Stage 8 Mission Extravaganza, Vol. II

Mission 45: Neochu (R:IC strategy)
Battle Time: It depends. My best was 2:42.
Battle Rating: Five Stars

Sazh: Rigels + Warrior's Wristband, Warrior's Wristband, and Energy Sash
Vanille: Healer's Staff + Diamond Bangle, Sorcerer's Mark, and Sorcerer's Mark
Snow: Umbra + Gaian Ring*, Gaian Ring*, and Warrior's Wristband

Sazh/Vanille/Snow
Com/Com/Com
Com/Rav/Com
Syn/Syn/Sen
Sab/Med/Sen
Sab/Med/Sen
Sen/Sen/Sen

I know we all don't like R:IC (right, atari?) but there is so much payoff in this fight since chaining up to stagger is long and potentially won't work. I think including a R:IC strategy will be necessary.

My goal was to plan out a sustainable fight so that the player doesn't need to retry over and over again. Still, you can't just spam this forever in case you lower your star rating or are wasting your time because of the RNG.

Start in Tortoise and double Libra or Librascope before leaving it. Queue up five Steelguards. Once they begin to execute, switch to Attrition. You have to get full info before switching because Snow might hit with Entrench after triggering R:IC if you don't. It doesn't take very long. The Steelguards are so you can execute them quickly to protect against Screech.

Spam Imperil in Attrition and switch between the two. After five or so regular Neochu attacks, it will grunt a bit and use Screech. You should be in Tortoise prepared to use your Steelguard chain before he uses it. Don't execute Steelguard early so that you don't have to wait forever for an ability to finish when you switch paradigms. Switch immediately to Attrition after Screech. Continue with Imperil until you see Pollen. Use Dispelga and switch to Prudent Planning.

Cast Haste-Bravery on yourself and Snow and Haste-Faith on Vanille (in this order). Go back to Attrition and keep going with Imperil. Switch to Tortoise for Screech (it should be after a Pollen and four regular attacks).

After the second Screech and all the future ones, switch right to Supernatural. Repeat Haste-Faith on Vanille and then Haste-Bravery on the others. She wants Haste first so she can get Veil up in time. Switch to Attrition for more Imperil. Keep doing this until R:IC.

Don't jump the gun if R:IC triggers. You can survive essentially indefinitely so never try to beat a Pollen or a Screech before moving to damage dealing. Just let them happen. Switch to Aggression when you have Haste + offensive Augment and a regular Neochu attack just happened (you don't want to get hit by one of these with no Sen out or you will die. Interrupt Neochu with double Blitz after Snow and Vanille stagger, and switch to Cerberus during the animation so Snow can immediately Launch after your attacks. Switch between Cerberus and Aggression to keep Neochu juggled and kill it.

Some quick justification: I found that I would rather have Vanille keeping HP up than helping with R:IC since it lowers my damage dealing and also requires Heavenly Axis. Also, spamming Imperil is the way to trigger it because you have an extra chance to trigger when the debuff sticks. Blitz won't work because of Neochu's high chain resistance. I'll start working on the regular strategy next.
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CWLSIV

Dragoon Lance makes a huge difference in my ability to chain before triggering Seed Dispersal. Defaith is not necessary on Fang (though you might as well not remove it). It's harder to survive with this party, but it is manageable.
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CWLSIV

Mission 45: Neochu (No R:IC)
Battle Time: 19:38
Battle Rating: Five Stars

Vanille: Healer's Staff? (I accidentally used the Belladonna Wand but I'm not sure if that is correct) + Diamond Bangle, General's Belt, and Black Belt*
Fang: Dragoon Lance + Warrior's Wristband, Warrior's Wristband, and Black Belt
Snow: Umbra + Gaian Ring, Gaian Ring, and Warrior's Wristband

Vanille/Fang/Snow
Com/Com/Com
Sab/Syn/Sen
Med/Syn/Sen
Sab/Rav/Sen
Med/Rav/Sen
Sen/Sen/Sen

You might have had a lower a lower battle time than me, tiornys, but I had four extra seconds to spare instead of your measly three.

I went a little overkill on offensive accessories, I think. It really isn't that difficult to take Neochu down once you stagger it. I did use Renew right before offense to get up to green so I might just go with High HP: Power Surge on Fang. She does practically no damage with Dragoon Lance + Defaith (if you get it) so I don't think it will be an issue. A little extra breathing room would be nice. I could just go with defensive accessories but it honestly isn't that difficult to survive once you get the pattern down. Snow should probably have another defensive accessory though. I'll look into these later.

Start in Premeditation and Libra or Librascope. You'll have to fit a second Libra in before Screech if you don't use the scope. Honestly, there's a lot you can do with TP in this fight so just use the Librascope if you have one. Save it for Dispelga if you screw up and can't get Veil on your characters before Pollen or for an extra Renew if someone dies. Just save enough TP for a Renew at the end because it is worth it.

Spam Imperil in Premeditation for a round. Switch to Entourage to heal. Use Matador for most of your chaining purposes. After five attacks, the next hit will be Screech. You need to be in Tortoise and use Mediguard to block it, so don't wait until you see the ability name to switch paradigms. This is how you will die in this fight.

After Screech head back to Premeditation for a round of Imperil and switch to Protection for Curaja spam. The goal is for Fang to get Haste and Veil on everyone. She can usually get Veil on two people but sometimes she has trouble getting it on the third. It should be okay. I never lost because of it (though she might die. It didn't happen but it is possible). Switch to Entourage and remove the most important statuses (Deprotect or Imperil on Snow and Defaith on Vanille) before moving on to Matador for Imperil spam. Switch back and forth between Entourage and Matador to chain, remove status ailments, and heal up for the next Screech. Once again, there are five total moves between the two (I think. I just sort of react on instinct). Make sure Screech does not catch you by surprise.

Once you get high enough for the next cycle to stagger Neochu, spend extra time in Premeditation after Pollen for Fang to buff with Bravera and Faithra. Build up the chain duration with Imperil and approach the stagger point. Either stagger here or stagger in Matador. Use Renew to fully heal and chain Ruin to keep Neochu in the air. Some of your -ra buffs will wear off but it doesn't really matter. You'll be doing plenty of damage. Just make sure that Neochu is very close to staggering (~880%) when you start buffing -ra buffs.
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CWLSIV

I'm not going to fight Mission 36 without Dispelga for Fog again. Forget Veil and forget White Capes. Both are terrible by comparison. I still die a lot but that has more to do with the strategy being inconsistent than anything else. Single Med means you are screwed if they decide to go after the Med.

Why doesn't your Sazh use Barthunder, tiornys?

My Mission 42 strategy is littered with errors. I was going to check the buffing vs. debuffing thing but I got distracted.
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CWLSIV

You don't have control over the healer, though. Vanille just gets hacked to pieces. Her dying doesn't mean that it is a game over, but I'd rather just retry than waste a Phoenix Down or 2 TP on her.

I can see recommending Mallets, but why would we want to recommend maxing out three copies of a terrible accessory when they can just use Dispelga instead? Sazh wasn't casting Barthunder in your video.

I'm not sure if Neochu can be beaten at Stage 8 without Random: Instant Chain if Fang knows strikes. It's unfortunate. That might not be the final answer, but it is the one that I'm coming up with.
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CWLSIV

Mission 47: Raktavija
Battle Time: 2:58
Battle Rating: Five Stars

Fang: Calamity Spear + Witch's Bracelet*, Witch's Bracelet*, and Witch's Bracelet*
Vanille: Belladonna Wand + Witch's Bracelet*, Witch's Bracelet*, and Witch's Bracelet*
Snow: Power Circle + Witch's Bracelet*, Witch's Bracelet*, and Witch's Bracelet*

Fang/Vanille/Snow
Syn/Sab/Sab
Syn/Med/Syn
Sab/Med/Med
Sab/Rav/Rav
Com/Sab/Rav
Com/Com/Com

Start in Espionage and Libra. Cast Haste-Shellra on yourself, Vanille, and then Snow. Switch to Perseverance for Slow or Pain (if Slow is already inflicted and Pain isn't) unless it hasn't already used Multicast. In that case, use Smart Bomb. Generally I try to use Smart Bomb/Perseverance for three full rounds before going back to buff Haste-Shellra. Use a bit of Espionage if you don't have Imperil or just Recuperation instead. Go back for three more rounds of chaining. Continue this until you are fully buffed and Raktavija is just about staggered. This time in Recuperation you should buff Bravera, and then jump to Ruthless. Get a couple swings in to build up duration while Snow does the last of the chaining.

Once it is staggered, execute a full string immediately while Vanille inflicts Deprotect and Snow chains a little. Switch to Cerberus at the beginning of Fang's long final hit. Keep yourself adequately alternated with Snow so that it can't use Dispelga. I was able to win three times in a row, but I'm at the border of being too weak to win in one stagger. It's dangerous. Malboro Wand would help a lot, as well as a T1* weapon for Snow.
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CWLSIV

Was that part about Deprotect and Fang buffing directed at me or at atari? Nevermind. I just noticed the times.

Deprotect was never an issue. I always had plenty of time to remove it before Screech.
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CWLSIV

I'd probably have to lose Espionage and trade Recuperation for Supernatural. That doesn't sound all that bad, actually. The only issue is that Vanille does nothing when you go to rebuff so you have to use more Perseverance to stay alive. I guess that is mitigated by Tortoise, though.

I don't remember your Adamanchelid strategy off the top of my head, but that sounds like a good time for Auto-Protect. It won't cost you much speed to trade a defensive accessory for this. If you aren't using any defensive accessories it will slow you down but it can't be more than 5-10 seconds, right?
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CWLSIV

Here's a revised Mission 42 strategy:

Mission 42: Borgbear Hero + Borgbear x4
Battle Time: 1:28
Battle Rating: Five Stars

Fang: Calamity Spear + Warrior's Wristband, Warrior's Wristband, and Black Belt*
Vanille: Belladonna Wand + Sorcerer's Mark, Black Belt*, and Aurora Scarf
Sazh: Spica Defenders + Warrior's Wristband, General's Belt, and Aurora Scarf

Fang/Vanille/Sazh
Sab/Sab/Syn
Sab/Med/Syn
Com/Rav/Com
Com/Rav/Com
Com/Rav/Rav
Com/Com/Com

Start in Espionage and try to quickly cast Painga before being interrupted. Cast Painga again and shift to Evened Odds. Continue to spam Painga until you are out of danger (it shouldn't take long as many of the Borgbears will have Pain by now). Then switch back to Espionage and use Painga until Pain is inflicted on all of them. Then use Fogga until you see Vanille cast Deprotega. Once you see this, jump to Aggression and Blitz/Attack the Borgbears to kill them all. They should be staggered or close to staggered at this point so they can be defeated easily. Use the other Aggression as necessary. Once they are all dead, use Cerberus to kill the Borgbear Hero. If it is not staggered, use Relentless Assault first to stagger it.

Sazh wasn't able to fully buff himself but that doesn't really matter.
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CWLSIV

You've got Stage 8 right. We are using secondary roles. They're pretty important for the later missions.
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CWLSIV