any tips on "The Journey's End" quest?

[MelonMan_RL]

Finding it impossible to beat Azwel in this quest, tried so many times :/

[Sicmendor Obscurox]

Same here. My best so far is 1 round won.

First my observations:
- If you guard all the time, you'll see that Azwel doesn't grab you in that stage (however, don't forget about Guard Crush).
- If he launches you to the air, it is very possible that he'll do a critical edge, dealing a lot of damage.
- He oftenly attacks in combos. He tries to hit-confirm at least in the 1st and 2nd attack (maybe in the 3rd too, I'm not sure), and if he doesn't hit-confirm in those attacks he stops.

My first suggestion is to pay close atention to him, and you may find strategies or openings.

My second suggestion is to not focus too hard in that quest. You can train and level up doing other quests, master the other weapon styles and even try to defeat the Ancients. Knowing that you'll level up and that you'll get better weapons, you can go back and try again this main quest from time to time

And I have the impression that Azwel in that stage can be compared to the Ancients.

[Those Bloody Badgers]

Originally posted by The Majestic:

Finding it impossible to beat Azwel in this quest, tried so many times :/

As has been said, try grinding for new weapons and levels. Definitely not fun, but perhaps the most reliable option
Other than that he has some glaring openings, such as: after 2 either vertical or horizontal auto combo hits there'll be a moment for you to intervene and strike him, however it has to be a fast enough attack to hit, grabs don't seem to land either. His ax jump attack can be fairly easily sidestepped and punished but the recovery time on it can be somewhat deceiving so don't linger with the counter attack.
Generally I found that faster, nimbler fighting styles such as Taki, Maxi, Raphael or Xiaghua work the best although if you're not comfortable with those it's probably better to stick with what you know

[Sicmendor Obscurox]

Originally posted by Those Bloody Badgers:

Originally posted by The Majestic:

Finding it impossible to beat Azwel in this quest, tried so many times :/

As has been said, try grinding for new weapons and levels. Definitely not fun, but perhaps the most reliable option
Other than that he has some glaring openings, such as: after 2 either vertical or horizontal auto combo hits there'll be a moment for you to intervene and strike him, however it has to be a fast enough attack to hit, grabs don't seem to land either. His ax jump attack can be fairly easily sidestepped and punished but the recovery time on it can be somewhat deceiving so don't linger with the counter attack.
Generally I found that faster, nimbler fighting styles such as Taki, Maxi, Raphael or Xiaghua work the best although if you're not comfortable with those it's probably better to stick with what you know

I agree with that, I have been trying with Astaroth Style, though I have considered changing into Raphael's because he has many hits in the same combo.

I forgot to mention earlier: reading the combat lessons in the pause menu can help you learn and improve regarding your favorite character(s) and has some universal fighting tips in Soul Calibur, it's worth a look into it and even practice the technices in training/mock battle.

[Rez Elwin]

I did this at level 62, wasn't too bad. I went in with a custom 3 slot weapon. 15% Increased Damage, 20% Auto Counter and 20% heal on reversal edge. Then used food to further increase my reversal edge heal. Play as normal using reversal edge when health is needed and only use Meter for Soul Charge, don’t bother with Critical Edge.

[unclassified]

Originally posted by Rez Elwin:

I did this at level 62, wasn't too bad. I went in with a custom 3 slot weapon. 15% Increased Damage, 20% Auto Counter and 20% heal on reversal edge. Then used food to further increase my reversal edge heal. Play as normal using reversal edge when health is needed and only use Meter for Soul Charge, don’t bother with Critical Edge.

do you even get something by beating it?

[Rez Elwin]

Originally posted by unclassified:

Originally posted by Rez Elwin:

I did this at level 62, wasn't too bad. I went in with a custom 3 slot weapon. 15% Increased Damage, 20% Auto Counter and 20% heal on reversal edge. Then used food to further increase my reversal edge heal. Play as normal using reversal edge when health is needed and only use Meter for Soul Charge, don’t bother with Critical Edge.

do you even get something by beating it?

Access to next chapter and an Achievement. That's not the end of the game, there are 7 chapters.

[Climhazzard]

I beat it with a weapon that had 5% soul charge on hit, and 15 or 20% life drain. Sophitia. I just spammed the heck out of B-B-B-B while soul charged, it's probably easy to side step but the AI doesn't know that so you can just mash it on them until it guard breaks them because they can't retaliate.

[Sejman22]

I beat him after 4 hours, yes im bad (Seong Mina 57 lvl waepon with critical DMG boost), becouse when i beat him twice row, last round difficulty increase from very hard to impossible. AI starts cheating on 3rd round (always blocking when he attacks me, and start use infinite 10 hits combo + critical edges impossible to evade even with side steps). Solution: Dont waste criticals on two first win round, 3rd round just spam basics A A A, A A B, use throws and critical edges when azwel is on ground/air. This Boss is like Seth from SF4. Frustrating combo spammer with increased DMG and attacks speed.

[TangoBunny]

After almost giving up on this mode, I finally managed to beat this mission.

In Dhaka, there's an expensive item for sale called Goat Ghee, which restores 40% HP if you land a reverse edge. All I had to do was use that item and spam the Reverse Edge button until I eventually won.

Normally I'd be happy, but given there's several more chapters and all the regular opponents have psychic AI now, I'm not having that much fun! At least I know I can always fall back on the Goat Ghee if I get completely stuck again.

[Sicmendor Obscurox]

I just defeated Azwel and finished that quest. Here's my setup:

- Character at Lv 57
- Weapon: Blessed Acolyte Lv. 41 (Astaroth Style) with 261 - 298 power and critical rate 3% with the following bonuses:
+ Critical damage +20% during Soul Charge
+ 20% health recovered on Critical Edge Hit
+ Health +15%
- Food used: Goat Ghee (thanks TangoBunny) which restores 40% HP on Reversal Edge Hit.

The setup alone is not enough, so in combat I had to combine guard and then grab when Azwel stops attacking, Reversal Edges, Critical Edges when he wakes up and even cornering Azwel against the border (the edge) and spamming B (verticals) continuously.

I admit that it was difficult with the Astaroth Style, though I did it. There are many (correct) ways to complete this quest, the key is to plan and put what bonuses you want in your weapon and most importantly use food in that stage.

To get better food you should do the sidequests inside the towns, the effort is really worth it for this difficult combat and the following possible ones.

I wish you good luck.

[Haru]

Originally posted by Sicmendor Darkaxe:

And I have the impression that Azwel in that stage can be compared to the Ancients.

The martial philosphy ancient is MUCH more difficult.

[MelonMan_RL]

thanks for the tips guys, I just went through the story too fast apparently, only lvl 52 right now.

[Mesond]

This fight is just plain BS. They seem to have scripted him so that his ultimate move will ALWAYS hit you. Technically you can block it but he'll never use it when you're guarding. It's going to be when you're already in the air from a hit. Or whenever you're not currently guarding. And if you hit the guard key/button when he does that move he'll STILL hit you with it because it's impossible to guard in time after the move is played. His spinning attack does a lot of damage, so it wears down your guard. Then he'll probably attack again. If it hits there's a chance it will break your guard, then he basically murders you. Instead of guarding after that attack side step instead. But even then there's 50/50 odds that he'll hit you or not. You can't counter hit after the spinning attack becuase he's FASTER then you and WILL hit you if he attacks again. He'll either attack and hit you or not attack and you hit him. BUT IT'S ALL DOWN TO LUCK!

I could probably beat him if I had a better weapon, but the quests at this point are lower level and I got no idea how to grind for better weapons other then hoping to just get lucky. Got a level 62 weapon so far, but I want to try and get a level 70. If nothing else I still got two "clone" bosses to fight on the side quests. Which are probably easier then this cheap fight. At least with the ancient it's a fair fight of guarding and knowing when to attack.

Long story short, this fight is down to luck over skill. You got to make the right moves and even then it's still all luck based. One wrong move and its game over. Or at least a match over. Unless luck is on your side then you can make a mistake or two. But if luck is on HIS side he'll combo you three times in a row and bring you to near death or kill you.

And this is when I'm nearly level 60 with a level 52 weapon.I'm actually doing better against the level 75 anchient then I am against Azwel. And I'm pretty sure the anchient is supposed to be a side boss that's harder for higher level/better skilled players. That says it all really.

[klimat13]

I was able to beat normal Azwel on my first try, then lose to the buffed & charged up Azwel once 2 rounds to 3, then won 3 rounds to 0 in a rematch, he was fun, fair and not too hard. Maybe you need to go do some quests and level up.
If you can't beat Azwel, how are you ever gonna beat God Kilik etc.?

[Mesond]

Originally posted by klimat13:

I was able to beat normal Azwel on my first try, then lose to the buffed & charged up Azwel once 2 rounds to 3, then won 3 rounds to 0 in a rematch, he was fun, fair and not too hard. Maybe you need to go do some quests and level up.
If you can't beat Azwel, how are you ever gonna beat God Kilik etc.?

You're obviosuly the only person that seems to think so. You're either one of the few very skilled players, happened to use a weapon better suited to fight against him or was a really high level. Either way you're not listening to what other people are saying about him. Perhaps he feels fair to you, but to many many others he's quite overpowered. What makes this worse is that there's not even a difficulty setting for this. Once you're this far in the game you can beat pretty much anything else as well. Players that want to just get things over with at this point hit a brick wall and players that want other tough enemies have nothing else worth fighting. Even people stuck on Azwel find most other fights at this point too easy (except the Kilik and ancient, obviously. Who I argue are a bit easier then Azwel).

So what weapon did you use? And if you're so certain of your own skills perhaps you could post a youtube video fighting him with three wins in a row. Other players could then see how to fight him.