Going in Blind - Venomous Vines of Death

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.

I'm finally making the time to clear out my backlog of trials. This one is admittedly a bit boring due to how easy it is. I contemplated not bothering posting it due to how easy it was.

EDIT: Since it is obviously not clear to others, this was "easy" and "boring" to me not because it was easy to clear but rather because the AI is extremely basic and repetitive. My goal is to figure out the AI and this was not even remotely challenging to sort out.

If any of you want to try a trial blind like this (not brute forcing a victory) and you haven't done this trial yet, this is a good candidate for your first attempt.

Let's get started!

Looking at the moogle hints provided in game:

• Status ailments
  
• Stat breaks
  
• Elemental attacks
  
• Instant KO
• Stop
• Mini Malboro has jump attacks

Looking at the news announcement:

• Status ailments
  
• Two rounds of fighting
  
• Fire attacks are effective
  

And we also have the usual suspects as possibilities:

• Fixed type attacks that go right through covers or both magic and physical AE attacks.
• Stat breaks
• 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.
• Attack type immunities or mitigations
  

Just for the hell of it, let's see how far I can take things with the same team I set up for Alexander 3 star: Kydia, Flammie, LM Fina, Kryla, and SS Charlotte.

No gear changes (I'll admit, that's the real reason I chose to go this route) so I expect problems due to the instant death. I'll make appropriate unit and gear changes once I get more info on the fight.

As usual, I'll make use of the easier versions of the fight to figure out the AI basics.

Fight 1 - ADV

Great Malboro fight:

I'll start out with checking stats and breaks then just turtling a bit to see the attacks and sort them out.

Turn 1

• 100% fire resist, 300% ice, light, dark resist, immune to all status ailments, can break ATK/MAG only

• Barrage - AE physical attack?

• Freeze Ray - ST attack. Probably ice. Maybe physical (can't tell because Charlotte provoked it).

• Ruby's Tentacle (multiple hits) - ST physical attack

Turn 2

• Bad Breath - AE all ailments magic attack (Charlotte covered)
  
• Barrage
  
• Freeze ray
  
• Ruby's Tentacle (multiple hits)
  

Turn 3

• Barrage
  
• Freeze ray
  
• Ruby's Tentacle (multiple hits)
  

Turn 4

• Bad Breath
• Barrage
  
• Freeze ray
  
• Ruby's Tentacle (multiple hits)
  

Turn 5

• Barrage
  
• Freeze ray
  
• Ruby's Tentacle (multiple hits)
  

There's a pretty obvious pattern here...

Turn 6

Same as 2 and 4

Turn 7

Pattern is obvious so I hit him with Kydia. Quick and easy death. I'm sure there are threshold attacks and changes to the AI but I'll sort those out during a harder fight.

Malboro Queen fight:

Same thing. Check details and turtle a bit

Turn 1

Same Libra details on Malboro Queen.

• Barrage - Probably from Queen
• Photosynthesis - Looks like a ST heal. Probably from mini
• Bad Breath - probably from Queen
  
• Photosynthesis - mini?
  
• Freeze Ray - Queen?
  
• Bad Breath - mini?
  
• Explosive Thrust - Mini. Probably the jump move.
• Ruby's Tentacle - Queen

I'm guessing Photosynthesis, Bad Breath, and Explosive thrust are mini attacks. From now on, I'll split the attack up based on which units I think are using them.

Turn 2

Queen:

• Bad Breath
  
• Barrage
  
• Freeze Ray
• Ruby's tentacle
  

This looks awfully familiar, doesn't it?

Minis:

• jumps landed

Turn 3

Killed the minis with Phoenix

Queen:

• Barrage
  
• Freeze Ray
• Ruby's tentacle
  

After the previous Malboro fight I was expecting something more vicious than this...

Turn 4

• Bad Breath
  
• Barrage
  
• Heat Ray & Freeze Ray - AE magic. Fire and ice presumably. Also debuffs fire and ice resist
  
• Ruby's Tentacle
  

Something new! Is it scripted? Is it retaliation? Tune in next time. Same bat time, same bat channel.

Turn 5

Queen only went from 91% to 15% from Kydia's attack that one-shot Great. Guessing she has higher SPR than Great. Probably the old "screw players over by making one high DEF and the other high SPR. In fact let's do the same with the minis" strategy that Alim loves so much.

• Bile - AE magic attack, stat breaks to all stats
• Love Song - HP heal

Guessing this was a threshold move. Apparently there's a threshold between 14% and 91%. That's so helpful to know.

Turn 6

• Bad Breath
  
• Bile
• Love Song
  

I must have crossed two thresholds that previous turn. Looks like Bad Breath is every even turn regardless of thresholds.

Turn 7

• Bile
  
• Love Song
  

Must have been 3 thresholds...

Turn 8

Killed with Kydia's LB.

Fight 1 lessons learned

At least on the easiest difficulty, the fight is very straightforward. Pattern is very basic and simple.

Fight 2 - PRO

I cleared the Chaotic Darkness SBB trial between these two fights so I'm just going to use the team I had for that. Only difference is removing the light weapon from Malphasie and using a fire one instead and light weapon from Beryl and using a non-elemental instead.

Turn 1

Same libra info, same ATK/MAG only breaks.

• Barrage
  
• Freeze Ray
• Ruby's tentacle
  

And my team counter him down to 64%. Let's see if I crossed a threshold!

Turn 2

• Bad Breath
  
• Bile
  

Looks like Great's threshold is pretty tame.

Turn 3

• Barrage
  
• Heat Ray & Freeze Ray
• Ruby's tentacle
  

Ah, I must have triggered Freeze Ray to turn into Heat Ray & Freeze Ray. Biggest difference is that I attacked the past couple of turns and didn't on the turns I only got Freeze Ray. I won't attack 2 or 3 turns to see what happens.

Turn 4

• Bad Breath
  
• Bile
  

I guess I crossed a threshold from counters the previous turn. I wasn't paying close attention and didn't bother recording since this is pretty easy so far so I assume it was a coutner that brought him to 49%

Turn 5

• Barrage
  
• Swallow - Didn't do anything? Maybe this was the instant KO move? M Ramza's provoke was still up, he has death immunity on him, and he took the hit.
  
• Freeze Ray
  
• Ruby's Tentacle

Countered down to 30%. Guessing it's threshold time again since Queen had at least three thresholds. Swallow must be a new move from being blow a HP%. Gotta figure out it's pattern now...

Turn 6

• Bad Breath
  
• Bile
  

Yup.

Turn 7

Defending again.

• Barrage
  
• Swallow
• Ruby's T
• Freeze Ray
• Ruby's T
  

countered down to 11%

Folka managed to die. Probably because I haven't covered or provoked for a few turns... Haha. Will raise her for the next fight. Letting Beryl provoke to test if Swallow is the KO move.

Turn 8

• Bad Breath
  
• Barrage
  
• Swallow
  
• Heat Ray & Freeze Ray spam. Looked like 4 attacks?
  

Beryl provoked and died. Successful test.

Turn 9:

• Barrage
  
• Swallow
  
• Heat Ray & Freeze Ray spam. Looked like 5 attacks?
  

Folka took the Swallow. Counters killed Great. Time for the Queen and minis.

Turn 1

Malphasie used her LB for the use 2 LBs mission. Minis dead. Queen down to 34% (after self heal)

• Bile
• Love Song
  

Threshold moves for turns 2 and 3 as expected.

Turn 4

• Bad Breath
  
• Barrage
  
• Cloying Breath - Charlotte blocked so must be ST magic attack
  
• Heat Ray & Freeze Ray spam
  

Turn 5

• Barrage
  
• Freeze R
• Ruby's T
• Freeze R spam
  

I had Malphasie defend on that turn and I got Freeze Ray instead of Heat Ray & Freeze Ray. Might be a counter to her attacks? Let's test with this in mind.

Turn 6

Malphasie defends. I want to see Freeze Ray.

• Bad Breath
  
• Barrage
  
• Cloying Breath
  
• Ruby's T
• Freeze R
  

Looking good.

Turn 7

Malphasie defending again.
This time Ramza also attacks with non-elemental weapon.

• Barrage
  
• Ruby's T
• Freeze R
• Ruby's T
  

Turn 8

Malphasie attacking. Let's see Heat & Freeze!
Ramza defending

• Bad Breath
  
• Barrage
  
• Cloying Breath
• Heat R & Freeze R
  

Turn 9

One more time attacking (I hope Queen lives!)
Ramza attacking with non-elemental weapon again.

• Barrage
  
• Heat R & Freeze R spam
  

And countered for the win! Looks like it is fire attacks that switches the attacks around.

Fight 2 lessons learned

I forgot how flimsy the easier difficulty bosses were. The coutners from my team really did a number on the poor demonic plants.

Let's summarize what we know about the fight so far.

Great Malboro:

Normal turns:

• Bad Breath on even turns
  
• Barrage
  
• Swallow (every normal turn after crossing an unknown threshold)
• Freeze Ray (possibly Heat Ray & Freeze Ray on turns I attack with fire. Need to confirm this is true for Great.)
• Ruby's Tentacle
  
• (after some threshold, Freeze R and Ruby's T share an attack slot and order isn't guaranteed anymore)
  

Thresholds (at least 3 of them):

• Bad Breath (even turns)
  
• Bile
  

Queen Malboro:

• Bad Breath on even turns
  
• Barrage
  
• Cloying Breath (every even normal turn after crossing an unknown threshold)
• Freeze Ray (possibly Heat Ray & Freeze Ray on turns I attack with fire. Need to confirm this is true for Great.)
• Ruby's Tentacle
  
• (after some threshold, Freeze R and Ruby's T share an attack slot and order isn't guaranteed anymore)
  

Minis:

No pattern determined yet:

• Bad Breath
  
• Photosynthesis
  
• Explosive Thrust
  

Fight 3 - ELT

Time to do some real preparation for this fight.

Dropping Charlotte and gearing Beryl for Ice and Fire resists as well as as much HP as I can manage.

M Ramza sticks around as my provoke tank (I just don't want to regear...)

Folka remains as my healer.

Kryla will handle breaking duties.

Malphasie will head to the bench and let Emperor play. I have yet to use him so this should be fun.

My rotation will be pretty straightforward:

3n 1 turns:
- Folka: buff ailment and break resists
- Beryl: cover
- Ramza: provoke
- Kryla: break
- Emperor: Nuke

All other turns:
- Emperor: Nuke
- everyone else: free turn

Great Malboro Fight

turn 1

Oops. Used wrong skill on Kryla.

• Barrage
  
• Heat Ray & Freeze Ray
  
• Tentacle (seems to be same as Ruby's Tentacle. Why the name change?)
  

Well Beryl and Emperor died right away to barrage. Let's see if they survive if I properly break...

turn 2

• Bad Breath
  
• Barrage
  
• Freeze Ray
  
• Tentacle
  

With Kryla breaking properly I'm surviving easily without my magic tank.

turn 3

• Barrage
  
• Freeze Ray
  
• Tentacle
  

I'm stabilized now. I'll only note turns that differ from the expected pattern or I figure something out.

• turn 4: Beryl attacked and damage was absorbed. Must be from the earth element on his Galkan Dagger since he was using a non-elemental attack.

• turn 8: Went from 81% to 71% and got the threshold move. Must be 75% or 80%.

• turn 10: Seems like another threshold at 55% or 60%. Swallow started too.

• turn 12: Another threshold at 35% or 40%

• turn 15: Killed him.

Queen Malboro and minis:

• turn 1: Emperor only did 2% damage to mini A. Must have high SPR. Will try to take out any mini's with low SPR first.

• turn 2: only 6% damage on mini C

• turn 3: only 1% on mini B. This'll be a long fight...

• turn 13: Well I'm essentially invincible but this is taking way too long. I think I've proved that I I'm going to bring along a physical attacker to peed things up.

Fight 4 - ELT

Bringing along a random Sabin friend because FFVI is awesome. Also switched Beryl's weapon so he has something to do other than put up cover.

I'll only note turns where something notable happens.

Great Malboro

• turn 4: First threshold is definitely 80%
• turn 6: Confirmed 60% threshold
• turn 8: Confirmed 40% threshold
• turn 12: Killed Great Malboro

Queen and Minis

• turn 1: Looks like mini A & C are weak to magic this time.
• turn 6: 90% threshold on Queen
• turn 9: Finally killed mini C
• turn 14: Finally killed mini A
• turn 15: Wasn't paying attention and something managed to kill Beryl (figured out later I was hitting repeat for Ramza and he was just entrusting Sabin instead of provoking).
• turn 19: 70% threshold
• turn 20: Cloying breath must be triggered by 70% threshold
• turn 28: Mini B finally dead
• turn 36: 40% threshold
• turn 51: Win!

Crap. Guess who forgot to kill Great Malboro with LB and summon espers twice? I always find a way to screw up something. At least I stayed awake this time...

Fight 5

Taking Elena friend for some AE hybrid attacks to speed up the Queen and Minis fight.

Turns out Great Malboro has a skill that will berserk a unit: Malboro Song. It shares the same attack slot as Swallow. Somehow I didn't see it until now and it got me twice. Oh well, didn't really affect me that much.

Super easy win (12 and 26 turns) and remembered to get the missions this time.

Final Thoughts

After the GLEX Malboro fight, I was expecting a lot more. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with power creep but this fight would have been very easy for me when it was new (minus piss poor damage making the fight last forever).

Looking at the AI, I got most of it. I never saw Freezing Prey (shares an attack slot with Swallow and Freezing Prey) from the Great Malboro, but that wouldn't have made a difference.

Up Next

I think I'll do all the Chamber of Arms fights next. I'll be handling those a bit differently. Rather than sort out the trial mechanics for each fight, I'll be putting together a single team (no gear changes) to clear all the fights. To give myself another handicap, Kydia will be my only attacker.