Bravely Default Series

Cheesed the first one by using a Red Mage/Ninja with Turn Tables. Kept Utsusemi up, then revived as quickly as they died, then used the turns I got for Free Lunch/Double Damage (still don't have Amped Strike), High Jump and One More For You. I need a better BP management system, though. Gonna try Rampart as well, now that Edea is maxed out on Valkyrie and Spell Fencer.

You can also just use a spiritmaster to block elemental damage, as long as you're faster than the dragon and keep track of its debuff turns.

Aaaand perfected my dragon strategy. First one was hell, second one was tough, third one was mildly annoying and fourth one was a cakewalk, as I expect the remaining two to be. Quadruple Brave for Free Lunch/three Amped Strikes, taking over a quarter of their HP every time it's used. Utsusemi and Kairai to negate everything but the Breath and Eye attacks, with Turn Tables to keep a BP advantage. Rampart to protect the party from the Breath, and One More For You to keep Rampart up constantly and speed up the attack. A bit of white magic in case I slip up, and I'm gold.

That only works on breath. Bite attacks are considered neutral damage.

Is the bite really that dangerous once you're immune to the breath? To be fair, I was continuously kairaiing it to my Swordmaster when I did it. Seems more reliable than Rampart anyway.

edited 5th Aug '14 2:35:56 PM by Clarste

Rampart protects you from the Breath attacks, which are a near-guaranteed Total Party Kill after applying the elemental weakness. Kairai doesn't affect multiple-target attacks. Bite isn't near as dangerous, but it can still kill off a weakened character.

I'm in the castle now, by the way, the strategy worked wonders. And now I'm finding out that Cerberus are the biggest bitches in the game to fight. Thank God for Torrent.

edited 5th Aug '14 2:56:43 PM by Ninety

You can use Rampart with Hasten World and BP Recovery to give your group complete damage immunity for the entire fight.

The only catch is your Tempaladin has to go at the same time each turn (either before or after the dragon, if they go Before one turn, then After the second, you'll eat an amped dragon breath). You can use the same thing to give your spiritmaster full access to wards.

Of course, these were things I experimented with after hitting the level and job caps, so I doubt people just reaching the dragons should go for stuff like that.

Edit: I just realized, the game came very close to making it nigh impossible to lose. If they had added just one more skill point, then you could take Absorb M. Damage, Absorb P. Damage, Rise from the Dead and Stand Your Ground. Every attack has a 75% chance of not killing you, and if someone does go down, they have a good chance of simply getting back up again.

You can technically use the Auto-Potion skill instead of the Absorb skills, but those use actual potions, so eventually they can deplete your stockpile and start actually killing you.

edited 5th Aug '14 3:04:28 PM by ekimmak

So, Tiz mastered Monk, Pirate and Swordmaster. I'm debating which setup to keep. I'm using the Pirate/Swordmaster skillset, but I don't know whether to use Natural Talent, which gives me obscene damage but makes me a glass cannon and makes me slower by not using agility-boosting items (plus the damage's a bit overkill since I'm at the damage cap, unless I Bravely Second), using the Pirate which is the fastest one because of Fox Tail and Hermes Shoes and has a nice midpoint between power and survivability, or using the Swordmaster with a Black Belt, which does less damage but has a 30% base chance of crit (I don't know what other modifiers there are). Thoughts?

I personally use Swordmaster/Pirate, since the increased armor aptitude makes it arguably the tankiest option over Pirate.

Not sure what the point of Black Belt would be, since you're presumably doing Free Lunch + Amp Strike for max damage.

Yeah, the damage cap is a real bitch. I still got over 30 levels to go till I hit the level cap and damage is mostly irrelevant now.

Technically, Swordmaster/Ninja is the better choice for tanking, because Karai gives the ultimate agro control. But, when you consider the debuffs you get from piracy, the synergy from Free Lunch/Amped Strike, and that Karai demands your BP every turn, and it's pretty clear that Swordmaster/Pirate is the better combination.

How does a Swordmaster/Spiritmaster combo sound? With Free Lunch, you can use Convert BP for free, which in turn allows you to use some of the Spiritmaster's best moves such as Stillness and Enigma more easily since they all cost BP. Plus, since you can use Brave 3 times every turn, this allows you to use Sword Special Moves very quickly.

edited 7th Aug '14 6:46:54 PM by MJTrooper

Kinda overkill, really. I'd say it's better to keep a specialized buffer and damage dealer rather than trying to have one guy do all. Plus, I don't think the Spiritmaster has MP-dependent BP boosting skills?

Convert BP. You get 2 BP in exchange for 25% of your max MP.

Ah, right. Still, it's a rather inefficient option. It's kind of a waste to use Free Lunch to give yourself one meager BP at the exclusion of any other abilities that synergize better with the Swordmaster.

Well, I don't really play the Swordmaster as a fighter with this combination, I play it as a supporter. Being able to prevent status effects, negate damage, and neutralize elemental damage, all of which cost BP, becomes much easier when you can increase your BP at will. And you can use Sword Special Moves pretty easily since this effectively allows you to use Brave all the time.

My team usually consists of a supporter, a healer, and a magic attacker to exploit elemental weaknesses, with the fourth character changing depending on what I need.

edited 7th Aug '14 8:29:51 PM by MJTrooper

So, I got a couple mechanics questions, if anyone knows the answers. First, how do criticals work? Logic would indicate that they would be tied to Dexterity, but nothing in-game says so. Black Belt and katana have a 15 crit bonus and axes have a -3, but you can still crit with them, as with bare hands or any other weapon with no crit modifier. So, anyone know how it works? Second, when an ability does damage based on the damage of an attack (x1.25, x2, that sort of thing), does it assume all hits connect?

My progress through Chapter 6 continues. I have beaten the Caldisla asterisk-bearers for the third time. Still haven't awakened any of the crystals yet.

And in the process, Tiz mastered Monk, Ringabel mastered Merchant, and Edea mastered Valkyrie.

Agnes is one level away from mastering Red Mage, and I just made Tiz a Pirate and Edea a Thief.

Other than those three, the only jobs that I don't have someone who's mastered are Freelancer (highest-level Freelancer is Tiz, at Lv. 10) and Conjurer (which I haven't gotten the Asterisk for yet).

I have no idea what to train Agnes and Ringabel in next. For reference, here's who's mastered what;

• Tiz: Monk, Knight, Swordmaster, Templar, Dark Knight
• Agnes: White Mage, Summoner, Salve-maker, Spiritmaster
• Ringabel: Black Mage, Merchant, Time Mage, Performer, Arcanist
• Edea: Spell Fencer, Ranger, Valkyrie, Ninja, Vampire

I could just have them Agnes and Ringabel use primaries they've already mastered, but then the job points they'd otherwise earn would go to waste. But I can't think of anything other jobs that could be useful for them. What should I do?

Ringabel: Ninja or Red Mage, perhaps. I'm pretty sure Speed is his best stat. Maybe Summoner? High-level Summoners are terrifying.

Agnes: Black Mage

edited 9th Aug '14 4:04:35 PM by asterism

If Ringabel has mastered Black Mage, Summoner is a very good choice. Pierce M.Defence + Summoning can pretty much let you flatten any of the mobs in Vampire Castle with a few shots of Zidasura's Sin. (I hope I got the name right).

edited 9th Aug '14 4:07:32 PM by ekimmak

I think it was Ziusudra's Sin.

edited 9th Aug '14 5:02:43 PM by Balmung

My strategy for Summoning is Conjurer with Summon as the second ability. Summoning Surge + Magic Critical, buff with Deus ex Machina and Susano-o and then just rain down hell.

May be a bit impractical but I love it to bits as a strategy. And it's definitely more fun than Ninja counterstravaganza.

edited 9th Aug '14 5:16:26 PM by asterism

Dark Knight/Conjurer is also insanely strong.

Well, Dark Knight/anything is insane, but eh.

edited 9th Aug '14 5:25:48 PM by Enlong

Dark Knight/Sword Magic works well until you get the sword with in-built drain magic on it. Then Dark Knight alone becomes ridiculous.