Fossil Roo and Arrival on the Outer Continent

There's not a whole lot to say about this segment. It's mostly just avoiding encounters and picking up treasure. I made my way through Fossil Roo, grabbing all the treasure along the way. I skipped the second save with Mogki because getting from there to Kuppo is easy. It took me 12 hits (the maximum) to free Kuppo, but I still gained over the target time overall thanks to the save skipping.

I saved with Kuppo, then grabbed the Survival Vest on my way out of Fossil Roo.  It was surprising how many times I had to reset because of an encounter on my way to and from the Survival Vest. I definitely recommend saving before that if you skip the previous save like I did. Once out of there, I ran all the way to the Chocobo tracks without a save or encounter. I did my business in Conde Petie according to the guide, then left and saved outside Black Mage Village. My time is now 04:40:48.

Lani and the Elixir

The first order of business upon loading up my save is to go get Quina back in my party. Once I had the frog lover again, it was time to equip my party. Here's how I set everyone up:

Zidane                     Vivi                     Dagger                 Quina

Mythril Dagger         Mage Staff          Air Racket            Needle Fork
Bandana                 Magus Hat          Mage's Hat
Bone Wrist              Bone Wrist         Mythril Armlet
Survival Vest           Silk Robe            Magician Robe      Cotton Robe
Germinas Boots      Coral Ring           Power Belt            Gold Choker
______________________________________________________
Protect Girls             Insomniac
Alert                        Loudmouth
Insomniac                Auto-Potion
Bandit

This setup is to maximize my chance of success against Lani. Lani will always begin the battle with a physical attack against Dagger and will thereafter always target Dagger with every spell if she is standing. The Magician Robe and Power Belt guarantee that she will survive this first attack. If Lani then decides to use another physical attack, Zidane will cover for her and will probably survive thanks to the Survival Vest. If you don't have a Survival Vest you can give him the Adaman Vest, but then he'll probably get knocked out if he takes a hit for Dagger.

After getting everyone ready, I entered Fossil Roo and ran like mad from Armodullahan. In the battle against Lani, she opened with an attack against Dagger, as expected. I then had Dagger attack Quina for 45 damage and Vivi attack Quina for 44 damage, leaving him with 1 HP (you know what that means!) The chance of them both doing the correct amounts of damage is 1/3. Lani then took her second turn and blasted Dagger with a Fira spell. Zidane then stole the Gladius, and Quina finished it with Limit Glove. I would have preferred to steal the Coral Sword, but the Gladius is good enough for me.

With Lani out of the way, it was time to backtrack and get Armodullahan's Elixir. Before setting out, I gave Vivi the Ice Staff, Zidane the Adaman Vest, and Quina a Bandana, Bone Wrist, and Survival Vest. I also activated Quina's Add Status and Insomniac. The Add Status was for in case Quina got a chance to try and petrify an enemy before Zidane got a turn, but that never happened in my successful run.

I took no chances regarding my party's HP. Before setting out and after every battle I made sure my party was fully healed. I did not want Zidane getting knocked out! The first battle was fine; Zidane was able to Flee right away. The second battle was against two Abominations, so I took the opportunity to learn Night as the guide instructs. However, one of them slapped Zidane and did 120 damage! I didn't think this was possible. I suppose this is an instance of the monster at the top of the list being stronger for no apparent reason as Camdad04 has brought up before. This slowed me down a bit, but I was able to revive Zidane and escape.

After that encounter I reached the Elixir. I then ran up into the next room and back to reset the encounter rate, helping me get through that room without an encounter. I had two more uneventful encounters on my way back to where I fought Lani and celebrated when I made it with a total of only four encounters! I then pressed forward into Fossil Roo, bought Stiltzkin's deal, read the letter from Kuppo, and saved. My time is now 04:30:09. I lost a little bit of time due to my equipping during this circuit instead of the last, the longer strategy against Lani, and having Zidane get knocked out. However, I think the time I saved by not synthesizing the Exploda in Lindblum balances out the time for the Lani fight, so between the two circuits it's still a net gain for me.

To Pinnacle Rocks and Beyond!

There's one last obstacle to face here and that's Ralvuimago. To face him, I set up my characters as follows:

Zidane                     Vivi                     Dagger

Mythril Dagger         Ice Staff             Multina Racket
Bandana                  Magus Hat          Feather Hat
Glass Armlet           Bone Wrist           Bone Wrist
Mythril Vest            Magician Robe     Cotton Robe
Gold Choker           Magician Shoes    Cachusha

The Magician Shoes are to boost Vivi's magic. Zidane needs the Gold Choker so he can make up some of the AP he lost from getting knocked out in his last Bandersnatch fight. I also made sure to revive Zidane and give Vivi an Elixir. I left all their abilities the same.

In the first round of the fight I had Zidane steal a Phoenix Down, Vivi cast Blizzara, and Dagger defend. Ralvuimago then used Ultra Sound Wave on Zidane, turning him mini. I then repeated Zidane's and Vivi's commands, stealing the Adaman Vest. Ralvuimago then tried to stab Vivi but missed. One more round ended it. Zidane failed to steal the Oak Staff, but I did get the extra Ether drop so I'm satisfied. As a result of this battle, Zidane has mastered Antibody, Vivi has mastered Add Status, and Dagger has mastered Life, Shell, and Chemist.

The major problem with this boss is that it likes to use MT Thundara which wipes out your party. The strategy in the guide makes this a non-issue, but it takes much longer to carry out. It takes so long, in fact, that it's impossible to make the target time following that strategy. With these things in mind, I created an alternate strategy that could be used. It's meant for those times when there's a strong chance Ralvuimago will get a turn before Vivi does.  Here's how it goes:

Dagger goes first and attacks. Ralvuimago will then curl up. Zidane should steal every chance he gets. Vivi should focus on his first turn, then cast Blizzara twice once Ralvuimago opens up again. Ralvuimago will get one opportunity to attack between castings of Blizzara, so hope it doesn't mess you up. The second casting of Blizzara will defeat the boss unless Vivi does minimum damage both times. If this ends up being the case, one more attack from Dagger will finish it. This strategy is safer than the one I actually used and is still pretty fast.

With that out of the way, I arrived at Pinnacle Rocks. The only thing really worth mentioning is the fact that the guide's target times assume you don't go back to read the letter from Stiltzkin, so I skipped it. Lindblum is mostly just dialogue skipping, plus a bit of business with Mognet and picking up treasure. I skipped the shopping as I have no need for an Exploda right now. That can wait until I reach the Black Mage Village.

I also skipped saving at the Dragon's Gate because Pinnacle Rocks and Gizamaluke's Grotto aren't too difficult to get through with no encounters. I rode Choco over to the grotto, gave Moguta a Kupo Nut for an Elixir, then hopped back on Choco, headed to Qu's Marsh, got off, and saved. I'm not adjusting my equipment yet because I need to change Quina's as well when I get him. My time is now 04:19:29.

Escape From Alexandria

Wow! I am in shock over how well this segment went! I started out by moving Freya to the front row and heading up the stairs. With Freya at level 8 and set up as previously indicated she can survive most of Beatrix's attacks and dish out decent damage as well! The only things that can knock her out are Shock and two normal attacks in a row. Thunder Slash will actually heal her thanks to the Coral Ring (this is why I got 3).

In my fight I had Steiner and Freya attack non-stop. Beatrix used Shock once so I had to have Vivi use a Phoenix Down, but at least it was only one. Zidane showcased his thieving ability well by stealing successfully 3/3 times. The fight ended pretty quickly with all the damage being poured on.

Next comes another benefit of raising Freya's level as I did. When Beatrix joins you here, she starts at Freya's level, which in my case was 8. This makes her strong enough that Climhazzard is guaranteed to kill the Bandersnatch. Thus, Freya is free to knock herself out immediately. Unfortunately, there is a chance she won't do enough damage to do it in one hit, so you may have to do it twice like I did or have the Bandersnatch finish her off for you.

Now it's time to get ready for the big Stop fest. I equipped my party as follows:

Zidane                     Steiner                Vivi                     Dagger

Mythril Dagger          Ice Brand           Oak Staff             Mythril Rod
Bandana                  Mythril Helm       Mage's Hat          Mage's Hat
Glass Armlet           Silver Gloves       Bone Wrist           Bone Wrist
Mythril Vest             Chain Mail          Magician Robe     Silk Robe
Yellow Scarf            Coral Ring           Gold Choker        Cachusha
_________________________________________________________
Protect Girls            HP+10%            Auto-Potion          Ability Up
Insomniac               Insomniac
Auto-Potion
Bandit

The next battle against the Type C's went really well. Vivi stopped the first mage immediately. Zidane stole a couple Potions and a Tent. Vivi got toasted with a Fira spell, but I was able to revive him and finish the battle with two more Stops. Steiner mastered Bird Killer after the battle, and I replaced Vivi's Gold Choker with the last Coral Ring and activated Insomniac.

The next Bandersnatch battle went perfectly. I stopped the first one immediately, and the other one wasted its turn using Tongue. Vivi then stopped the second Bandersnatch to secure the win. The battle after that went pretty well except that the Bandersnatch knocked out Zidane before I was able to cast Stop. I was planning to use the AP from all these battles, but luckily I've managed to make some tweaks to my later plans so everything will still work out. I don't want to have to go through this again -- not when Vivi got a perfect 6/6 record on Stops!

The final two Bandersnatch battles went perfectly as well. Beatrix got the first turn and used Climhazzard immediately. In the last battle, Steiner used an Elixir on Beatrix before getting knocked out by the Bandersnatches. Beatrix then used Climhazzard one last time to finish out this series of battles.

With all that done I ran straight to Mosh, picked up his letter, and saved.  My time is now 04:00:30, which means I did this part in 14:17.  That adds another two minutes to my lead over the target time!

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.