The Battle of Cleyra

After messing up in the last battle twice, I finally made it through this part. I haven't played at all most days, but I'm still tired of being on this one segment.

I started by heading to the entrance of Cleyra and making a couple changes in my equipment. I gave Zidane the Mage Masher, Mythril Vest, and Germinas Boots, and Vivi the Gold Choker. I also made sure everyone was in the back row. Then I went down the trunk, picking up the rest of the treasures along the way. I used MT Bio against all three pairs of soldiers, giving Vivi an Elixir after the second one. When I got back to the settlement I defeated the black mage with a single casting of Stop. As I went to save, I healed up Zidane, who was down to 2 HP, gave Vivi another Elixir, and changed Freya's equipment to prepare for her last level gain before Tantarian. She got the Mythril Spear, Iron Helm, Mythril Gloves, Linen Cuirass, and Glass Buckle. I also gave Zidane back the Butterfly Sword and moved him to the front row. I then picked up the next Mognet letter and saved.

The first battle after the save was against three soldiers. Since Zidane now had the Butterfly Sword (necessary for the next battle) I had Quina as backup for Vivi in case Bio didn't do enough damage. It turned out to not be necessary on my successful run, but it's possible for Quina to save the situation in such a case. The next battle went perfectly. Quina began by petrifying one of the mages. Zidane then attacked the other one, Freya jumped, and Vivi toasted the party with MT Fira. The mages didn't even get a turn! Freya leveled up to 8 and is now at the maximum level she can afford with my current set of equipment. I had originally planned to have Freya kill the first mage since it shows up by itself, but this way turns out to be much faster.

Before the next battle, I made sure to revive and heal everyone and switch out Freya's equipment. I optimized her, then gave her the Cachusha and activated HP+10% and Ability Up. I also moved Zidane back to the back row. I opened the battle with MT Bio, causing the soldiers to retreat. Then I had Freya give Vivi an Elixir since he was out of MP. Zidane had nothing better to do, so he stole an Ore. I figured trying to petrify the mage wasn't worth the risk, so I had Vivi cast Stop. He failed on his first attempt, but succeeded on the second. After the battle, Zidane mastered Protect Girls, Vivi mastered Auto-Potion, and Freya mastered Bright Eyes.

With just one battle left to go, I gave Zidane the Mage Masher before proceeding. I made sure to knock out Quina before casting Bio, which succeeded in forcing all the soldiers to escape. After going through the scenes and collecting rewards from the survivors, I saved with a time of 03:32:42. I was a little over the target time for this part, but I'm happy with the result.