Rescuing Dagger

I started off this part by reviving Quina and making sure s/he had 1 HP. Then I prepared for the upcoming fights against Beatrix and Zorn and Thorn. Instead of removing everything from Quina, I let him keep the Needle Fork and Yellow Scarf. No point in removing those. My fight against Beatrix went very well on the first attempt. I stole the Ice Brand and used Limit Glove to end the battle. I then went through the scenes, did some business with Mognet, and saved on the Red Rose.

The next part is a bit tricky. The fastest you can break out of the cage is in 12 swings or 6 back-and-forth motions. I started out by leaning left, then leaned once on the next 3 swings as well (for a total of 4), twice on the next 4 swings, and 3 times on the last 4 swings. It takes some good timing to do this correctly. It's best to avoid leaning when the cage isn't going anywhere. Wait just a second when there's time, and your lean will add more height on your swing.

As if that weren't enough, you then have to dodge Alexandrian soldiers. I find it best to run right at them, then make a 90 degree turn at the last second to run around them. You have to do this twice to get around the guards as Steiner. Then you have to hope none of the other guards are smart enough to run around their various obstacles and catch Zidane. Once you get past them all, it's pretty easy to run the rest of the way to where Dagger is.

Along the way, make sure to remove Marcus's equipment and prepare Steiner for Zorn and Thorn. I gave Marcus my remaining Broadsword and took off the rest of his equipment. I set up Steiner as instructed in the guide except that I don't see any point in having him keep Counter. Beatrix is never going to target him, so he'll never get a chance to counterattack. I gave him HP+10% instead. Since I stole the Ice Brand from Beatrix, I was able to do this at the same time as removing Marcus's equipment, thus saving time.

With that out of the way, the only thing left in this segment is to battle Zorn and Thorn. This is one of the easiest bosses in the game if you're prepared. The battle went exactly as described in the guide. Everyone but Freya went to critical HP from Vivi's Blizzard, and Zidane stole the Mythril Armor from Thorn and the Partisan from Zorn, both of which Freya will put to good use shortly.

After the battle, I adjusted everyone's equipment to prepare for the next set of battles. I put the best headgear I own on everyone, optimized Freya, gave her a Coral Ring, and activated Man Eater, Cover, Insomniac, and High Tide (just because it was convenient and I had extra Magic Stones). I forgot to move Freya to the front row, so I'll need to do that when I reload.  Finally, I read Mosh's letter and saved with a time of 03:46:13. One of the hardest parts of the whole challenge is coming up next, so here we go!

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.

Antlion

Now it's time to return to the settlement, picking up treasure along the way. When I got there, I equipped Quina with the Needle Fork, Mage's Hat, Bone Wrist, Silk Robe, and Yellow Scarf, and activated Add Status and Ability Up. Millionaire was already active. I then went up to the inn, got the treasure inside, read the letter from Ruby, and saved.

After that, I followed Dan the slowpoke down the stairs, picking up the Phoenix Pinion along the way. Several times I accidentally initiated conversation with him when I was trying to pick up the Phoenix Pinion. That just shows you how slow he is.

Then came the fight against Antlion. Zidane went first and stole the Annoyntment. Then I waited for Antlion to take a turn and it used Sandstorm, reducing Quina to 1 HP. I then had Zidane steal again, getting the Mythril Vest, before finishing it with Limit Glove.

When the long scenes were finally over, I took Freya over to the cathedral to pick up the treasure there. With that done, I returned to the inn, bought Stiltzkin's deal, read the letter from Monev, and saved. My time is now 03:17:55.