Going in Blind - 3 Star Alexander (5 man clear)

Welcome to another edition of Going in Blind. For those of you not familiar with this series:

I'll be doing all my esper and trial battles without any outside information. That means no reading of the wiki or trial megathreads on this sub. I'll be relying on what little information is provided in-game, my knowledge of previous battles (especially for esper and scorn fights), general FF lore, and knowledge of Alim's/Gumi's trial gimmicks. The goal is to figure out all the fight mechanics not just simply clearing the fight.

Also, I am putting a few extra requirements on myself. I cannot simply overpower the boss. I need to develop a strategy that allows me to survive indefinitely (barring damage races) and whittle down the boss. I'll also require myself to try using at least one unit I haven't used before (I won't necessarily clear the trial with that unit though). Lastly, all unit builds will be done manually. No unit builds from FFBEequip! (using it to search for gear is allowed, just no automated builds).

The purpose of this is two-fold: I get to enjoy the challenge and I get to help others learn how develop their own strategies. This is NOT a clear guide so I will not go into the nitty gritty details of rotations and builds. I will however call out the key skills.

NOTE: I started this when Alex 3 first became available and haven't finished it after several months. The first 10 fights are from that first run and the ones after that are from yesterday.

Okay, let's start off by reviewing what we know of Alexander:

• Machine race
  
• Strong to light (major) and lightning (minor), weak to dark (major), and water (minor)
  
• 3 star espers tend to absorb their preferred elements. They also like to imbue you with their elements (basing that on Leviathan but I vaguely remember havig to do that with other espers).
  
• Alexander prefers magic attacks
  

And we also have the usual suspects:

• Some combination of status ailments, stat breaks, imperils, and charm/stop.
  
• Fixed type attacks that go right through covers or both magic and physical AE attacks.
  
• Summoning minions.
  
• Pre-emptive attacks.
  
• Instant death attacks.
  
• AE MP drain.
  
• Retaliation/counters for certain types of attacks (usually elemental or magic/physical).
  
• Gimmicks like sealing attacks.
  

With all that in mind, let's build a team.

Preparing for the fight

I'll be attempting this fight with only 5 units so I won't put any additional restrictions on myself other than the usuals (need to use new unit, no automated builds, etc.)

Support

Building for elemental resists worked out pretty well for the Folka Bonus Stage so I'll try that again. Without a magic tank I'll need to make sure I can handle any AE non-elemental magic. So a strong MAG break, general mitigation, and magic mitigation will be essential.

Looking at my support units, it looks like SS Nichol will be my MVP again. He has a 70% light (and fire) buff that can be w-casted with his 30% general mitigation which is incredibly slot efficient for this fight. His physical and magic mitigation abilities can't be dual casted but that's fine. I have a solid 3 turn rotation with those abilities. I'll likely also put Cradle of Thorns on another unit to give SS Nichol a free turn if necessary.

Breaker

I'd be a fool not to use 2B for this fight. Even with a breaker build she can contribute some serious damage.

Healer

We need a ton of LBs in this fight to get the use 5 LB mission and kill with LB. LM Fina is probably my best option.

Tank

Wilhelm hasn't ever come out to play. I'll build him for 100% provoke, 100% light, and eHP. I'll likely need his damage mitigation skills too.

Attacker

I'll probably regret this, but DKC will make an appearance. I've used him for a few raids after he got his enhancements and pretty not never again. As FFIV is my favorite game, he'll get some play time (I would go with PS Rydia but I still need to farm the TMR on the dupe copy I finally pulled).

If survival becomes a problem, I'll drop DKC and pull in another support unit. 2B will have to show her awesomeness again (hard to imagine that at one point I was disappointed that I got 2 of her instead of a dupe A2).

Fight 1

After 5 minutes of confusion, I realized that I never leveled up Alexander which is why I couldn't fight him... This isn't exactly the most reassuring of starts... I leveled up my Anima to make sure I don't make a fool of my self again when we get his 3 star form.

Strategy is my standard one. Test out breaks, Libra, and try to survive as long as possible. Once I can survive a few turns, test out my attacks. I'm bringing a friend GLS just to test magic damage.

Turn 1

2B used her CD break. ATK/MAG works, DEF/SPR is resisted.
SS Nichol used his mitigation and Light buffs.

And... WTF. I must have forgotten to ensure that my team updated after I set them all up. I did that, took a break, then started the fight. I have the team that was set up previously (My Folka Bonus Stage team but with Sora instead of Ramza. I don't even have a flipping tank in this team... After forgetting to level Alexander first then this mistake, I get the feeling I'm going to struggle with this fight a lot...

Folka confirmed Machina race, -300% water and dark, resist all ailments. 100M HP.

Might as well just attack with Sora and friend GLS and see what happens. (~1% damage each).

Alexander retaliated with a weak attack called Karma. It hit Sora twice and GLS 3 times which is the number of times they hit him so most likely he has a 100% counter per attack. Looks like it is the same counter for physical and magic attacks. I'll use the next turn to figure out if it can be provoked (shouldn't as counters normally can't be provoked. I'll have to wait until the next fight to test cover).

Only two actions:

• Perfect Defense v2.
  
• Commencing Deliberation
  

Looks like he buffed his ATK/MAG. That's not good if I need to break him every turn. 2B isn't a good choice in that scenario. Guessing this is from the Commencing Deliberation move.

He also has a magic and physical mitigation skill up. 99.99% sure that's from Perfect Defense v2.

Turn 2

Well I have 6 star Folka on my team so no dispel(ga) spell. I guess I need to use this holy torch instead... Dispel doesn't work on his damage mitigation skills.

2B did about 3% damage when using True Charge Blade so I can probably rely on her a solo damage dealer as long as this doesn't turn into a damage race.

Well karma hits a lot harder without those breaks.

I only saw these attacks (definitely missed some and can't remember names of attacks after I saw them):

• Sacred Cannon
  
• Judge's Gavel
  

Sacred Cannon looks to be a light element attack. The units I geared for light survived and the others all died.

Fight 1 Lessons Learned

First and foremost, check my team before I enter battle.

Looks like I need to constantly break and dispel. 2B can't help with breaks on turn 2 so I either need a backup breaker or switch breakers. I could take out Wilhelm and bring in Merc Ramza to do breaks on turn two but then he'd either be skipping his cover or provoke. Last option is taking out DKC and using another breaker to help 2B. Machina is probably my best option as he can take turns attacking and breaking with 2B. Or I can go with CG Lid and use her ability to dispel the buff without removing the breaks. Only problem is that I'm still farming the dupe's TMR (got that dupe at the same time as my Kydia dupe). Worst case scenario, I drop 2B for her and hope DKC can do enough damage.

Or I can see if I can survive without dispelling on turns when 2B can't break. Let's just do that and live dangerously. I can't die worse than I already have, can I?

Fight 2

Using the correct team and gear this time... (I also decided to screen capture his attacks because they appear way too fast and there are several of them. I could do it the old fashioned way of just trying repeatedly but based on what I've seen so far, that might take a few dozen tries just to sort it out. This is the type of bulshit that makes this game rely on the community to make these fights reasonable for a lot of players.

Turn 1

Breaks and buffs up, DKC attacks.

Looks like counters happen before DKC heals himself so I'll need to be careful about that.

Alex used the same moves as last time.

Turn 2

2B got hit with 6 karmas. I totally forgot that her LB building move is a 3 attack move so DW makes it 6 attacks. She only survived thanks to her ability that prevents one death.

• Sacred Cannon - Looks to be ST and light element. Wilhelm shrugged it off.
  
• Holy Bleed - AE light attack. Not physical so probably magic (could be fixed). This looks to be breaking my DEF/SPR. It's an AE ability that did it and this is the one closest in timing.
  
• Judge's Gavel - ST physical attack . Wilhelm provoked it without a problem.
  
• Divine Shot - I can't tell if this was AE light or ST light. The skill names don't show up at the same time as the animation and I can't rely on order either because they have different casting times. Alim/Gumi - this is a load of bullshit and you know it.
  
• Judge's Gavel (x2 ?)
  
• Beam of Judgement - I think this was the AE attack that killed SS Nichol and dropped DKC to 1 HP. It's definitely non-elemental and probably
• He deems your claim acceptable - Nothing?
  

Something in that mix also debuffed light.

Turn 3

Just trying to recover. So I had to dispel my team to get rid of the breaks and light imperil.

• Deliberating - I get the feeling that this and some of the other skills might just be there for flavor.
  
• Sacred Cannon - Okay maybe this was AE instead?
• Dispelga - Ah, monkey feathers!
  
• Beam of Judgment
• Judge's Gavel
  
• Divine Shot -
• Radiant Sacrament - no idea but I think this wiped my party.
  
• Guilty Rain - no idea again.
  

Fight 2 Lessons Learned

Well so far this fight looks absolutely atrocious. Even with screen captures to review his actions I still have no flipping idea what's going on exactly.

I need to deal with his stat breaks, dispel, imperils, and buffs while keeping him broken and my mitigation buffs up.

Looks like I have to just give up on keeping DKC on the team. This time everyone gets 100 % light resist and hope it is enough. Need to handle dispelga with manufacted nethicite. I also need a good source of dispel with some backups.

Tank

Going to stick with Wilhelm. I already have him geared for 130% light resist so other than giving him some DEF pots, no changes here.

Healer

Folka is the obvious choice for the break resists. But I will need to make sure I have a source of dispel for her. Well, I leveled Alexander but didn't spec him so I guess I'll get dispel that way. This also gives Folka a much needed 50% light resist. She'll also get Cradle of Thorns to provide a stronger physical mitigation buff when she has a free turn.

Breakers and Attackers

Machina might be my best option for breaker in a 5 man team. He does damage with all of his breaks, decaying breaks don't matter when I need to constantly use breaks, and he can help SS Nichol keep up the physical and magic damage mitigation. Going to need to dump a bunch of cactaurs, stat pots, and LB pots on him...

With Machina providing good on demand breaks, 2B can focus on attacking and use her breaks only when it is part of her damage rotation. 2B gets to use Manufacted Nethicite to handle the Dispelga (assuming it really is a spell and not an ability just sharing the name). 2B makes the most sense as she is the only unit that will always have a free turn. Between that and boosting her light resists, she's going to take a big hit to damage output. Also, I can't rely on her LB boosting skill due to the counters. If I can manage to control damage then I can consider using it.

Support

SS Nichol just needs more light resists. Also giving him Rikku's pouch to ensure I'l be able to to the 5 LB mission (or more importantly the kill with LB one).

Fight 3

Just going to try to survive as long as possible. Only listing Alex's attacks excluding karma.

Turn 1

• Perfect Defense Lv 3
  
• Commencing Deliberation
  

Turn 2

• Sacred Cannon
  
• Holy Bleed
  
• Judge's Gavel
  
• Divine Shot
  
• Beam of Judgment
  
• He Deems your claim acceptable
  

Turn 3

• Deliberating
  
• Sacred Cannon
  
• Dispelga
  
• Beam of Judgment
  
• Divine Shot
  
• Judge's Gavel
  
• Divine Shot - This or Guilty rain is an AE physical attack
• Radiant Sacrament
  
• Guilty Rain
  
• Divine Castle Lv 3 - Gives a 15M HP barrier
  

Turn 4

• Sacred Cannon
  
• Holy Bleed
  
• Divine Shot
  
• Judge's Gavel
  
• Divine Shot
  
• Beam of Judgment
  
• Verdict
  
• Perfect Defense Lv 2
  
• Recommencing Deliberation
  

Turn 5

• Deliberating
  
• Sacred Cannon
  
• Diaja
  
• Holy Bleed
  
• Judge's Gavel
  
• Divine Shot
  
• Radiant Sacrament
  

Turn 6

• Deliberating
  
• Sacred Cannon
  
• Diaja
  
• Guilty Rain - this didn't trigger Wilhelm's cover so it should be Divine shot that is AE physical.
  
• Judge's Gavel
  
• Divine Shot
  
• Beam of Judgment
  
• Divine Castle Lv 2 - Gives a 10M HP barrier
  
• He Deems your claim acceptable
  

Turn 7

• Sacred Cannon
  
• Diaja
  
• Holy Bleed
  
• Judge's Gavel
  
• Divine Shot
  
• Radiant Sacrament
• Verdict
  
• Perfect Defense Lv 3
  
• Recommencing Deliberation
  

Turn 8

• Sacred Cannon
  
• Holy Bleed
  
• Divine Shot
  
• Judge's Gavel
  
• Divine Shot
  
• Beam of Judgment
  
• He Deems your claim acceptable
  

Turn 9

• Deliberating
  
• Sacred Cannon
  
• Dispelga
  
• Beam of Judgment
  
• Judge's Gavel
  

And everyone wiped out on this turn.

Fight 3 Lessons Learned

My biggest problem is that I didn't have a stable rotation planned out. SS Nichol was in constant risk of dying and he did not have nearly enough MP to maintain his buffs. Without his buffs, everyone ended up taking a lot more damage than they should have and I spent most of the fight slowly dying.

Also it looks like Divine Castle and Perfect Defense have different version that are used. I assume there is also a level 1 version for those. Based on Divine Castle, lower number is weaker. I'm assuming there is a way to trigger which version is used but I have no freaking idea what that is. I'll have to spend some time working on a safe rotation for survival then try to solve the variable buff mystery.

Here are patterns that I noticed:

• 3n-2 turns (1, 4, 7) he will use some form of Perfect Defense (phys and magic mitigation).
  

• 3n turns (3, 6, 9) he will use the Divine Castle ability HP barrier). This seems to be the same level as the Perfect Defense from two turns previous. I will need to test this theory out more as I only have a couple data points.

• The level of those two skills do not appear to be scripted. I would have thought it'd go from 3, 2, then 1 but it went 3, 2, 3. This implies a my action might have an impact on what it uses. I'll need to carefully pay attention to when it uses what.

• 3n turns sometimes have dispelga. I noticed that it didn't do it when the level 2 skills above were used. Could be a coincidence or could be triggered by the same actions.

Taking that into account I can guess the order of the attacks and their conditions (starting with turn 2. Turn 1 appears scripted):

1. Sacred Cannon is used every turn, usually the first action. Earlier actions seem to be just for flavor

2. On 3n turns, dispelga is sometimes used (need to verify if it is tied to Perfect Defense level)

3. If Perfect defense Lv2 was used, diaja is used for next three turns. (need to verify this still).

4. Only one of Holy Bleed, Beam of Judgement, or Guilty Rain comes here. Guilty Rain seems to only come after Perfect Defense Lv 2, Beam of Judgement for PD lv3. Holy Bleed is always a possibility.

5. Next set of skills is Divine Shot and Judge's Gavel. Thanks to how skills appear on the screen (same skill used twice in a row only shows up once but for a slightly longer duration), I can't be entirely sure but it looks like Divine Shot and Judge's Gavel are used for a total of 4 times combined. It might just be three. I won't know for certain until I see two of each alternating.

6. Beam of Judgment and Radiant Sacrament come next. Looks to be alternating with order switching depending on level of Perfect Defense. Beam of Judgment isn't physical (doesn't trigger cover) whereas Radiant Sacrament is physical and looks to be on of the skills that inflicts stat breaks.

7. Guilty Rain. Maybe on 3n turns with PD Lv is in effect? I didn't live long enough on turn 9 to confirm but that would be consistent with everything else.

8. 3n turns use a Divine Castle buff matching the PD buff two turns previous.

All of that above analysis took me a couple hours to sort through. So glad I took a video of the fight because I had to go back a few times to confirm that I missed writing down attacks the first time around. I was very pleased every time an attack I was expected was missing in my notes but was in the video. I probably would have needed 5 runs to get as good data as I did from one video.

Fights 4 - 9 (RIP 180 energy just to test theories).

Fight 4 was simple. Never attack and just turtle down. I died on turn 8 but was able to confirm that Perfect Defense stayed at level 3 the entire fight.

Fight 5 was the opposite. Attack every turn. I died on turn 11 but starting with turn 4, PD stayed at level 2.

Fight 6 I brought along a friend TT to attack with magic while everyone else turtled. Initially she only used dark attacks to ensure I was only testing magic vs physical. That was good enough to trigger PD Lv2. Later I switched to fire and that resulted in PD Lv3. It looks like dark is the likely trigger.

Fight 7 I switched A2 and Machina to water weapons (one of his weaknesses). PD Lv3. Quit after turn 7.

Fight 8 I switched to non-elemental. PD Lv3. Quit after turn 7.

Fight 9 I brought a friend unit to use lightning and light attacks every turn. Those were all absorbed and resulted PD Lv3. Quit after turn 7.

I think all of that is enough to prove that attacking with dark every turn will trigger PD Lv2. Nothing affects the first 3 turns but that makes sense as PS Lv3 appears to be scripted for turn 1. I still have no idea how to trigger PD Lv 1 or 4, if they even exist. It's possible it's one of the other elements (ice, earth, wind) but I really don't want to burn more energy just to test that as those elements aren't really related to this esper at all. You'd think I'd be upset about all this wasted energy. I would be if I didn't have >500 NRG pots (and growing) despite using them like they are going out of style. Gumi, would it kill you to give me 5 lapis spins on the ad wheel instead of 2x energy pots once in a while?

Fight 10

With the team I have now, 2B isn't a good choice. Needing to dispel Alexander means her lack of on-demand breaks is a big liability and her solo damage output is pretty shitty with the skills available for this fight: True Charge Blade hits too many times so the counters are very likely to kill her. The YoRHa Sword skills are lightning elemental so they get absorbed. Also constantly needing to dispel the light imbue makes the fight really slow and a bit rocky on the survival side.

Looking at my mages with dark attacks, GLS is by far the best option. Her strong abilities are fire and dark but she has triple cast up at all times so she should be able to outdamage all of my other options (Dark Fina, Trance Terra). Also, she has stat break resists in case Folka is busy or low on MP.

In this fight I discovered that my damage output is baaaaaad. Less than 1% per turn. Also I can't attack every turn so this fight will likely take over 100 turns. After about 60 turns I got him down to 58% and just gave up. I need to figure out how to bump up my damage.

Fight 11

Several months have passed since I last tried this. I spent probably as much trying to make sense of my notes as i did doing the fight so I'm pretty sure I'll screw up quite a few things.

I'm completely redoing by party based on units that I got in the past few fights. I'll be using Pure Summoner Rydia as my primary attacker. Like before, I'll be sticking to only one attacker. Kydia is a solid choice because her strongest summoning skill is water element, I don't need to worry about Alex's damage mitigation, and I can ignore the light imbues.

To help keep the summon gauge filled for Kydia, I'll be bringing Flammie. Flammie will also be responsible for the break resists, physical and magic damage mitigation buffs, light resist buffs, dark damage on most turns, and minor stat buffs. Flammie should have the most free turns so manufacted nethicite duties go to him.

Charlotte will be tanking and provoking. Once her LB is up, she'll be responsible for damage mitigation.

Since I'm going magic tank, I'll be bringing Bart for his AE mirage. he'll also be responsible for breaks. I hope his 60% break is strong enough. He's being built with minimal ATK so the light imbues don't screw me over. Dark weapon instead of his TMR to help ensure lower damage while imbued and that I'm getting dark damage every turn. It'll be a bit triky trying to decide when I want to ensure the break is refreshed (if I need to dispel) or when I want the AE mirage up...

LM Fina will be my healer. She has innate dispelga so she doesn't have Folka's drawback. She has Ramuh with Bio learned (no idea why I did that) in case I need to get in some dark damage.

And... I forgot to equip manufacted nethicite...

On the bright side, Kydia is doing 4-5% damage per mindflayer summon. That should speed up the fight greatly. I'm hoping for a 20-30 round battle instead of 100 .

Fight 12

Okay, my idea to use Bart isn't working out. First of all, I built him for LB only to realize during the fight that his LB is a DEF/SPR break, not a ATK/MAG (I was too focused on his AE mirage skill and forgot to double check what kind of break his LB does). I find it hilarious that I can focus enough to do these blind fights but screw up silly things like this all the time.

As a result he's really flimsy and keeps dying which results in not having a break. I eventually wiped.

Considering he was the only one dying I think I'll just adjust gear and not worry about the AE physical attacks and let everyone just tank it on their own.

Fight 13

Bart is out and Kryla is in. Right now all she needs to do is break and occasionally take care of dispels. Fortunately when her unlocked breaks are available, she can dispel and break on the same turn which is incredibly efficient (let's Fina either MP heal or get an insurance reraise up). I only use this on 4n 1 turns when Charlotte's LB will be used. I need that mitigation to keep the team alive.

The fight went very smoothly until around 40%. I must have crossed a threshold at 40% or 50% because he switched up his attacks. At one point I triggered the level 1 version of his buffs but I have no idea how I did that. I didn't expect to clear the fight so easily this attempt so I wasn't taking careful notes (I was on the train heading home).

Best I could tell the only changes were no more Perfect Defense and Divine Castle buffs and the addition of Divine Judgement, Sacred Cannon, and Holy. The first two were never same turn so they must be alternating. The order of the attacks changed up but as I mentioned before I didn't take careful notes so I don't know how they changes. The new attacks were always the last moves.

Both new attacks are AE and one of them (probably Divine Judgement based on the timing and name of the skill) does a huge light imperil. I had Charlotte with 190% light resist and an additional 65% from her buff. That means the imperil was at least 255%. That's just wrong. I'm really glad a went overboard with Charlotte's light resists (I only did that in case I could get the light buff up for whatever reason).

Fortunately the only unit that had trouble surviving was Kydia (she had the lowest light resists, lowest DEF, and lowest HP). Best I can tell, it was the big light imperil causing the light physical attacks to kill her. As I didn't need to worry about dispelling buffs anymore, Fina switched to reraise on Kydia and curaja to heal up the team. I had Flammie use a phoenix down to get Kydia available for the first reraise.

After that one adjustment, it was smooth sailing. Got Alex down to 1% then Kydia and Fina used LB for the final mission. Battle cleared on turn 25. Not bad for only using a "bad" damage dealer as my only attacker.

Final thoughts

Rotations I used were very simple:

Kryla (do higher list items if available):

• w-cast dispel and ATK/MAG break (4n 1 turns only)
• w-cast ATK/MAG break and ATK break (second break is only to generate LB)
• use skill to unlock her bigger breaks
• w-cast MAG and ATK breaks
• Dispel with holy torch (never had to do this)
  

LM Fina:

• DC dispel and curaja (reraise instead of dispel if it isn't needed)
  
• Manatopia
  
• entrust Charlotte (on turns where damage is minimal and no dispel required)
  

Rydia:

• w-/t-cast tornado and bioga (if I need to generate LB, do dark damage, or fill esper bar when CD isn't available)
• CD to fill esper bar
  
• single or w-cast mindflayer
• summon Anima (once only)
  

Flammie:

• turn 1: w-cast buff/break resist abilities (Kydia needs to do dark damage on these turns).
  
• turn 2: w-cast attack with esper bar generation and light buff
  
• turn 3: manufacted nethicite
  
• even turns (4 ): w-cast one buff/break resist skill with attack that generates esper orbs
• odd turns (5 ): w-cast the other buff/break resist skill with attack that generates esper orbs
  

Charlotte:

• 4n-3: AE cover or LB
  
• 4n-2: DEF/SPR buff and magic mitigation move
• 4n-1, 4n: light resist (4n turn is for LB generation)
  

Looking at the AI details on the wiki, I only really missed a couple things:

• I needed to use an LB on two turns along with the 2 dark attacks to trigger the level 1 buffs.
  
• There was a second threshold at 20% which just increases the frequency of that stupid 300% light imperil.
  

Other than the huuuuuuuuge delay in finishing the fight, this wasn't too bad. If I had allowed myself to bring a friend unit I have no doubt I would have cleared it easily months ago (lack of damage was the biggest issue). Also, Flammie having the break resist buffs allowed my healer to focus on heals and dispels. The difference definitely made the fight smoother but I'm pretty certain I could have done it with the same team I used before my long break. It just would have taken a loooooong time.

Right now I'm so behind with trials that I'm going to change how I do some of these fights. For the Chamber of Arms, I'm not going to worry about figuring out all the fight mechanics. Instead, I'll be clearing all the fights with the same team and I will not use any FFBE original units. I will of course do the fights blind.

Other News

My brother is getting married soon so I'll be spending a lot of time that would have gone to FFBE towards writing a speech for his reception (somehow despite all the grief I've given him over the past 4 decades, he wants me to be in his wedding). I gotta put all my creativity into that so the shit post portions of SIFT, work on the SIST tool, GiB, and the dozen other minor projects I'm working on will be on hold until I'm happy with the speech.