Bravely Default Series

Chapter 1: I start this chapter around level 10, I end it around level 20. I raise jobs to level 3-4, enough to use the new spells sold in Ancheim. Grind on the giant worms, spam ice on them but have one hero on healing duty (Blind does nothing to you since your main offense is magical) The game still has the kiddy gloves on, so I take the chance to have Freelancers absorb all JP rewards from bosses.

-The thief: this guy is eezy. He can stole your potions and use them on himself, but spamming magic outdoes his strat. The bigger menace is the spellfencer. Equip Resist Fire skill (black mage rank 4) and anti Silence pendants, ideally. Take the thief under 50% HP and he will leave the battle, so dont hurt the spellfencer.

-The merchant: our friend the spellfencer is present in this battle too. Again ignore him, when his partner is under 50% HP he will leave. But the merchant will start spamming Default then Takeover x 2. Thats 300 fixed damage, and if he hits the same character with both your guys WILL die. Consider leaving him for later when you have more levels.

Orthros is a good Wake-Up Call Boss: his two heads have clear elemental weaknesses to exploit. Good exercise!

-The time mage: third time the spellfencer is here! And you want to focus on him, since this time he will fight to the death. His mage partner will use Veil, Stop (goes away after a couple turns) and Quake, so have your healer in speed call.

Chapter 2: Hope you already unlocked Freelancer's Dungeon Master! The optional dungeons have nasty traps. Grind around Florem to upgrade equipment, level magic based jobs first. Mooks around here are weak to Fire, repeat the strat from last chapter. I finish the chapter at around level 30, jobs at 4-5. Florem Gardens is better than the world map for leveling.

-The ranger: she starts with two helpers, group cast Fira or Thundara to get rid of them, then Fira or Spellblade: Fire on her. She's the easiest of this chapter's Asteriks masters and gives a very good skillset, so nice!

-The summoner: she also has two helpers, but will call them later in the fight. No elemental weakness, but very few HP. DO NOT rush her! Since she will open with an Earth summon (and that HURTS) and do it again every couple turns. Always Defend on your healer and have White magic on your black mage to have high health when the summon arrives, so that you can recover quickly.

-The valkyrie: highest HP yet, no elemental weakness but low magic defense. She can hit everyone with Crescent moon, but needs a turn to rest. Jump is strong but telegraphed, so defend that turn. Spirit barrier is annoying, dont waste MP damaging it.

-The red mage: this pimp packs a punch, can use Charm / Fear, Thundara and decent physical hits. He can (and will) get extra BP thanks to his passive, Revenge. Then he will chain Cure, Thundara and a sword slash. If you think he is too much for you, leave him for later. More levels, new equips, Resist Thunder (Summoner rank 2) and a second Rebuff Locket (from Grapp Keep) help a lot.

Rusalka and its clones are annoying, but with Examine you can track down the true one. Its Dive attacks are physical(?) and telegraphed so dont use squishy jobs here. Spellblade Thunder + Targeting makes short work of it.

Chapter 3: The next dungeon is the Grapp fortress, and also your next Peninsula Of Power. Every mook here is undead, so spam heals and get lots of levels! Level 40+ is a good point to stop, as is job levels 6-7 for jobs with valuable lvl 7 skills. Again, there is a distinction between Asterisk masters you can fight asap and the ones that you should try facing with higher levels and gear.

-The pirate: this guy hits hard! But thats all he has. He debuffs your defense and THEN hits hard, but the idiot will never do it on the SAME character. He is weak to Thunder, so a Spellblade + Targeting (and the dagger with extra damage to humans) makes his big fat HP gauge not that imposing. He is more annoying to find than to defeat.

-The singer: another one thats more annoying to find than to beat! You can kill her fans, but she will call more of them. Thats because they are the actual damage dealers, she is just there to buff them. Blind the goons (Blind inducing knuckles) or Sleep, and they cant do a damm thing agaisnt you! Equip anti Confusion pendants in case they DO land a hit.

-The chemist: has a lot of HP, can use poisonous potions on you (1000 fixed damage! Equip anti Poison pendants at least) and when enough turns have passed, Dark Breath is a guaranteed 9999 attack. Pack a lot of phoenix downs! At some point he will cast Regen and you need to outdamage his healing. You can spam Takeover (Merchant rank 6) to blow your money killing his remaining HP.

-The ninja: the most annoying thing is Utsusemi + Transience, guaranteed Dodge a physical skill AND counter attacks for daring to touch her. Keep your HP high or you risk dying to a Shipunjirai (always hit first in the turn order) So focus on using magic and the chemist's elemental grenades. And Takeover, if you dont mind blowing more money.

-The swordmaster: this guy counterattacks most of the time! He uses 3 kinds of stances, to counter physicals, magic or... anything so you have a 1/3 chance to guess right. If you eat a counterattack you will surely die in one hit, so Default until he goes into BP debt and unload your best skills on him. Shipunjirai can hit before he readies his stances, so cool!

Chaugmar is a disgusting little sh*t. He has a barrier that reduces your hits to 1 damage, and when he finally puts it down, you will get blasted with Energy Burst on the very next turn. So when he puts the barrier down, Default! After Energy Burst, heal up and Spellblade Thunder + your strongest skill twice. Not much of a problem even if he specializes in draining skills.

Chapter 4: Eternia's main city outskirts is your new grinding place. Exp Levels 50+ and jobs at 8-9 for jobs with amazing rank 9 skills like Freelancer, black / white magic, chemist (maybe thief... and Performer?) The ice golem and zombie dragon are insultingly easy at this point. The Guardian robot is harder due to high HP + support cannonballs, but not ''horrifically' so.

(All the Asterisk masters from this chapter are mandatory except the Vampire. Do you brave the six elemental dragons and the lord of blue magic, or leave them for later? There are pros and cons for each option, but I chose to face them. Because juicy plot events and nice blue magics that are lost until the Bonus Dungeon, at which point there are much better builds to use.)

-The arcanist + spiritist: protect yourself agaisnt poison (freelancer rank 9) and Resist Dark pendants and the witch's spells will hurt a lot less. Also use the robes that give +20 Magic Defense. The doctor will try to heal her (and himself) when their HP gets low, so apply Reflect on them. When he is alone Holy spells will become frequent, so beware.

-The templar: he is a tank and Defaults a lot. An awful lot. Dont let his HP gauge fool you, he will auto revive twice. That means SIX digit HP! Debuff him with piracy, buff through a performer and use monk as subjob for its rank 7 skill Qigong wave (hits through Default) Or you could grind that new arcanist job to try its poison + exterminate combo...

The lich is huge, imposing and will raise his offensive stats each time his BP goes negative. He can use party wide physical hits, Earth magic (that heals him) and Death spell. He's undead, so healing hurts him instead, duh. The problem is, Negative Power will max his power in just five turns. Dispel it! Dont let Death stop your momemtum: a chemist can apply Reraise mixing hipotion + X potion.

(Since he is undead, performer's One More reduces his BP, keeping him locked. He will never get a turn!)

-The vampire: it finally happened. I have gone CRAZY. I am facing the vampire right now! He has given the six stones that lock his castle to six dragons hidden in pillars around the world. They use an 'eye' skill that lowers elemental defense then a 'breath' for massive damage + a status effect. If you reach the vampire he is not any easier: he specializes in draining skills. His trump card is Gravity + Bone crush (cuts your HP in half + doubles your lost HP = death) I had to use the infamous Utsusemi build to even dream of winning.

-The dark knight: this guy wont let you save the world until he is gone! Equip Resist Dark pendants, his Dark Banes are nasty and he can multi target them! A white mage with healing lore (chemist rank 9) is great, and templars with Giant slayer are nice. Minus Strike, like the chemist's Dark Breath its 9999 guaranteed damage. Have Compounding to keep Reraise on constantly. Preferably with 2 chars.

Chapter 5: after a Wham Episode our heroes go philosophical on the world's state. Did we go back in time? Were we dreaming? Are we dreaming NOW? Are we clones with implanted memories? A Wizard Did It? There are good and bad news. The bad is that you must rematch all crystal fiends and optionally, the Asterisk masters. The good is that you have your airship from the start, the shops sell spiffy new weapons and magic (inside the Grandship) and monsters are stronger and thus worth more exp and JP. Freelancer's rank 10 skill is your first goal, JP up.

The strategies presented earlier still work, but since you have your asterisks from the start many bosses are easier even with their new inflated stats. You would be surprised at how many of them you can No-Sell via Utsusemi (the physical ones) or how many can't get past all party Reflect (most mages... ninja and swordmaster are trumped by reflected magic.) Summoner gets negated by the spiritist's Spirit Ward, and fixed damage from the merchant and dark knight is alleviated by the chemist itself's Reraise mix.

And I haven't mentioned the ultimate cheesecake in the universe: Stillness (spiritist rank 8) You must make sure you attack first to do damage before Stillness makes everyone inmune, easily done with Shipunjirai.

After 63 hours, this chapter is done. Exp levels 70+ and jobs at 10.

Chapter 6: you get it? Because we are in yet another universe, one where the protagonists dont exist (died before the plot began) At this point there is no reason not to push your levels to the max, since you will want much needed HP and speed and finally master your favorite jobs to get really OP skills. The last job will make the grind much faster.

(the key you get at the start of chapter lets you open blue chests, they have cool stuff!)

-The conjurer: after the mandatory event in the vestment cave Yulyana will give you a hint in a letter: go to Eternia's main headquarters. Following this quest will lead you to fight the dark knight, templar, the Venus sisters (3 at once!) and finally the conjurer himself. He can use super strong Amped strike and Meteor. Its a must to exploit his AI (prioritizes buffing) and keep a fast character Dispelling him. The merchant's Hedge risk works for halving his inmense damage output.

Did you win, son? Now get the conjurer's rank 9 skill, Obliterate. It kills any random mook 20+ levels under you at the start of battle, no questions asked. If they get a preemptive strike you will have to fight normally, though. I set up my build and after millions of years of grind (remember, no online = no Norende = no Growth egg) I have maxed characters.

Chapter 7: once you are at level 99 and mastered jobs (and looted the best stuff from blue chests) you are not gonna get 'stronger' any more. This means you must fight smarter, and select good job combos, passives and team synergy. The asterisk masters are starting to form teams... I will try to list ways you can squeeze all power out of your toolset. To the drawing board!

Physical fighter: a pirate with Free lunch (swordmaster) is practically a surefire 9999, but is BP intensive. Monk with Spellblade: Drain allows for free Phoenix flight (since you recover the HP cost) Or a dark knight with knuckle lore, that also leads to a carnage. Vampire is a distant fourth place, Fireball pierces defense and the other genomes allow a lot of versatility.

Magical nuker: pierce m.defense (black mage) can turn any mage into a walking atomic bomb. Time mage is top of the pack thanks to Meteor, but Black mage may be better if you can strike a weakness. Arcanist with the pierce skill and Free lunch (since its best spell is hella expensive) can be a magic version of dark knight.

Healing hands: if you have a spiritist spamming Stillness you should not even need to heal but since thats no fun a chemist is better than a white mage since they get healing lore for free. Add Holy one (spiritist passive) and if your parnters dont die, they will be healed to max in the same turn. White mage with Group cast all and time magic is also an amazing support.

BP battery: the Freelancer chaining My hero + mimic is the undisputed best at this role. Why not Performer + Miscellany? Well, if you have a lot of mastered jobs the freelancer's base stats are much better, and you want survivability on this character.

Chapter 8: nothing new to see except super difficult boss battles agaisnt four-men bands of Asterisk masters. The developers thought it would be funny to show you a bunch of overpowered combos by having our merry band of Eternian agents do practical demonstrations... first the agents dispatched on each continent, then reshuffled teams that take advantage of their strenghts.

-Monk, knight, white and black mages: AKA Team Final Fantasy I, in Lontano villa.

-Thief, merchant, spellfencer, time mage: Team Corrupt Corporate Executive, in Ancheim's palace.

-Red mage, summoner, hunter, valkyrie: AKA Team Battle Harem, in Florem's secret lab.

-Pirate, singer, ninja, chemist + swordmaster: AKA Team Far East, in Starkfort.

-Vampire and conjurer: AKA Team This Is Gonna Suck (metaforically and literally) In the castle.

You already know what they can do, but these new teams in Eternia HQ are carefully selected around one gimmick. You may want to fine tune your build for each rival team instead of a one-size-fits all setup.

-Thief, valkyrie and merchant: AKA Team Fragile Speedster

-Knight, white mage, ninja and swordmaster: AKA Team Stone Wall

-Pirate, monk, dark knight and singer: AKA Team Status Buff

-Chemist, mage, summoner and conjurer: AKA Team Kill It with Fire

-Red mage, spellfencer, arcanist and vampire: AKA Team Status Effects

-Time mage, templar, spiritist and hunter: AKA Team Time Master

Use these code names to identify the team that gives you trouble, if I can be of help.

This is it. After putting up with the game for 40 hours too many, here come the last challenges.

-The Evil One: weirdly enough, this thing counts as a bug... and is weak to fire. It has a bulky 150k HP, Slaughter is medium to low damage to a level 99 party, Spike guard will counter single target physical skills and it can cause stop, poison, and charm. Not bad, but unless you get unlucky, a team like mine (phoenix flight user, a dark knight, a chemist healer and whatever is needed to break the current boss' strategy) has more than enough power to beat this bugger. BUT! It has a second form!

-The Evil One 2.0: inmediately after the last battle the boss digivolves and starts a new fight. It can now use aga spells and has the Int points to use them. Acedia will erase your buffs and make you weak to every element... and Flare comes after it! Put up Enigma with a fast character with spiritism, or raise your m.defense with a performer: thats the worst it can do to you. Plague instakills anyone suffering an ailment, so cast Esunaga inmediately. Oh, and when it drops below 50% HP it will heal once.

-The Evil One 3.0: This fight is at the end of the Dark Aurora dungeon, but its the same as before... except the boss is turbo charged to the max. It can now cause Dread on top of the other ailments, Slaughter now does medium to high damage, Flare becomes Zeta Flare (and will come right after Acedia spending BP) and it will heal THREE times, totalling 300k HP. It was just an appetizer though...

-True Final Boss: He starts the battle looking like Freelancer Tiz. He can use a number of skills from asterisks, the most dangerous of which are Minus Strike and Doom (wear Safety rings! If you dont have 4, put them at least on your healer and your BP battery. Alternatively, you can have a fast character use Fairy guard) Once he assumes his true form, Zeroth Dimension causes instadeath too, but you should already be protected. Dont worry about his infinite regen, just deal damage. After some scenes, he adds Demon touch, which makes you lose 1 BP (check your Fairy guard turns carefully!) More scenes, and he adds Celestial touch (+50% to his offensive stats. Dispel it fast!) and Armaggedon (obscene damage to all members! A performer's Buff up helps, Low leverage as a panic solution) After 3 Armaggedons, more scenes... and his final skill, Divergence (disables all your commands except Summon friend) If he strikes your healer its bad news, but try your best to survive. This form is the last, so dont lose hope and use those damm Megalixirs if needed!

CONGRATS, YOU ARE WINNER!