Tantarian and Obtaining the Blue Narciss

Tantarian wasn't as bad this time around as I remember him being. Perhaps it was because of the new strategy I used. Lucky Seven goes out with a bang here as the guide calls for it to do 7777 damage three times. Thankfully, this is the last time Lucky Seven will be needed. Since I hate Lucky Seven, I played around with the strategy to instead rely on getting 7777 twice and 777 once. This triples the chance of Lucky Seven working out how I want it to.

At the start of the battle, Amarant went first and used an Ore on Zidane to bring his HP to 117. Zidane then brought out Lucky Seven for 7777 damage, opening Tantarian. I then had Freya use Lancer, Vivi cast Fira, and Amarant attack. Surprisingly, Lancer does not close Tantarian despite it both looking and acting like a physical attack.

Amarant's attack caused Tantarian to close, and Zidane immediately followed up with another Lucky Seven for 7777 more damage, opening it again. Vivi and Amarant then repeated their attacks, causing it to close again. I didn't have Freya attack this time because my previous attacks had been on the high end, and I wanted to make sure Freya could deal the final blow with Tantarian open. For reference, here are the possible damage values with the way my characters are set up:

Freya's Lancer: 500, 520, 540, 560, 580

Vivi's Fira: 1334, 1392, 1421, 1479, 1508

Amarant's attack: 819, 832, 871, 897

Freya's Jump: 555, 585, 600, 630, 645

If you care to do the math, having Freya use Lancer twice, Vivi cast Fira twice, and Amarant attack twice, along with the aforementioned required Lucky Seven damages will leave Tantarian with about 20 HP if the attacks all do average damage. This is why I held off on the second Lancer. Anyway, after all that Zidane used Lucky Seven one last time for 777 damage, opening Tantarian for a third time. I then had Freya jump and Vivi cast Fira on the party to knock everyone out. Freya then finished it off when she landed. As a result of this battle she learned Lancer, High Tide, Bug Killer, Man Eater, Locomotion, Undead Killer, and Gamble Defence.

With the battle done, I had to go through some scenes and skip a lot of dialogue, then run around Lindblum to get the three potions. I skipped saving with Mogki because there's nothing luck based here, though I did pick up his letter and deliver it to Moodon. I also skipped picking up the Elixir next to him because it's not missable and I don't need it. While I was in the Business District, I stopped at the synthesis shop and made 99 Cotton Robes, 99 Desert Boots, and a Glass Buckle, all purely for profit. I got all the other treasure mentioned in the guide.

When I finally got to the Blue Narciss, I put Vivi, Dagger, and Quina in my party just because they were the most convenient. Vivi is the only one I actually need in my party. I then sailed to the island with the chocobo tracks by Chocobo's Lagoon and saved with a time of 07:09:39.

Detour to Dali and Defending Alexandria

There's not a whole lot that's remarkable about my trip to Dali. I bought 99 Wrists, Leather Hats, and Leather Shirts, then picked up all the missable treasure in Dali and turned in the coffees at Observatory Mountain. When I got back to Treno I ran straight to the card stadium and handily defeated the champion by playing defensively.

After going through some scenes, including giving orders to the Pluto Knights, Steiner and Beatrix rushed out to defend the streets of Alexandria. I didn't bother going into the menu at first. I simply faked out the Mistodon by moving right and then left so I could get around it without fighting. The first battle went really quickly. Both Steiner and Beatrix started with their ATB gauges close to full, so Steiner knocked himself out and Beatrix cast Life on the Mistodon to kill it. In the second battle, I managed to cast Life on the second Mistodon before it could act, so Beatrix only got hit twice. After the battle, I had Beatrix cast Cura on herself, then I removed all of Steiner's and Beatrix's equipment except I gave her a Bronze Helm to mitigate some of the magic damage.

The next Mistodon I fought didn't get a turn before Beatrix killed it with another Life spell. The one after that cast a Fira spell before getting the Life treatment. After that, I had Beatrix use an Elixir on herself before dispatching the Mistodon with yet another Life spell. The last battle always has Beatrix's ATB gauge initially set to empty, so she will get attacked three times in that battle. This is where the Bronze Helm comes in handy. She survived and killed them both with Life spells. In all the times I've done this, I've never had Life miss, so I'd say it's very reliable.

When I gained control of Zidane, I equipped his group as follows:

Zidane                     Freya                   Vivi                       Amarant

Exploda                   Partisan              Flame Staff            Cat's Claws
Ritual Hat                Barbut                 Mage's Hat            Ritual Hat
Chimera Armlet        Mythril Gloves      Magic Armlet         Bone Wrist
Brigandine               Plate Mail            Magician Robe       Chain Plate
Black Belt               Barette                Gold Choker           Power Belt
_________________________________________________________
HP+20%                (no changes)         (no changes)          Devil Killer
Distract                                                                          MP Attack

I also moved Amarant to the front row. Being thus prepared for Tantarian, all that was left was to run to the moogle and save with a time of 06:45:24.

Hippaul Racing

Well, I think I've had a long enough break. This part is mostly long scenes with a bit of treasure hunting and racing thrown in. With the initial scenes out of the way, the first thing on the agenda is racing Hippaul to get the Athlete Queen. For me, skipping levels up to 50 is easy, 55 is somewhat of a challenge, and 60 is difficult. The way I did this was to race 11 times to get Hippaul up to level 55, then going to save, viewing the Artemicion ATE along the way, stealing Hippaul's treasure, and reading the letters. I then went back and mashed those buttons for all I was worth to skip to level 60. It took several tries, but I succeeded. With that done I coasted through the rest of the races one level at a time.

Now, Athlete Queen in hand, I went to Ruby's theater and sat through the scenes until I got control of Zidane. Then I was able to collect the rest of the treasure in Alexandria, including the gil in Ruby's theater. I skipped saving again with Kupo to save some extra time. Reaching the castle triggered some more long scenes until the party arrives in Treno. There, I watched the two ATEs to get the Chimera Armlet, then registered and entered the card tournament. I lost my first card game because of a fluke card battle at the end (this is why I hate Tetra Master). I guess I should have saved after all. Oh well. I won the two games after that without much difficulty. I then ran to Mogrich, read the letter, then skipped town. I ran some of the distance to South Gate and saved with a time of 06:25:20. I beat the target time for this section by a few minutes even with the lost card game, so I'm keeping it.

EDIT: I've since learned that there's a faster way to do this. Upon arriving at Treno, you can watch 'Memories by the Water" and then leave Treno immediately. When you get back, you can read the letter with Mogrich, then watch 'City People' and play all three rounds of the tournament. I don't feel like going back and doing it over, though, so I'll leave this as an opportunity for anyone following in my footsteps to gain some time back on me.