Used one of those double gil books yesterday on the golden cactuars. You get like 8.1k gil per round or something (lvl 50) so like ~80k through all 10, which you can do in less than 30 min. By the time the 30 min was up I had about 100k.
I think using the gil (or gil/xp/loot) books in combo with some cycle keys is enough for me to not feel like I have to grind in hope dojo like it's a job when most of the weapons I don't really need maxed anyway.
Level 50 event wasn't too bad, just used the bonus yuna/hope/vanille.
Anything not 4* or higher gets used for the upgrade mill, basically.
Are you keeping 4* in the hopes that eventually you'll get 4 copies of one, Max it out, and teach something like +340 HP to someone? Feels like hopeless busywork given the mats it takes to Max enhance something.
I am keeping 4* weapons in the vain hope I'll eventually be able to teach a low-impact passive to people, yeah. Also for some weapon types that's the best weapon I'll have available. At the moment my best daggers are 4*, my best thrower is 3*, and if I want to bring Yuna and Vanille to the event fight one of them will have a 4* staff.
4* armor is the best you can do for armor until your characters get an event with armor and/or we get the armor redemption shop, so definitely keep those.
Mulching 4* equipment for upgrade xp is only worth a few runs of the Carbuncle dungeon or a few runs through the Hope dojo, I don't feel like I'm especially gimping myself by hanging on to that stuff.
So, whats the lowdown on Vanille. Is she supposed to be any good?
If you can equip her with a staff of some sort, she's very good for the event, at least. The buffs that the Berserker Armor puts on itself are no joke.
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silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
Anything not 4* or higher gets used for the upgrade mill, basically.
Are you keeping 4* in the hopes that eventually you'll get 4 copies of one, Max it out, and teach something like +340 HP to someone? Feels like hopeless busywork given the mats it takes to Max enhance something.
I am keeping 4* weapons in the vain hope I'll eventually be able to teach a low-impact passive to people, yeah. Also for some weapon types that's the best weapon I'll have available. At the moment my best daggers are 4*, my best thrower is 3*, and if I want to bring Yuna and Vanille to the event fight one of them will have a 4* staff.
4* armor is the best you can do for armor until your characters get an event with armor and/or we get the armor redemption shop, so definitely keep those.
Mulching 4* equipment for upgrade xp is only worth a few runs of the Carbuncle dungeon or a few runs through the Hope dojo, I don't feel like I'm especially gimping myself by hanging on to that stuff.
So, whats the lowdown on Vanille. Is she supposed to be any good?
If you can equip her with a staff of some sort, she's very good for the event, at least. The buffs that the Berserker Armor puts on itself are no joke.
You need to get Vanille to Crystal STR 20 for Dispel, which is the relevant ability.
Threw 7 tickets into the Vanille banner and got a 5*! Edge's Katana. Ok sure why not. Did a pull and got Yuna and Vanille 5*s as well which is pretty cool. Getting a decent range of 5* equipment at this point which is good I think. I can't think of a type I am missing off hand.
I started this yesterday and have to say it's quite addicting. The lack of energy is refreshing.
Yeah, I'm really liking the story mode. I just blazed through the normal story, now I'm on to the hard versions, which are a bit slower going.
The hardest two missions in chapter 1 to complete were the first two, trying to get my score to the goal was really difficult. Is score just based off of damage taken and turns? Does "overkill" or anything like that taken into account?
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. ~ Terry Pratchett
I started this yesterday and have to say it's quite addicting. The lack of energy is refreshing.
Yeah, I'm really liking the story mode. I just blazed through the normal story, now I'm on to the hard versions, which are a bit slower going.
The hardest two missions in chapter 1 to complete were the first two, trying to get my score to the goal was really difficult. Is score just based off of damage taken and turns? Does "overkill" or anything like that taken into account?
Raw 'score seems to be based off of the metrics at the top of the victory screen. Turns taken, and damage/breaks received
Turns taken seems to be the most important metric for high score, I think it's worth taking a break in order to shave a turn. Try adding one or more characters with a BRV+HP attack if you don't have any in your team, that can save you some turns, particularly against weaker enemies.
I think overkills also grant you some extra score, but I'm not positive.
It's a huge boon that there's no stamina in this game, since if you have trouble hitting all of the correct metrics in a single go, you can easily run a fight twice; once with a lower turn count, and once more defensively, to avoid breaks.
Turns taken seems to be the most important metric for high score, I think it's worth taking a break in order to shave a turn. Try adding one or more characters with a BRV+HP attack if you don't have any in your team, that can save you some turns, particularly against weaker enemies.
I think overkills also grant you some extra score, but I'm not positive.
Yeah, my standard team through the normal mode was WoL, Bartz, and Terra. I leveled up Vaan, and switched out WoL to shave off 1 turn that I needed to get the score. I also realized that Vaan's HP skill (spiral something?) does some brave damage before the hp (and that the "finish him flash" doesn't take that into account), so it can kill things even if it doesn't flash.
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. ~ Terry Pratchett
Correct, the purple "this attack will kill the target" aura doesn't take into account the BRV damage that a BRV+HP attack will do, nor does it factor in any break bonus you might receive. That's something you'll have to get a feel for with practice. You can see how much damage your current BRV will do, which can help to estimate whether the extra BRV you rack up during the attack will get the finish or not.
Both of Vaan's skills are super good for score rush. After you "level up" one of his abilities by using it twice, subsequent uses of that ability get an entire second barrage of BRV+HP afterward, allowing you to potentially deal like 50% more HP damage than your max BRV. Also, both of them are magic attacks, so they work fine at murdering ghosts, flans, and ahrimans.
Wow, that last fight in the Vanille event is no joke. Tried with Terra (correct 5*), Yuna (wrong 5*), Vanille (wrong 4*) and got horribly murdered. Went back with this team and just barely got the full clear:
Assist: some random Bartz that didn't do much. Probably should have been Vivi or Hope or something.
I was lucky in that the Berserker Armor did get off one Flurry but didn't quite break anyone, since I was at full BRV before and it was blind from a Luminescence proc. And the turn it died, it was either going to do another Flurry or just chop someone for 5000 HP that I definitely did not have.
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silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
Yeah, I didn't farm Carbuncle nearly as much as I could have. Ah well! It seems to be the sort of thing that ought to recur, right? Given it has it's own spot on the world map.
FYI to the thread; your Support/Friend unit levels up when the actual unit does, but doesn't automatically equip passives/abilities or change equipment when the actual unit does. You have to go into the Options menu and manually update whenever you unlock more passives/abilities. I see way too many level 50 dudes with bronze gear equipped in my non-friend list, heh.
I have Yuna/Vanille/Y'shtola. All with their 5* weapons (makes a big difference).
It's not as hard as I expected. I didn't get the full clear cause I messed up. It's difficult to not break the armor. I might just need more practice. I'm tempted to try it with WoL just so I can not break easier.
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
Yeah, I didn't farm Carbuncle nearly as much as I could have. Ah well! It seems to be the sort of thing that ought to recur, right? Given it has it's own spot on the world map.
FYI to the thread; your Support/Friend unit levels up when the actual unit does, but doesn't automatically equip passives/abilities or change equipment when the actual unit does. You have to go into the Options menu and manually update whenever you unlock more passives/abilities. I see way too many level 50 dudes with bronze gear equipped in my non-friend list, heh.
That's real dumb, thanks for the heads up. Just updated my Y'shtola.
Finished Quall's event, but only by cheating and using a continue. Though, I guess 100 gems for 3 tickets isn't a bad deal.
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. ~ Terry Pratchett
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
I finished it by the skin of my teeth. Y'shtola was MVP, warrior of light and cloud were dead by the end. Got second armor though so who cares.
No idea if I'll be able to finish the vanille event. Y'shtola is the only magic user I have leveled aside from Hope, and he competes for crystals with WoL.
Without WoI and with current events/content finished, not really sure what to do each day aside from the dailies, which is ok I guess. I could grind up levels on unused characters, but then I lose out on SP refreshes with rank ups, so feel like I should wait for the next WoI. I could grind hope dojo but that's pretty painful and sucks the fun out of it, and also seems a little futile for 15cp weapons I don't have enough dupes of or with passives that don't seem super important. Maxed Cloud and have Vaan/Terra/Yuna as high as I have dupes for, most of the rest of the weapons I have seem like just busywork. Guess I could bump WoL's.
I could use cycle keys/books to max crystal strength on good units that aren't finished yet, but doesn't seem like there's a particular rush so just the dailies seem ok for now. Plus without maxed weapons/armor I wouldn't have CP for all the strong passives yet anyway.
If I'm not doing anything and am near my phone I can auto some stages for xp/whatever but otherwise doesn't seem like there's a lot to do, or really a need to pull for until some good 35cp stuff comes up. Plus if this Vanille event was the relatively hardest one in JP to date (some people said that on reddit, no idea if the case) then seems like once you're caught up then this is pretty much just some casual fun/content, which is ok.
Yeah, I would recommend not levelling up characters you aren't going to use, to save rank ups for when there's a World of Illusion you can farm.
After you're done with your daily cycle quest, if you don't feel like grinding the Hope dojo for upgrade materials, options include:
- guest multiplayer: behemoth drops ~70 crystals per run, mostly tier 1. Marlboro is a more annoying fight and drops mostly tier 2 crystals, which seem less valuable
- spend cycle keys to top off crystal levels of good characters, or start working on other characters you like/can equip
- farm the story dungeons for summon upgrade mats. If you click on an upgrade material to read the description, it suggests a region where they're most likely to be found.
Yeah, I didn't farm Carbuncle nearly as much as I could have. Ah well! It seems to be the sort of thing that ought to recur, right? Given it has it's own spot on the world map.
FYI to the thread; your Support/Friend unit levels up when the actual unit does, but doesn't automatically equip passives/abilities or change equipment when the actual unit does. You have to go into the Options menu and manually update whenever you unlock more passives/abilities. I see way too many level 50 dudes with bronze gear equipped in my non-friend list, heh.
silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
Is there any way to prevent a broken Gaia Behemoth from recovering to it's initial BRV level on its turn, and using an HP Attack that same turn? It's nearly one shotting my team.
This game is legit impossible to complete anything for me. Everything murders me.
Is there any way to prevent a broken Gaia Behemoth from recovering to it's initial BRV level on its turn, and using an HP Attack that same turn? It's nearly one shotting my team.
This game is legit impossible to complete anything for me. Everything murders me.
Is there any way to prevent a broken Gaia Behemoth from recovering to it's initial BRV level on its turn, and using an HP Attack that same turn? It's nearly one shotting my team.
This game is legit impossible to complete anything for me. Everything murders me.
Yeah I don't understand how he does that at all, or how to prevent it. I'm not sure what the point of a high DEF stat is when you always take as much HP damage as the enemy mob has BRV. Maybe high DEF reduces BRV lost to BRV attacks?
Is there any way to prevent a broken Gaia Behemoth from recovering to it's initial BRV level on its turn, and using an HP Attack that same turn? It's nearly one shotting my team.
This game is legit impossible to complete anything for me. Everything murders me.
Yeah I don't understand how he does that at all, or how to prevent it. I'm not sure what the point of a high DEF stat is when you always take as much HP damage as the enemy mob has BRV. Maybe high DEF reduces BRV lost to BRV attacks?
I kinda thought it was a sort of a rage mechanic. He seemed to be doing it more (and took off more HP) the longer the fight went on.
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. ~ Terry Pratchett
Yeah, DEF reduces the damage you take from BRV attacks. It's not useless, but it's not as important a stat as ATK or Max BRV, IMO.
Here are all the effects that happen when a unit is broken:
- the unit's opponents gain BRV bonus
- all BRV attacks against the unit are crits
- the unit can't deal HP damage (enemies are smart enough to not use HP attacks when broken)
- the unit can't lose BRV
- the unit regenerates an increasing amount of BRV each turn
Break status ends when the unit is back above its "Init. BRV". The upshot of this is that against a boss enemy, it will occasionally get turns right after it's recovered from break, and consequently it'll have a bunch of BRV it can use to deal a strong HP attack. One way you can potentially get around that is just to not ever break the enemy - this is actually a recommended strat against the Berserker Armor, which will apply the "Berserk" buff to itself when it's broken. Doing a no-enemy-break stat typically requires someone like Yuna who can boost your team's BRV with abilities.
The kicker there, apparently, is that the Break status doesn't go away until you go over your Initial BRV. For bosses, that's several thousand BRV, so they start their turn by regenerating a little BRV, go over Initial BRV, and suddenly they have multiple thousands of BRV to murder someone's face with.
It's effectively an Enrage timer because your party can only absorb so many 2500 HP damage shots before you start losing people.
I wonder, then, if Hope's Protect buff lowers HP damage taken. I haven't quite unlocked it for him yet.
The kicker there, apparently, is that the Break status doesn't go away until you go over your Initial BRV. For bosses, that's several thousand BRV, so they start their turn by regenerating a little BRV, go over Initial BRV, and suddenly they have multiple thousands of BRV to murder someone's face with.
It's effectively an Enrage timer because your party can only absorb so many 2500 HP damage shots before you start losing people.
I wonder, then, if Hope's Protect buff lowers HP damage taken. I haven't quite unlocked it for him yet.
Nope, Protect and Shell just cut BRV damage from physical/magical attacks in half.
The kicker there, apparently, is that the Break status doesn't go away until you go over your Initial BRV. For bosses, that's several thousand BRV, so they start their turn by regenerating a little BRV, go over Initial BRV, and suddenly they have multiple thousands of BRV to murder someone's face with.
It's effectively an Enrage timer because your party can only absorb so many 2500 HP damage shots before you start losing people.
I wonder, then, if Hope's Protect buff lowers HP damage taken. I haven't quite unlocked it for him yet.
So looking it up on reddit:
Copy/Pasted from a comment on a similar post.
"in case you’re interested, this is the math. passive bravery regen happens only when you hp attack or get broken. every turn gives you bravery back, as you’ve noticed. the first time you get passive bravery, you start off at 5% your initial bravery. you then gain twice that amount. it doubles. then it doubles again. and finally it gains 2/3 of it’s current value. so assuming you don’t get hit with a brave attack or somehow restore your own bravery, it should take five turns to get back to unbroken status, which would be your initial bravery (the number of bravery you start every battle with). so let’s take 1000 as your initial bravery. if you get broken, or use an hp attack, in the next turn you will heal 50 bravery. add that to twice it’s value, 50 + (50 * 2) = 150. double that = 300. double it again = 600. add 2/3 or 67% to that, 600 * 1.67, and now you’re back at initial bravery, 1000."
If the Behemoth is broken, it gains increasing BRV every turn until its back at its Initial BRV, which is when it becomes unbroken. It takes 5 turns unless you inflict more BRV damage on it, but you can't stop it forever.
If I were to use an Item Doubler and a Cycle Key to farm a bunch of White Crystals, is there a specific difficulty I should spam to get tons of tier 1 and some tier 2 crystals?
Well that was close. I managed to beat the last fight of Vanille's event with one person left standing at like 200 health. Might not be pretty, but a win is a win in the end so I will take it.
If I were to use an Item Doubler and a Cycle Key to farm a bunch of White Crystals, is there a specific difficulty I should spam to get tons of tier 1 and some tier 2 crystals?
Probably the middle difficulty (30) for that specific mix of crystals.
For me, I'm going to use the books and keys to start the grind on tier 3 crystals. To get all the way to STR 50, it costs 1141 tier 1, 930 tier 2, and 550 tier 3 crystals. The highest difficulty cycle dungeon only drops like 8-10 tier 3 crystals (with a doubler, it'd be 16-20) so it's going to take quite a few runs to max out a character. For the lower tier stuff, behemoth co-op pays out roughly 70 tier 1 crystals of random types, and it's pretty quick to run. YMMV
If I were to use an Item Doubler and a Cycle Key to farm a bunch of White Crystals, is there a specific difficulty I should spam to get tons of tier 1 and some tier 2 crystals?
You get more of each type in the higher levels. So stage 4 gives more small and medium crystals than stage 3.
I run whatever stage I can finish in about 2 minutes, which is usually 4 right now.
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I think using the gil (or gil/xp/loot) books in combo with some cycle keys is enough for me to not feel like I have to grind in hope dojo like it's a job when most of the weapons I don't really need maxed anyway.
Level 50 event wasn't too bad, just used the bonus yuna/hope/vanille.
I am keeping 4* weapons in the vain hope I'll eventually be able to teach a low-impact passive to people, yeah. Also for some weapon types that's the best weapon I'll have available. At the moment my best daggers are 4*, my best thrower is 3*, and if I want to bring Yuna and Vanille to the event fight one of them will have a 4* staff.
4* armor is the best you can do for armor until your characters get an event with armor and/or we get the armor redemption shop, so definitely keep those.
Mulching 4* equipment for upgrade xp is only worth a few runs of the Carbuncle dungeon or a few runs through the Hope dojo, I don't feel like I'm especially gimping myself by hanging on to that stuff.
If you can equip her with a staff of some sort, she's very good for the event, at least. The buffs that the Berserker Armor puts on itself are no joke.
You need to get Vanille to Crystal STR 20 for Dispel, which is the relevant ability.
Yeah, I'm really liking the story mode. I just blazed through the normal story, now I'm on to the hard versions, which are a bit slower going.
The hardest two missions in chapter 1 to complete were the first two, trying to get my score to the goal was really difficult. Is score just based off of damage taken and turns? Does "overkill" or anything like that taken into account?
Raw 'score seems to be based off of the metrics at the top of the victory screen. Turns taken, and damage/breaks received
I think overkills also grant you some extra score, but I'm not positive.
Yeah, my standard team through the normal mode was WoL, Bartz, and Terra. I leveled up Vaan, and switched out WoL to shave off 1 turn that I needed to get the score. I also realized that Vaan's HP skill (spiral something?) does some brave damage before the hp (and that the "finish him flash" doesn't take that into account), so it can kill things even if it doesn't flash.
Both of Vaan's skills are super good for score rush. After you "level up" one of his abilities by using it twice, subsequent uses of that ability get an entire second barrage of BRV+HP afterward, allowing you to potentially deal like 50% more HP damage than your max BRV. Also, both of them are magic attacks, so they work fine at murdering ghosts, flans, and ahrimans.
Terra: level 42, STR 38, 5* Falchion (20/20), 4* Silver Armlet (15/15)
Yuna: level 40, STR 35, 5* Oak Staff (20/20), 4* Ceramic Armband (15/15)
Vaan: level 44, STR 40, 5* Platinum Sword (20/20), 4* Knight's Armor (15/15)
Assist: some random Bartz that didn't do much. Probably should have been Vivi or Hope or something.
I was lucky in that the Berserker Armor did get off one Flurry but didn't quite break anyone, since I was at full BRV before and it was blind from a Luminescence proc. And the turn it died, it was either going to do another Flurry or just chop someone for 5000 HP that I definitely did not have.
FYI to the thread; your Support/Friend unit levels up when the actual unit does, but doesn't automatically equip passives/abilities or change equipment when the actual unit does. You have to go into the Options menu and manually update whenever you unlock more passives/abilities. I see way too many level 50 dudes with bronze gear equipped in my non-friend list, heh.
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
Tube: This must be what it felt like to be an Iraqi when Saddam was killed
Bookish Stickers - Mrs. Rius' Etsy shop with bumper stickers and vinyl decals.
It's not as hard as I expected. I didn't get the full clear cause I messed up. It's difficult to not break the armor. I might just need more practice. I'm tempted to try it with WoL just so I can not break easier.
That's real dumb, thanks for the heads up. Just updated my Y'shtola.
No idea if I'll be able to finish the vanille event. Y'shtola is the only magic user I have leveled aside from Hope, and he competes for crystals with WoL.
I could use cycle keys/books to max crystal strength on good units that aren't finished yet, but doesn't seem like there's a particular rush so just the dailies seem ok for now. Plus without maxed weapons/armor I wouldn't have CP for all the strong passives yet anyway.
If I'm not doing anything and am near my phone I can auto some stages for xp/whatever but otherwise doesn't seem like there's a lot to do, or really a need to pull for until some good 35cp stuff comes up. Plus if this Vanille event was the relatively hardest one in JP to date (some people said that on reddit, no idea if the case) then seems like once you're caught up then this is pretty much just some casual fun/content, which is ok.
After you're done with your daily cycle quest, if you don't feel like grinding the Hope dojo for upgrade materials, options include:
- guest multiplayer: behemoth drops ~70 crystals per run, mostly tier 1. Marlboro is a more annoying fight and drops mostly tier 2 crystals, which seem less valuable
- spend cycle keys to top off crystal levels of good characters, or start working on other characters you like/can equip
- farm the story dungeons for summon upgrade mats. If you click on an upgrade material to read the description, it suggests a region where they're most likely to be found.
noted and updated!
Blizzard: Pailryder#1101
GoG: https://www.gog.com/u/pailryder
This game is legit impossible to complete anything for me. Everything murders me.
I don’t know the exact mechanics on that.
However, I used WoL and Rem to get around it.
Yeah I don't understand how he does that at all, or how to prevent it. I'm not sure what the point of a high DEF stat is when you always take as much HP damage as the enemy mob has BRV. Maybe high DEF reduces BRV lost to BRV attacks?
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
Tube: This must be what it felt like to be an Iraqi when Saddam was killed
Bookish Stickers - Mrs. Rius' Etsy shop with bumper stickers and vinyl decals.
https://www.reddit.com/r/DissidiaFFOO/wiki/index/combat
I kinda thought it was a sort of a rage mechanic. He seemed to be doing it more (and took off more HP) the longer the fight went on.
Here are all the effects that happen when a unit is broken:
- the unit's opponents gain BRV bonus
- all BRV attacks against the unit are crits
- the unit can't deal HP damage (enemies are smart enough to not use HP attacks when broken)
- the unit can't lose BRV
- the unit regenerates an increasing amount of BRV each turn
Break status ends when the unit is back above its "Init. BRV". The upshot of this is that against a boss enemy, it will occasionally get turns right after it's recovered from break, and consequently it'll have a bunch of BRV it can use to deal a strong HP attack. One way you can potentially get around that is just to not ever break the enemy - this is actually a recommended strat against the Berserker Armor, which will apply the "Berserk" buff to itself when it's broken. Doing a no-enemy-break stat typically requires someone like Yuna who can boost your team's BRV with abilities.
It's effectively an Enrage timer because your party can only absorb so many 2500 HP damage shots before you start losing people.
I wonder, then, if Hope's Protect buff lowers HP damage taken. I haven't quite unlocked it for him yet.
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
Tube: This must be what it felt like to be an Iraqi when Saddam was killed
Bookish Stickers - Mrs. Rius' Etsy shop with bumper stickers and vinyl decals.
Nope, Protect and Shell just cut BRV damage from physical/magical attacks in half.
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
Tube: This must be what it felt like to be an Iraqi when Saddam was killed
Bookish Stickers - Mrs. Rius' Etsy shop with bumper stickers and vinyl decals.
So looking it up on reddit:
Copy/Pasted from a comment on a similar post.
"in case you’re interested, this is the math. passive bravery regen happens only when you hp attack or get broken. every turn gives you bravery back, as you’ve noticed. the first time you get passive bravery, you start off at 5% your initial bravery. you then gain twice that amount. it doubles. then it doubles again. and finally it gains 2/3 of it’s current value. so assuming you don’t get hit with a brave attack or somehow restore your own bravery, it should take five turns to get back to unbroken status, which would be your initial bravery (the number of bravery you start every battle with). so let’s take 1000 as your initial bravery. if you get broken, or use an hp attack, in the next turn you will heal 50 bravery. add that to twice it’s value, 50 + (50 * 2) = 150. double that = 300. double it again = 600. add 2/3 or 67% to that, 600 * 1.67, and now you’re back at initial bravery, 1000."
If the Behemoth is broken, it gains increasing BRV every turn until its back at its Initial BRV, which is when it becomes unbroken. It takes 5 turns unless you inflict more BRV damage on it, but you can't stop it forever.
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
Tube: This must be what it felt like to be an Iraqi when Saddam was killed
Bookish Stickers - Mrs. Rius' Etsy shop with bumper stickers and vinyl decals.
Probably the middle difficulty (30) for that specific mix of crystals.
For me, I'm going to use the books and keys to start the grind on tier 3 crystals. To get all the way to STR 50, it costs 1141 tier 1, 930 tier 2, and 550 tier 3 crystals. The highest difficulty cycle dungeon only drops like 8-10 tier 3 crystals (with a doubler, it'd be 16-20) so it's going to take quite a few runs to max out a character. For the lower tier stuff, behemoth co-op pays out roughly 70 tier 1 crystals of random types, and it's pretty quick to run. YMMV
You get more of each type in the higher levels. So stage 4 gives more small and medium crystals than stage 3.
I run whatever stage I can finish in about 2 minutes, which is usually 4 right now.