lvl 3 ice whirl attack again. Its surprisingly helpful and even beated him on the final duel (as well as in the arena).

Also, he does seem to cheat since he would complete the temple before you even when you cheat.

yeah i always tought that was kindoff dumb since hes so big on plying by the rules (emily also does it btw, if you have ng+ sergey hax emily is still faster then you in the dungeon

[Aegix Drakan]

Using the Ice Parry skill to get a pretty much free perfect guard, PLUS slowing him down saved my bacon against him during the third duel. I otherwise suck at guarding and rarely bother. XD

Managing to retaliate after a parry with a Level 3 Melee skill feels soooo fun though.

[Tsuki Zero]

Originally posted by idiot5k:

Originally posted by Merim:

He's pretty easy if you combo between 3 hit combo to a whirl attack, a lvl 3 whirl attack (ice) would definitely trap him and drain alot of health. If you have health regen, you can retreat and focus on dodging while getting healed. If you also have SP regen, that can also be useful to recharge and then hit him with lvl 3 ice whirl attack again. Its surprisingly helpful and even beated him on the final duel (as well as in the arena).

Also, he does seem to cheat since he would complete the temple before you even when you cheat.

yeah i always tought that was kindoff dumb since hes so big on plying by the rules (emily also does it btw, if you have ng+ sergey hax emily is still faster then you in the dungeon

The fact dungeons are instanced can explain that. For example the tutorial dungeon: even if you modify the giant crab to not give exp, you'll end the tutorial dungeon at Level 4. So it's possible Emily and Apollo got an easier/shorter instance, where Lea got a harder/longer one.

[Merim]

Originally posted by Tsukiyomaru Zero:

Originally posted by idiot5k:

yeah i always tought that was kindoff dumb since hes so big on plying by the rules (emily also does it btw, if you have ng+ sergey hax emily is still faster then you in the dungeon

The fact dungeons are instanced can explain that. For example the tutorial dungeon: even if you modify the giant crab to not give exp, you'll end the tutorial dungeon at Level 4. So it's possible Emily and Apollo got an easier/shorter instance, where Lea got a harder/longer one.

Emilie I understand because she's a different class. Apollo however, he's the same class as Lea. So both of them should at least have the same obstacles (although with instance, being in different rooms). I still hold my suspicion on him regardless of the tutorial.

[Tsuki Zero]

Originally posted by Merim:

Originally posted by Tsukiyomaru Zero:

The fact dungeons are instanced can explain that. For example the tutorial dungeon: even if you modify the giant crab to not give exp, you'll end the tutorial dungeon at Level 4. So it's possible Emily and Apollo got an easier/shorter instance, where Lea got a harder/longer one.

Emilie I understand because she's a different class. Apollo however, he's the same class as Lea. So both of them should at least have the same obstacles (although with instance, being in different rooms). I still hold my suspicion on him regardless of the tutorial.

That's also possible to explain, and is explained in the DLC: Hexacasts aren't stuck with ranged, nor are Pentafist stuck with melee. And in fact Beowulf favors melee himself, despite being a Hexacast. So SOME challenges are the same (example: bosses, minibosses)

[Merim]

Originally posted by Tsukiyomaru Zero:

Originally posted by Merim:

Emilie I understand because she's a different class. Apollo however, he's the same class as Lea. So both of them should at least have the same obstacles (although with instance, being in different rooms). I still hold my suspicion on him regardless of the tutorial.

That's also possible to explain, and is explained in the DLC: Hexacasts aren't stuck with ranged, nor are Pentafist stuck with melee. And in fact Beowulf favors melee himself, despite being a Hexacast. So SOME challenges are the same (example: bosses, minibosses)

Thats true, but I believe they are also meant to be balanced so it'll be fair for all. At least according to Shizuka from how the game is intended to be. Probably the obstacles are different, but also difficult. Depending how others feel about it anyways.

I dont think all has the ability to ricochet their shots like Lea. They can shoot of course. Though then again, I dont think Joern can shoot, only melee.

[Tsuki Zero]

Originally posted by Merim:

Originally posted by Tsukiyomaru Zero:

That's also possible to explain, and is explained in the DLC: Hexacasts aren't stuck with ranged, nor are Pentafist stuck with melee. And in fact Beowulf favors melee himself, despite being a Hexacast. So SOME challenges are the same (example: bosses, minibosses)

Thats true, but I believe they are also meant to be balanced so it'll be fair for all. At least according to Shizuka from how the game is intended to be. Probably the obstacles are different, but also difficult. Depending how others feel about it anyways.

I dont think all has the ability to ricochet their shots like Lea. They can shoot of course. Though then again, I dont think Joern can shoot, only melee.

It's possible Joern can have ranged attacks as well, but favors melee. Or rather, he prefers to play his role, bait enemies to attack and counter.

[Grzemek]

Everyone's shots ricochet and everyone can shoot. All it takes is to take people into the team and look at them.