Can't win final battle

[Zloth]

I've tried at least half a dozen times, sometimes using strength, sometimes double strength, sometimes no strength. It doesn't really matter. The only time I've ever gotten close was when the dodging happened to work fairly well. Is it really supposed to dodge half the time? Because I'm pretty sure it isn't.

At any rate, I'm getting clobbered over and over and over and over and...

I read a really old topic where somebody thought that Rean's stats might matter for the battle. Is that true? His still set up for the previous major boss with maxed out Wing and items to push his HP up.

A typical battle:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2380683087#

[Stabbey]

The final battle is kinda annoying, yes.

I think you can mitigate it a little by getting Rean's level up higher, which should raise Valimar's health. What level are you, and do you have any Shining Pom Bait left? (You should get 5 free under the DLC tab). If you have a separate save file before leaving the academy, you can use the Shining Pom bait in the Old Schoolhouse to get a few free level-ups.

What you really need to do is learn the counter moves, because you can't afford to waste time not getting the Assist damage with every attack. Also, make sure not to use your health restoring move above 50%, you want to squeeze as much out of it as you can.

His stances are also tricky because some are visually identical to each other, so you need to pay attention to the audio cue. He seems to mix up his stances/weak points below half health.

- In his default stance, with both arms in the lowered position, the weak point is the ARM.
- When he does the grunt and raises the saber in preparation for a craft, the weak point is the BODY.
- When he says "Think you can handle this?" the weak point is the HEAD.
- When he says "I hope you're ready", the weak point is the BODY.
- When he says "So what're you gonna do?", he'll counter any attack, so DEFEND.

Your choices for spending CP are either keeping STR/SPD up, or using Morning Moon (You usually don't have enough CP/time for both). I would suggest keeping the STR buff up, and specifically make sure to have +50% STR when you're using your Rush/Finisher move which costs 3 BP.

[Zloth]

The stances actually aren't tricky at all after playing through four or five times. I've played that battle at least half a dozen times. ;) The first stance is ALWAYS the arm. The next stance will either be the same one or a different one (you can see it at 18 seconds in my video). Once he goes for the different one, it will ALWAYS be body. In all my battles, he never went to the "handle this" stance that requires a head shot before the "ready" stance that requires the body shot.

After that, watch the stars on your attack type. If he goes to the one where you attack the body but you see a ? instead of stars, switch to the head. After that, always just look for the balance stars.

My Rean is level 65. As you can see in the video, I don't ever miss having a link follow-up attack. I also don't use the heal too early.

Oh, you CAN actually attack while he's defending. The first CP option doesn't do a lot of damage but it can't be blocked so it might be handy for finishing him off if he gets defensive. The one time I tried using the flaming sword attack against his blocking worked, too, but I have no idea if that was a random thing or assured.

Getting the 50% strength is pretty painful. It means taking two attacks plus, very possibly, a link attack. Once I get it red, though, maybe I can keep it going. I'll definitely try that before trying to get more levels. Thanks for the response!

[Koby]

My first playthrough Rean was level 94 due to using up all the Shiny Poms I had. Doing so really made the fight a cakewalk of course... but level 65 seems really low. Should definitely have been able to squeeze another 3-7 level ups in the Old Schoolhouse prior even without the Poms. Besides making the fight easier, getting a better level will also boost your carry over bonuses into Cold Steel 2.

[zefyris]

unless the strength buff really makes a massive difference I would really focus on the dodge, especially dodging all special attacks. Like that last one that killed you, you're not supposed to get hit by that tbh.

[Stabbey]

Originally posted by Koby:

My first playthrough Rean was level 94 due to using up all the Shiny Poms I had. Doing so really made the fight a cakewalk of course... but level 65 seems really low. Should definitely have been able to squeeze another 3-7 level ups in the Old Schoolhouse prior even without the Poms. Besides making the fight easier, getting a better level will also boost your carry over bonuses into Cold Steel 2.

Koby's advice should be taken with a grain of salt, because he has a high tolerance for pointless grinding. Those who didn't grind Shining poms typically reach the final boss no higher than level 65. There's a steep falloff - enemy groups start giving sub-200 XP around level 68.

The average person isn't going to reach level 70 pom-free without a tedious level of grinding - forget level 72 pom-free. Tedious grinding is the last thing the average person wants to do when they're so close to finishing.

Originally posted by zefyris:

unless the strength buff really makes a massive difference I would really focus on the dodge, especially dodging all special attacks. Like that last one that killed you, you're not supposed to get hit by that tbh.

On my first run through, (Hard difficulty) I focused on the dodge and ignored the buff. Like Zloth, it took me about half a dozen attempts to win, and I was level 70. People suggested to me that I use the buff instead.

On my Nightmare playthrough, I tried out the buff and I beat it on the first attempt, and with a surprising amount of health to spare. (Granted, I failed my next several attempts.) This is anecdotal, true, but he may as well try.

It's true that you'll take a couple free hits to build up the buff, but you would ALSO be taking those hits from building up CP for Morning Moon, which costs substantially more.

[Zloth]

I actually did a tiny bit of tedious grinding right at the end. The Wing crystal was about 2K xp short of level 5 and I wanted it for that final boss so I cut down a few extra headless-giant-armor things to get it. I probably would have been 64 otherwise. Never used a pom.

As I had to quit out of the game, I expect I'll be back at the Academy gates again. I'll give Rean some STR buffs instead of HP and see how my stats look in the final fight. Once I actually get to the battle, it's pretty short so I'll be free to experiment a little.

[Koby]

Originally posted by Stabbey:

Koby's advice should be taken with a grain of salt, because he has a high tolerance for pointless grinding. Those who didn't grind Shining poms typically reach the final boss no higher than level 65. There's a steep falloff - enemy groups start giving sub-200 XP around level 68.

But I did say he should be able to squeeze 3 more levels out without Poms which would mean he'd hit 68, then you admit that level 68 is possible... So you're agreeing with me while saying to take my advice with a grain of salt?

I think those three levels by themselves would likely benefit the final fight, but even so, everyone is given some free Poms to use even if they didn't buy the DLC, so might as well use them.

[Stabbey]

I used level 68 as an example because I had a save file with characters at that level so I could check how much XP a battle gives. That file was post-using the Pom bait - which I did recommend using.

[Zloth]

Pah, so much for the grand experiment. I did actually have a LOT of strength powers on Rean as well as HP. I put a little more in but taking my strength from 1207 to 1267 didn't make any noticeable difference.

The strength focus did work, though. I lost once because I didn't plan well and had to heal when the STR counter was down to 1 but I got through it the second time. The Microsoft... ummm.... Azure Knight got one of his super attacks in then went defensive so I had to use the Moon defense but it actually let me dodge and counter this time. Then, critically, Azure went to an attack stance instead of defense which let me finish him off with just a few thousand HP left.

So it still took some luck but I got through it! Thanks folks!