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12 Weapons Trial No. 7 - Brachium

Overview

Clear Reward:

Royal Crown: [Hat] 16 DEF, 50 MAG, 32 SPR Confuse Immunity 強者の王冠

• 強者の王冠: LB Fill Rate 25%

Missions:

• Summon Esper 3 times: 2 Summon Tickets
  
• Finish w/ Esper: 10% Trust Moogle
  
• Finish in 30 turns or fewer: [Materia] 裁定する悪魔 (DEF 40% Regen {1.8k base 1x})

Clear Videos

• YouTube /u/Rozaliin

• YouTube O'Zack

• YouTube /u/AradoEloute

Details

Monster Info

• Name: ブラキウム (Brachium)
  
• Race: Demon, Human
  
• Level: 99

Stats

Elemental Resists: 300% Dark resistance.
Ailment Resists: Immune.
Break Resists: None.

Skillset & AI

AI: Link

100% HP to 50% HP

49% HP to 0% HP

Triggers

• 90% HP: 闇の裁き

• 70% HP: 闇の裁き

• 50% HP: 闇の裁き & 悪魔の判決 昏き闇の永劫 破滅への誘い

• 30% HP: 悪魔の判決 昏き闇の永劫 破滅への誘い

Patterns/Quirks

• Brachium will use 斬首 as a preemptive attack.

• Brachium will use 姿が霞んでいく once every five turns when above 50% HP. The dodge buff can be removed by attacking through it enough times, or by dispelling it. You can also ignore it and take him down to 50% with magic.

• On the turn following Brachium using 暗殺態勢, he will use 斬首. A note on this: I noticed two different interactions with 斬首 used after 暗殺態勢 and Brachium's first two HP triggers. If you push Brachium past a trigger after he uses 暗殺態勢 but before passing the turn to him, he will use the trigger ability only; however, the turn after that is weird. In my video, he would skip 斬首 altogether. IE: he would use 暗殺態勢, I would push him past the trigger, he'd then use the trigger, and then on the following turn go back to normal. However, on a separate kill that I didn't record, Brachium used 斬首 the turn after a trigger. IE: he used 暗殺態勢, I pushed him, he used trigger ability, and then used 斬首 the following turn. After 暗殺態勢 if you elect not to deal magic or physical damage, the boss will counter with 極刑, an AoE instant death attack that can't be immuned.

• フルスピードクロウ happens every two turns above 70% HP; every turn from 69% to 50%.

• After 闇の裁き (HP Trigger) your actions will determine one of Brachium's next actions. I have confirmed the following two: (1) the first attack you use against Brachium is a normal attack → Brachium counters with 攻の裁き on the following turn; (2) the first attack you use against Brachium is a magic attack → Brachium counters with an AoE magic attack on the following turn. As /u/AradoEloute has pointed out, the counter mechanic may just be abilities result in a physical counter while magic results in a magic counter; with normal attacks also resulting in a physical counter.

• 斬首 is the ST Death ability. It can't be prevented, even by Safty Bit or Genji Shield, but it can be provoked with Provoke or Draw Attacks. Without using either of those, it targets the party member with the highest SPR.

• If you push the boss into phase 2 (50% HP) while he still has a dodge buff, that buff will remain going into the next phase.

• In phase 2, Brachium will increase his resistance to all elements except fire and apply a buff that reduces magic damage taken; these cannot be removed; however, he will also lower his own resistance to fire.

Strategy

This isn't a difficult encounter, but there are a few things you need to pay attention to. In no particular order of importance: (1) Brachium's ST Death; (2) you actions after the 90% and 70% triggers; and (3) Brachium's physical damage in phase 1. Now, I don't mention phase 2 because the main strategy will be getting him to phase 2, and then finishing him from 50% HP. That being said, there is actually one more thing to watch out for at the phase-change, but I'll mention that later.

For (1) you can easily mitigate this with a 100% Provoke or Draw Attacks tank; however, I recommend this being someone other than your main tank for the fight. For (2) you just need to be aware of the fact that you've hit an HP trigger (very easy as he'll do 99% of a character's max HP to all party members) and make sure you use a normal attack against him as the first attack you use against him, unless you want to take a big magic AoE... Finally for (3) you have a few options: there is the tried and true physical cover tank with 100% dodge, but for those who can't do that, you can actually make use of a Chizuru tank Sara.

All of Brachium's physical AoE only hits once, and can all be predicted--normal AoE is used once every two turns until 70% HP and every turn thereafter, and the counter comes after an HP trigger. All his other physical attacks are ST so you can just use a dodge Chizuru tank to eat those up. The only thing to watch out for here is party order when dealing with the ST death. When you bring in your death sponge, you want to make sure they are ahead of Chizuru in the party order because you still want Chizuru to keep up provoke. This is because after the sponge dies from the ST death attack, the boss will still do all his normal attacks. On the following turn when you go to resurrect your sponge, you want to make sure to put Chizuru in front of him this time, so they don't die again.

When Brachium is nearing 50% HP, you will want to put any physical attackers you plan to use in phase 2 in your reserve party. This is because Brachium will imbue your party's weapons with dark as part of the phase change trigger. I also recommend dispelling him before pushing him, and then re-debuffing so that he retains debuffs but loses his dodge buff; optionally, you can just use Barrage or something similar at the beginning of phase 2 if you need to clear the dodge buff.

Now, I realize that wasn't a step-by-step guide but the majority of the fight is just making sure you don't die while you complete the Esper mission. Once you've done that, you just need to whittle Brachium's HP down to 50%, bring in your chainers, and finish the boss.