Going in Blind - SBB Neo ExDeath

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 to 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.

If you didn't see me mention it in a previous SIFT post, I lost my notes for all by Chamber of Arms clears. I was doing those a bit differently. I did them all with the same units and gear and only Pure Summoner Rydia as an attacker. I did them blind of course (minus the 4 I did previously) but didn't bother trying to sort out all the battle details. I'm upset I lost my notes, but all 13 fights were pretty easy. No point in dwelling in it further so let's start tackling Neo ExDeath!

Looking at the moogle hints provided in game (which are exactly the same as the news announcement hints):

• Strong physical and magic attacks
• Unresistable AE death after a set number of turns
• Lots of status ailments

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

Building the team

Let's get an exploratory team together. As usual, I'll be doing a 5 unit team and will only add a 6th unit if necessary (damage race or saving time after proving I can survive the phases I'm speeding through).

Tank

ExDeath is a mage unit so I'm assuming that I'll need a magic cover tank. I just got Beryl's STMR recently so let's use him for the magic tank. (EDIT: I just realized I used the exact same rationale to use Beryl for the previous SBB fight...)

Healer

I managed to pull a copy of WoL Lenna with tickets while pulling for bonus units for the MK event. Then I got a second copy from the 4 rainbows for 9k lapis banner (which I was supposed to save for the FFVI banners...) so I'll be using her.

Attacker

Aloha Lasswell can double as my provoke tank. He can eat any ST instant death attacks. I'll build him with 100% evade which really hurts his damage (with my gear) but this should be pretty slot efficient.

Breaker

I got two Beowulf and a dupe Auron in the past month so I guess I'll use one of them. Let's start off with Auron.

Buffer

I have a 6 star Sylvie I haven't used yet so let's bring her out.

Fight 1

As usual, I'll focus on learning about the fight and mainly just turtle until I either show I can live indefinitely or he wipes me out.

Turn 1

Libra shows 115M HP, human/plant, no elemental resist, resists to all status ailments

Looks like I can only break ATK/MAG

ExDeath moves:

• Space begins to distort!
  
• White Hole
• Meteor
  
• Holy
  
• Flare
  

Space begins to distort! seems to be a just a flavor text.

White hole looks to be an instant death attack. The unit gets a petrify effect too. Seems odd for an unresisted death move so maybe this one can be resisted? I'll gear a provoke unit with death resist that next attempt.

Flare and holy appear to be ST magic spells. Meteor is AE. Flare doesn't imperil water so this isn't the same spell as the one we get.

Turn 2

• White Hole
  
• Meteor
  
• Holy
  
• Flare
  

Holy and flare seems to have imperiled (light and fire) Beryl this time. I guess he has two versions of those spells.

The White Hole spam is really annoying. I really hope it can be resisted.

Turn 3

• Neo Black Hole
• Holy
  
• Flare
  

Neo Black Hole prevented reraise from working so it must have a dispel effect on it. This is really obnoxious.

Turn 4

Looks like a repeat of turn 1.

Turn 5

Looks like a repeat of turn 2.

Turn 6

Looks like a repeat of turn 3.

Turn 7

Repeat of turn 1/4.

Turn 8

Repeat of turn 2/5

Turn 9

Repeat of turn 3/6 but there's an extra Neo Black Hole at the start of the turn.

Turn 10

• Power of the Void: an AE dispel followed by an AE instant death. (reraise failed).
  

Fight 1 lessons learned

Thoughts:

• The attack pattern is really simple but really obnoxious. Also, it's an automatic game over at turn 10 if you don't clear that phase of the fight.

• I struggled with keeping A Lasswell alive long enough to attack. Using him as a provoke tank is not a good idea because he loses a turn after every Neo Black Hole that he takes (although I'm not entirely sure he was able to provoke those moves.

• The more I think about it, White Hole probably can be resisted, I completely forgot about the status ailments so the petrify effect visual is probably petrify. I'll just rely on buffs instead of gear to prevent those unless the deaths makes it too inconvenient.

• Forced game over at turn 10 but a mission to clear in 20 or less tells me that the attack pattern will change at some point. I'll need to watch carefully for a threshold.

• MP management got a bit annoying. Auron and A Lasswell burn too much MP so I'll need to ensure that I have a decent MP healer.

I think the best choice here is to get past this phase as quickly as possible. A Lasswell is by far my best attacker so I'll stick with him but I'll need a different unit to eat the deaths and physical attacks.

I didn't want to use Charlotte but she's probably my best option for a provoke tank that can also heal MP. She can also take over damage mitigation duties. Yup, I'm using Charlotte as my physical provoke tank. No point in switching her into the magic tank; Beryl is easily handling that like a champ.

Fight 2

Turn 1

Well, I've confirmed provoke doesn't work on White Hole - it killed friend Lassie. Oh well. My A Lasswell and friend got him down to 78%. I should be able to manage the stupid deaths for a handful of turns.

Turn 10

Only got him down to 5% when I died. Between one of the A Lasswells being dead more than half of the turns and their terrible MP, I just couldn't do enough damage in 10 turns.

This is a bit confusing that there's a 10 turn limit and but a mission to finish in 20 moves. This only makes sense if there's a second form that doesn't share a life bar.

Fight 3 and lessons learned

No surprises in this fight so I'll spare you the turn-by-turn details. I could have finished the fight (or at least the first life bar assuming there are two) but I really want to solve the mystery of why he almost always targets the two Lasswells? This is really obnoxious. There must be a reason beyond pure RNG at play here. I think Charlotte was the only other unit ever targeted. Maybe highest ATK? That doesn't make sense unless it is randomly choosing between the two highest ATK. But that doesn't make sense if Charlotte gets targeted (and Sylvie in my first fight).

Also, while going back to the videos, I realized I'm fighting ExDeath but the mission objectives are for Neo ExDeath. I think that confirms this is a two part battle (would have been super easy to confirm by going to the menu screen mid-fight...).

Okay, I got a night of sleep and thought of a few other possibilities. The two (of the dozens I considered) that are most likely:

It could be driven by who last attacked it but that doesn't explain why Charlotte was targeted - she never attacked.

I think the more likely answer is that it's scripted by slot. That explains why Sylvie kept dying in my first fight. She was in slot 5. Maybe it is choose the first and last occupied slot? That doesn't explain the time Charlotte was targeted though. Maybe it's slots 1/5/6? (Or maybe first slot and last two slots? Unfortunately I deleted the first fight video so I can't confirm who died to White Hole).

Fight 4

Let's move Lenna with death resist to slot 1 and see what happens.

Looks like it only chooses slots 1, 5, and 6 for the White Hole attack. On turn 3, Neo Black Hole targeted slot 4 in all my runs. I didn't record the entire fight so not sure what he did on turn 6 but it was 1, 5, or 6 (not a surprising slot).

I seem to stop at exactly 49% health every time I do this fight but there doesn't seem to be any threshold move associated with it. Could be a stupid coincidence but we'll see.

I was able to clear his first form as as expected, there's a second form with its own life bar. Let's figure out it's attack pattern.

Wave 2 - Turn 1:

Libra shows this as beast which just seems weird to me. Also, only ATK/MAG breaks work.

• Vacuum Wave: ST attack that ignored Charlotte's provoke. Did huge damage to my A Lassie.
  
• Aergoa: should be a juiced up version of the normal spell (AE wind element)
  
• Delta Attack: Looks to be AE magic. No idea on element(s) if there are any. Beryl shrugged it off. Looks like this also does AE petrify. Stupid me forgot to gear/buff for ailments.
  

Wave 2 - Turn 2:

• Return to the Void: ATK/MAG break. I should have remembered to buff for break resists.
  
• Double Attack: ST physical or fixed attack. Hit Charlotte very hard.
  
• Blizzaga: nothing interesting here
  
• Dispel: Ugh.
  
• The laws of the universe means nothing!: Happens at the end of the turn. Probably announcing something nasty next turn.
  

The double attack and normal hits were enough to kill Charlotte. Probably wouldn't be a problem if I knew what I was doing. haha.

Turn 3:

• Grand Cross: Looks to be an AE resist break and random ailments.
  
• Vacuum Wave: ST attack. Must be fixed or physical/hybrid with accuracy because it killed friend Lassie with 100% evade.
  
• Firaga: nothing of note
  
• Flare: no imperil as far as I can tell.
  

Turn 4:

• Double Attack: confirmed as 2 big hit ST physical (or hybrid or fixed)
  
• Almagest: This one is annoying. Big light debuff and AE magic (presumably light) attack.
  
• Thundaga: nothing of note
  
• Holy: nothing of note
  
• The laws of the universe means nothing!: I'm betting this means I'll get hit with Grand Cross next turn.
  

So far I'm struggling to stay alive and keep Lassies' MP up. My stubbornness to use Beryl is rearing its ugly head. Beryl does nothing but cover and do some ghetto support chaining. Lenna is too busy raising and topping off units to do any of her other support tasks. A properly designed rotation would probably fix that problem though. I'm always a step behind with what needs to be done.

Turn 5:

Nothing new and nothing contradicts what I figured out already.

• Grand Cross
  
• Vacuum Wave
  
• Aeroga
  
• Delta Attack
  

Turn 6:

This looks like a repeat of turn 2.

• Return to the Void
  
• Double Attack
• Blizzaga
  
• Dispel
  
• The laws.. blah blah blah
  

Turn 7:

Guess who forgot to turn screen capture back on after his wife politely reminded him that he's not supposed to be pretending to be asleep in their son's room. I deserved this.

Turn 8:

• Double Attack
  
• Almagest
  
• Thundaga
  
• Holy
  
• Vacuum Wave
  
• The laws of the universe do in fact apply despite this message.
  

I was expecting a repeat of turn 4 but there's an extra Vacuum Wave. I'd probably know better if I could review turn 7....

Still struggling with this fight. Barely holding on but somehow got him down to 60%.

Turn 9:

• Dispel
  
• Grand Cross
  

The completely new turn was surprising. I got him down to 45% on this turn so maybe there's a threshold at 50%? That would explain breaking the pattern for one turn. Assuming there really is a pattern...

Turn 10:

This is exactly like turn 2. So that pattern is holding (every 4 turns starting with turn 2).

Turn 11:

Same as turn 3 and presumably turn 7.

Turn 12:

Identical to turn 8. I guess turn 4 was an oddball excluding the Vacuum Wave. I'm predicting a repeat of turn 9 here.

Turn 13:

Looks like a crossed a threshold. I went from 30% to 17% so guessing it's at 20% or 25%.

• Disorder: Buff move. I forgot to check it's status for what the buff would be.
  

Turn 14-19:

• Rampaging Void: Extremely powerful ST attack. It ignores provoke. Didn't trigger the magic cover and ignored friend Lassie's evasion so either fixed or accuracy involved.
  

Rampaging Void wouldn't be so bad if he didn't spam it 6 times each turn...

This is some seriously bad bullshit mechanics at play here. Every turn is just praying the wrong units don't die a miserable death. I lost when I got him down to 5% HP. So close...

Fight 4 Lessons Learned

Okay, let's start by recapping the fight:

First form of ExDeath has a 3 turn rotation:

First:

• Space begins to distort!
  
• White Hole (slot 1, 5, or 6)
  
• Meteor
  
• Holy
  
• Flare
  

Second:

• White Hole (slot 1, 5, or 6)
  
• Meteor
  
• Holy (imperil version)
  
• Flare (imperil version)
  

Third:

• Neo Black Hole (not sure on targeting)
  
• Holy
  
• Flare

If you survive to turn 10, he uses Power of Void to instantly wipe out the team.

This part of the fight is very easy. Keep reraise (or gear for immunity) on slots 1, 5, and 6. I kept reraise off Lenna to test if it could be resisted. Make sure you have a backup raise in case your healer dies for whatever reason.

A strong break and decent cover tank pretty much trivializes everything but the instant death attacks.

Fight two is a lot more complicated.

Opening move:

• Vacuum Wave
  
• Aeroga
  
• Delta Attack
  

Turn 2 (6, 10, etc):

• Return to the Void
  
• Double Attack
  
• Blizzaga
  
• Dispel
  
• The laws of the universe mean nothing!
  

Turn 3 (7?, 11, etc):

• Grand Cross
  
• Vacuum Wave
  
• Firaga
  
• Flare
  

Turn 4 (8, 12, etc)

• Double Attack
  
• Almagest
  
• Thundaga
  
• Holy
  
• Vacuum Wave starting turn 8
  
• The laws...
  

Turn 5 (might repeat 9, 13, etc):

• Grand Cross
  
• Vacuum Wave
  
• Aeroga
  
• Delta Attack
  

~50% threshold:

• Dispel
  
• Grand Cross
  

~20-25% threshold:

• Rampaging Void x6
  

I also realized a few other things:

• Once I get to the Rampaging Void spam, I should focus on reraises and damage output.
  
• In my stupidity, I didn't realize Lasswell had an MP recovery move that would have saved me a lot of turns...
• Beryl was a terrible choice. He didn't do anything critical other than cover. Charlotte would be better which would open up a slot for a second reraise unit.
  

Fight 5

I refused to optimize my team and remove Beryl and add a second healer. I want to see if I can make this work.

I had a lot of trouble with this one due to damage output. The Lassie friend wasn't doing nearly enough damage.

Only listing surprise turns that break from the pattern I noted above

Turn 7
Matches turn 3 as expected

Turn 12
No extra vacuum wave this turn. Instead it matches turn 4 exactly. There must be a trigger for that vacuum wave that I haven't sorted out yet.

Turn 13
This matches turn 5 perfectly. I guess that means I din't cross a threshold yet.

Turn 14
repeat of turn 2 again.

Turn 15
Same as turn 3 but has an extra Vacuum wave at the end (could be two based on the animation) No idea why...

Turn 16

Dispel and Grand Cross . It is what I thought was a threshold move. I went from 26% to 25% on this turn so maybe a 25% threshold.

Turn 17
Just Disorder. I went from 25% to 20% so maybe a followup to the 25% threshold?

Turn 18-29
Nothing but Rampaging Void.
Only got him down to 9%,

Fight 5 lessons learned

Okay, I definitely need to burst through the Rampaging Void phase of the fight. I can survive for a while (10 turns in that last fight) but I'm so focused on surviving, I'm doing absolute crap damage.

The timings of the thresholds will probably make a difference for survival. That "easy" turn after the threshold move is great for topping off MP for the Lassies.

Looking back to both fights, it looks like the extra Vacuum Wave always comes the turn right before dispel grand cross. If I assume that I crossed the threshold on the extra Vacuum Wave turn the thresholds make more sense.

That would make the thresholds at 60% and 30% and the switch to Rampaging Void is at 20%. The turn after the 30% and 60% thresholds is always the dispel grand cross.

Fight 6

All I really need is more damage per turn and a bit of luck with the units that get hammered with the Rampaging Void spam. Only change is making sure I use my one Lassie friend with Ifrit equipped.

If I wasn't lazy stubborn, I would switch Charlotte to all tank and mitigation duty and replace Beryl with LM Fina for more reraises/mp/heals.

Turn 5

Crossed 60% and got the extra Vacuum Wave I expected for the threshold. Let's see if turn 6 is dispel grand cross.

Turn 6

Dispel and grand cross! Looks like I sorted out the threshold.

Turn 7

This unexpectedly is the same as turn 2 instead of turn 3 like I though it'd be.

Turn 8

This matches turn 3. I guess the cycle starts over after teh threshold?

Turn 9

Crossed 30% threshold and got the equivalent of turn 4 with the extra Vacuum Wave.

Turn 10

Crossed 20% and got disorder which confirms that threshold.

Turn 11-13

Waited for a turn with Lassie's CD move and both were alive to finish off Neo ExDeath!

Final thoughts

Looking at the wiki, I seemed to have gotten most of the important aspects of this fight. Major differences:

• Wave 1: White Hole is slots 1/6 for one turn and 5/6 for another.
  
• Wave 1: Target for Neo Black Hole is scripted, not random.
  
• Wave 2: I never remembered to check Neo Exdeath for what disorder does. Looks to be big stat buffs and damage mitigation
  

This trial is a bit to reliant on RNG for my tastes. If you have strong enough units you should be able to ignore the <20% bullshit.

I'm really behind with the scorn fights so I'll likely work on that next. I'll likely not give Antenolla, 2-headed dragon, and marching beasts the full GiB treatment. Maybe I'll do another "use same party and gear" run.