Spoilers
(Spoiler tag just in case.)
I finally beat this MFer on dynamic— I followed a few strategies I saw on Reddit and wanted to share the one that really worked on just the second or third try (albeit a lot of other tries before using this party). Can’t find the OG post so consider this an endorsement of that strategy if you’ve seen it. With this party and materia I was able to deal extremely high damage in a short amount of time, killing the MFer before the other b*tches had a chance to blow up all over me
SETUP:
party: Tifa, Cloud, Aerith
materia: elemental(2*)+lightning [two if possible, one for Cloud, one for Tifa to make them immune to lightning], auto-cast+binding [Aerith], magnify+time [Tifa], First Strike x2 (2-3*) [Tifa and Aerith], limit siphon [Tifa or Cloud], darkside [Cloud], enemy skill [Tifa], ATB stagger [Cloud, Tifa], ATB assist [Aerith], Petrify and/or Poison [Aerith], Speed materia [Tifa]
accessories: marlboro orb [Aerith], Space Ranger Service Medal [Tifa], Full Throttle wristguard or Speed demon keychain [Cloud]
STRATEGY:
Start the battle with Tifa, lock on to the mindflayer and cast Stop+magnify to give you a head start to the battle. Switch to Cloud, make sure he targets the mindflayer and go ham with a combo or Cleave to build ATB and hit Focused Thrust. (This will be Cloud’s pattern— you want to build stagger as fast as possible.)
Switch to Aerith. Have Aerith equipped with Auto-cast+Binding and First strike. After Cloud’s combo the monsters will almost be unstopped, so be sure Aerith targets one of the Varghipods with sleep (or is ready to). Use Spellbound Blast with Aerith+Tifa on the mindflayer to build instant ATB (make sure no Vargs get hit) if you have time, then cast sleep on both Vargs immediately one-by-one as they unstop.
Switch back to Tifa, sonic boom for bravery then unbridled strength+omnistrike. Make sure to not spend too much time with any one character; keep switching as you use abilities, so you can make sure to redirect their lock-on to the mindflayer. Keep in mind these three have synergy *skills* that deal large damage chunks while building large amounts of ATB when they land; just be sure the Vargs don’t get caught in the crossfire. Pulling a character for a Synergy Skill is also a good way to redirect them to your target (the mindflayer) if you see them going for a Varg.
Stay with Tifa most of the time, switching to cloud to redirect his target with Focus thrust or Jump also works well to mitigate him attacking the Vargs
—No need to micromanage Aerith, just make sure she has ATB to keep auto-casting sleep on the Vargs; when she needs to build ATB can switch to her for a quick Spellbound Blast hit or reg attacks/tempest, then get back to smashing the mindflayer with Tifa and Cloud. High damage and quick stagger is priority. As soon as you have Tifa+Cloud synergy *ability*, use it to pressure (make sure it’s far enough away to not catch the ads) and smash that MFer relentlessly until it’s staggered. If Aerith has ATB and the Vargs are nappin’, throwin’ a Biora on the MFer don’t hurt nothin’.
Cloud should have ATB Stagger to help have enough ATB to trigger Infinity’s End immediately as the MFer staggers, while Tifa uses whatever abilities are her hardest hitting at the point in succession. I waited until the end of the game to do this challenge, so I had True Strike which allowed me to get the multiplier to x190 right before Cloud slammed down, maxing out his damage. When MindFlayer is staggered, Aerith’s priority is still to keep the Varg babies asleep, but if they dreaming and she has unused ATB, smash the MFer with spells or Soul Drain.
You can use another synergy ability to try and finish it off but be warned: Aerith+Tifa’s Divine Punishment is risky as it has big AoE so you risk killing a Varg if they’re remotely close by.
Also Limit Siphon can work well here to build Cloud or Tifa’s limit and melt the MFer according to other players I’ve heard from, although I did not need it probably because I had True Strike.
Should be a just a few more hard hits and a yet relentless Tifa or Spellbound Blast to finish off the MFer if it survives your stagger onslaught.
take note: if the little Varghipod bastards count down to one and you see them start to screech nearby— BLOCK!! You can block the Deafening Screech!
Dunh-dunh-dunh-dunnnh Dunh Dunh Dunh Dunh-dunnnnh
OTHER ANECDOTES:
It took me like 2+ hours of trying different combinations to find one that worked for me. I tried the long method with Yuffie solo, but it didn’t work for me; always got destroyed by Psychotic Break halfway thru followed by some bullshit, was never able to stagger the thing fast enough and just too annoying to keep avoiding the Vargs the whole time. I knew synergy had to be the key to take it down as fast as possible. Tried with Aerith+Tifa but the Vargs always ended up dying in crossfire, so I added Cloud to be that third for a synergy ability with Tifa that will ONLY target the mindflayer, speeding up stagger massively, and an additional distraction for the Vargs. Tried Tifa, Cloud, Barrett but just couldn’t get it before the ads blew up all over us. Also, learning you can block the screech was a big unlock for me.
I was in the brink of switching to easy just to max out my enemy skill (I avoided taking this fight seriously until I beat the main scenario and finished all other simulator intel), when I read the way with Aerith using auto-cast+sleep and it really changed the game for me. Also knowing Stop works in addition to Sleep, and being able to block Deafening Screech. Almost made me… enjoy… the challenge and I feel super accomplished for “solving” that dumbass mission. Have heard people having success with Cloud or one ally being a frog too 🐸
All strategies will require some luck. Lean in to what works for you! Good luck! Anyone have a sound take on what works best for this challenge on hard mode?
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Double enfeeblement ring will work, but I just solo'd it with Yuffie since she can long range target.
Do synergy abilities work with enfeebled party members?
Yeah I tried Yuffie for a while but after 45 mins of failure I opted to try something else. I couldn’t ever kill it before psychotic break and that always got me at the wrong spot. Also didn’t know I could block the screech when I tried Yuffie. Plus the damn thing teleported so much… I got impatient. Just couldn’t hack it, switched to trying kill-it-fast approach.
Synergies, not that I know of, no. They only serve to keep the two smaller minions occupied since they can't kill them due to being too weak, and the enemies can't grab them due to them being too small.
The one remaining character still has to solo the mindflayer.
Alternatively, do Cait Siths Legendary Solo bout and then try this challenge again with just Tifa and you'll feel like you're invincible and can dodge everything while casually chipping away at the mindflayer
Interesting! Haven’t done any legendary bouts yet
Good luck with your journey! I remember struggling on Head Case and that feels so long ago after slogging through all the other VR battles. If I had to do it again I'd probably just try to use as much synergy as much as possible to pressure him, or you could use Tifa and Cait to make his stagger% massive which is a strategy I haven't tried yet.
His health pool isn’t that enormous. Nailing the stagger and then just unloading tifa’s unique x2 into him followed by a dive kick, Infiniti’s end from cloud, and a double cast -ga spell of any kind was enough to melt him for me. I did the challenge around the end of the zone in which it appears.
Slow + magnify or sleep + magnify seem to be the catch, the hard part is making sure you use a synergy skill with small AOE (don’t use tifa/aerith’s one that has a HUGE range and always kills the adds).
With slow you just have to be careful not to use any wide splash skills and to just aim to get aerith and cloud to their three ticks asap (first strike and atb boost helps with that). Launch synergy, keep tifa at full atb to unload focused strikes along with cloud using focused strike to stagger and then unload big damage into the mindflayer.
I usually atb boost cloud and aerith, have her radiant and arcane ward herself (2 notches), cloud use aoe sleep or slow and then use disorder twice to quickly build his three bars. Aerith then can use any ability or spell to get the third bar for the synergy skill. This takes all of like 8-10 seconds if done right. The tricky part is not accidentally hitting the sleeping dudes before you get to unload.
Took me 5-6 tries just because sleep either didn’t land or ai accidentally decided to go beat on one of the worms. It was frustrating and didn’t love the challenge but that got it done on dynamic
Thanks for that additional advice. It took me so long to find a strategy that worked consistently without having to switch to easy, which so many strategies I read end up suggesting.
Accidentally waking the ads is why I start with magnify+stop, allows for that 8-10 second setup you mention (however it works for you, does slow make much difference?) without worrying about waking anything, then Aerith ready to sleep them. I didn’t use magnufy+sleep bc after the second time they resist it, but with auto-casty Aerith was able to keep them asleep the entire time I went after the MFer
somehow I forgot div punishment is so big AoE and it pulled in my adds every time but miraculously one try when I remained in control of cloud while the ladies hit it, it actually did work without waking/ catching the Vargs right at the end.
I used sleep, but after the fact I had a theory that slow would at least award you twice as much time before they get to the screeching and suicide bombing shit
Stop (especially with Magnify) just doesn’t last very long. Like 3-4 seconds? Doesn’t seem worth it