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All 4* Magicites downed!

Preface: When the 4* Magicites first came out, they were NOT fun. They were very strong, they dealt a lot of damage, and I didn't know how to deal with them. My old 3* sub-30 setups were absolutely stomped here.

For a while I was actually only farming Kraken, because he was the very first one I managed to sub-30, and the first one I was actually comfortable farming. So as you would expect, I am sitting on a lot of Summon Crystals.

The motivation to take them all down began only in the last 2 months when I first took down Marilith within 30 seconds. Marilith was actually the very first 4* Magicite I fought when they launched, and not only did I have trouble killing her, my old sub-30 Liquid Flame setup didn't really dent her much.

It was around this period I re-discovered the fun of time attacks, and so I became more motivated to take them down.

Things I've done to achieve these:

• Legend Dived many new characters - including Yuffie, Lightning, Warrior of Light, Shelke, Aphmau (half), Luneth, Zack, Ayame.
• Honed many 5* skills to R4 minimum - including Engulfing Quadstrike, Assault Saber, Guardbringer, Shadow Embodied, Raging Waters, Fires Within, Burning Rush, Desert Seal
• Honed Meltdown to R4.
• Made and honed Curada to R4.

A lot of my setups are dive heavy, but barring the first 2, they all more or less abuse the combo of Shelke and Aphmau - Shelke Entrusts bars to Aphmau for her to consistently use her USB. I also had dived Ramza for 3* previously, then it turned out to be not needed, but for 4* it was absolutely vital.

General tips:

• 4* Magicite passives are always stronger than 3* (duh).
• Since 4* now gives us the chance to have more unique magicites, my belief is that it is generally best to do something like an imperil or element boost magicite (barring a few where Unicorn is superior due to status effects), then one resistance magicite, and the remaining 3 should be filled with the respective enelement magicites. Go for ATK up or MAG up ones based on your setup as fillers if you do not have enough.
• Crit chance magicites are pretty good now. I am noticing more crits than before (another duh moment), although I cannot if say they are actually superior to ATK up.
• Having a dived Shelke/Morrow continually entrusting Aphmau is a game changer for me - not only do you get to spam instant party heals, but your whole party gets to have 1 instant action. Value! Ramza USB also adds value as I do not have any party crit fixers (e.g. OK PUSB).
• Ramza and/or OK LMR are really good to have (depending who you use more). Though this should probably be already obvious.

There's a story in all of this, so bear with me. Without further ado, I present to you my 4* Magicites setup!

Kraken

Drop: Major Summon Orb x1, Summon Crystal x1

RW: Fabula Guardian

Magicite:

• Main: Hydra (V)
• Subs: Humbaba (VI), Enlil (XIII), Mombomb (IV), Bismarck (VI)

Thoughts:

Lightning and Kain both have 40% Lightning damage from gear.

I started on sub-30's with Kraken after I managed to get Lightning's USB (Sept Fest - 33 pull #1) and UOSB (Sept Fest - Banner 2), and Kain's LCSB (Sept Fest - Happy Series IV) from the JP Sept fest. This is a pretty simple setup:

• Lightning opens with Lifesiphon x2 on one of the arms, then uses RW Fabula Guardian. Kain uses Cyclone Dive on one of the arms, then uses Lightning Dive on the main body. Shelke's opening rotation is 3x Wrath. Ramza's is open with Shout, and then Wraths once. Y'shtola opens with Shellga, then spams Curada and hope you proc dualcast at least once or twice.
• You'll get a feel for this, but the idea is to line up your opening cast of Kain's LCSB with Lightning's USB and Ramza summoning the Hydra magicite. Shelke will Wrath once, then on her next turn she will Entrust Lightning. Y'shtola continues to spam Curada.
• When everything is setup, Kain does Cyclone Dive into Lightning Dive on the main body. Lightning should only use Thundering Quadstrike once, before she just repeatedly spams USB by being fed bars from Ramza and Shelke. Y'shtola spams Curada unless your party gets hit by Insanity: Tentacles, upon which you can use BSB to heal up your party and provide a round or two of mitigation.
• End the chain with Lightning UOSB. You should be able to cast USB 3 more times after the opening one, then round off with UOSB. Kain goes on standby after the second Lightning Dive, and prepares to recast LCSB if the boss is not dead as a finisher, though it should be dead by the end of the UOSB.

Marche's RM4 on Shelke is vital - all of Kraken's random counters can be drawn (both ST Tentacle and Ink). This reduces a lot of your counter RNG by only having 1 person be targeted. Curada provides a HP Stock 2000 as a buffer for Shelke.

I am fairly certain that I can likely beat Kraken without a chain setup now, though I am too lazy to try.

I would replace Enlil and Mombomb with Mimic Queen and Garuda when you can farm them from Ixion. Bismarck can be replaced for Ixion.

Ixion

Drop: Major Lightning Orb x1, Lightning Crystal x1

RW: Fabula Guardian

Magicite:

• Main: Shell Dragon (IX)
• Subs: Sandworm (X), Enlil (XIII), Mombomb (IV), Hydra (V)

Thoughts:

Dispel happy boss. There is some RNG involved - especially on my end, it relies on Shadow to dualcast a lot. From Ixion's end, it's a matter of who he hits with ST Aerospark (hopefully none), as well as hoping he doesn't enter Evasive Mode (because seeing four out of seven Desert Seal hits missing is actually fun. Twice). I figured to actually try him after pulling Kelger's USB, however, Kelger without dives cannot hope to match Shadow's damage output - on my first clear, I used Kelger for a near 50-seconds finish. When I swapped him out for my previously dived Shadow, it cut the timer to about 33 seconds, even though Shadow's chase is inferior to Kelger's. It should be no surprise by now that Legend Dives do add a lot of bonus damage.

Bartz has 40% Earth damage from gear. Shadow has zero.

The idea here is to have one Entruster continually entrusting Penelo, whereas the other entrusts Bartz. Bartz opens with 3 Lifesiphons to get a bar, then goes into USB. Shelke entrusts him her first bar so that he can BSB3 immediately after. From that point on, the idea is to try and get him to use his OSB as much as possible - QC from USB and EnEarth from BSB3 will help you deal some fast damage in conjunction with Shadow.

Shadow's USB is actually not that useless here, despite what you may believe. It still has an NE component, and reduces his cast time drastically (not that he needs it too much, but it kind of turns his fast cast into what seems like near instant cast), plus the chase still does about 5.3k x2 Non-elemental damage.

Ixion has scripted Insanity: Aerospark which hits the whole party - once you are familiar with the timing, the idea is to use Penelo to continually blink it, utilizing near-infinite bars via Entrust.

Bartz getting hit with ST Aerospark right before his BSB3 goes off is fine - he'll immediately regain Haste.

Eventually, you can replace Enlil and Mombomb with Midgardsormr and Catastrophe, and Hydra with Lich. I haven't done Ixion since I was done farming Midgardsormr, but my belief is that this setup should be a lot more consistent now with the addition of Midgardsormr and Catastrophe magicites.

Marilith

Drop: Major Fire Orb x1, Fire Crystal x1

RW: Fabula Guardian

Magicite:

• Main: Kraken (IX)
• Subs: Octomammoth (IV), Gizamaluke (IX), Enki (XIII), Mimic Queen (XII)

Thoughts:

I finally returned to Marilith after I was consistently whooped when 4* magicites first came out (killed her twice, then couldn't kill her for the following 2 hours for some reason). This time, I came back after I had exhaustively farmed Kraken.

I originally had a clear of about 40 seconds. I tried dropping Vanille (BSB) for Aphmau as well as dropping Protectga, and my time improved to something like 32 seconds. Finding a way to use Ramza's USB in my setup then brought it to below 30 seconds. Thus I learnt about how powerful a well-timed party IC can be.

The idea here is to open on Bartz and Tidus by continually using Lifesiphon. Yuffie will summon the Wall RW, then use Raging Waters twice. Aphmau sets up Shellga, then does Curada once, then uses USB. You will want to time her USB such that it is done while everyone else is mid-cast on their 3rd turn - this ensures that on their next turn, everyone will get to open with their respective Soul Breaks:

• Bartz can instant USB, then goes into Engulfing Quadstrike spam.
• Yuffie can instant BSB1 for EnWater. This requires Ramza to Wrath once after opening Shout, then instant Entrust her while she is mid-casting Reflecting Pool.
• Tidus can instant BSB1 for EnWater, then goes into Sapphire Shot spam.
• Aphmau should immediately summon Kraken with her own IC1. After this she simply spams Curada.

There will be a point where you will next have both Ramza and Aphmau's USB up - use Aphmau's USB for party IC, have everyone else except Ramza use an ability, then have Ramza chain into his USB - this gives you a second turn of party IC. This is the best time to use both Bartz (roughly 67k damage) and Tidus' OSB (99999 damage).

Yuffie can use USB1 as a finisher, or party heal to alleviate the stupid high AoE damage that comes in near the last 5 seconds.

I found this setup to be pretty consistent for farming Fire Crystals.

Tiamat

Drop: Major Wind Orb x1, Wind Crystal x1

RW: Fabula Guardian

Magicite:

• Main: Wendigo (XII)
• Subs: Isgebind (XIV), Dullahan (VI), Gizamaluke (IX), Krysta (VIII)

Thoughts:

The biggest pain in terms of damage. You're going to want to run dual elemental resistance here - hence the Gizamaluke and Krysta magicites. After I was done with Marilith, I took down Midgardsormr and Isgebind (both non sub-30), and farmed their Magicites before attempting Tiamat.

My Tiamat run is pretty fun - the party generally always has party IC past the 8 second mark. I was party instant casting something like 8 rounds in succession.

Squall and Ayame both have 20% Ice gear only.

Opening strategy:

• Squall opens with 3x SSS. Ayame opens with Lifesiphon x1, then Hailstorm x2. Shelke does Wrath, Wall RW, then Entrusts to Ramza. Ramza opens with Shout and Wraths a few times after. Aphmau opens with Shellga, Protectga, then wait for the others to be in the middle of casting their third action before using USB (same as Marilith). On Aphmau's next turn, immediately summon Wendigo.
• Squall should use BSB2, Ayame should use BSB.
• Ramza should have his USB up after Aphmau casts Wendigo - use it to chain party IC and provide a stat buff.
• At this point, Aphmau should ALWAYS have a bar up every turn to be able to spam USB. This effectively gives your party infinite IC. Ramza should entrust bars to Aphmau after the first USB as Tiamat's damage starts to ramp up.
• Squall will have instant C1's and C2's (aim to dualcast at least one of your first two C1, then C2 spam all the way). Ayame uses C2 once, then spams Hailstorm, using BSB instead whenever her SB bar is full.
• You can use OSB as a finisher if your Burst Mode actually runs out.

A little bit RNG reliant on Squall hopefully dualcasting C2 a few times. Also, if Tiamat ever targets Squall with Absorb Power, it's an immediate reset...or is it? Reset if it's the first. If it's the 2nd, you can have Ramza re-cast Shout and soldier on. Tiamat should not live long enough for you to see a third Absorb Power.

Bonus: The closest sub-30 magicite ever

Midgardsormr

Drop: Major Earth Orb x1, Earth Crystal x1

RW: Fabula Guardian

Magicite:

• Main: Unicorn (VI)
• Subs: Enkidu (V), Wind Raptor (V), Golem (V), Marilith (IX)

Thoughts:

After I had farmed up Tiamat, I managed to get Zack's LCSB from the recent Fest Banner 3. Proved to be all I needed to sub-30 this guy. Previously I was using an LD'ed Luneth with BSB/OSB/UOSB to farm Midgardsormr, with times of around 40 seconds.

Both Bartz and Zack had 20 Wind damage up from gear.

Strategy:

• Zack does Lifesiphon x2 then uses Wall RW. Shelke uses Wrath x2, then Entrusts Zack.
• Onion Knight opens with BSB then uses Raging Storm.
• In the meantime, Bartz spams Snowspell Strike to build bars. When Bartz has 1 bar and Zack has nearly 2 bars, Aphmau will cast USB so that Zack and Bartz can instantly LCSB and USB respectively.
• As usual, the strategy is to ensure that Aphmau is always fed bars as much as possible. Onion Knight uses IC Meltdown to build the chain whenever he can - otherwise it is preferable to use Raging Storm. Zack tries and casts his USB whenever he can, then contributes to the chain with Leaping Blast spam.
• Near the end of the chain, Bartz can finish with an OSB.
• You might find he doesn't die in one chain - continually pummel on him until he's dead.

Onion Knight with PUSB BSB Leaping Blast would perhaps have been better here, but unfortunately I do not have his PUSB.

A key point to note regarding Midgardsormr is that random AoE Slow can be frustrating. Not when you are running Aphmau, since Aphmau's USB will continually refresh Hastega.

Eventually, I would change Unicorn to Tiamat (Wind Boost is the next best since Wind still does not have an Imperil Wind magicite). I would also upgrade Golem to Sylph, and kick out Marilith for Silver Dragon.

Siren

Drop: Major Holy Orb x1, Holy Crystal x1

RW: Fabula Guardian

Magicite:

• Main: Shadow Dragon (IV)
• Subs: Phantom (VI), Darkmare (XII), Mist Dragon (IV), Isgebind (XIV)

Siren's really annoying parts are random AoE Silence (pray your healer doesn't get Silenced), and the fact that below 40% HP, she spams Counter Curaja as a trigger to anything at all, healing for 9999. The other problem more specific to me is that I didn't have anyone that can use Dispel that wasn't Aphmau, so I had to run Banishing Strike on Ramza. Since she absorbs Holy, removing Haste and Regen in the final 40% is effectively a free 12k or so HP heal for Siren.

The counter to the Counter Curaja spam is to have a Dark-elemental OSB. My only Dark-elemental OSB was coincidentally, Aranea's OSB (it's Lightning/Dark).

Both Shadow and Aranea have 40% Dark damage from gear.

Opening strategy:

• Shelke opens with Wrath, then Wall RW, then Entrusts Shadow. Ramza opens with Shout then immediately tries to queue Banishing Strike. Shadow opens with two uses of Ancestral Pool, and Aranea opens with Crimson Cross then Dread Weapon. After two uses of Ancestral Pool, plus the Entrust from Shelke, Shadow will have a bar for USB.
• From here on, it's mostly judgment. Like before, Aphmau should always be fed bars, with Ramza supplementing IC via USB where possible when she cannot. Aranea should prioritize using Crimson Cross where possible, and Dread Weapon when you need to survive. Shadow just continually casts Shadow Embodied, refreshing Ancestral Pool when necessary - do not use a 5-hits Shadow Embodied.
• Below 40%, Aranea should have about 2 bars of OSB - just continually IC OSB onto her. Mine was dealing about 56k damage per use.
• Shadow continues to do his thing, but prioritizes using USB instead where possible so as not to trigger Counter Curaja. Fun fact: Shadow using Shadow Embodied, then dualcasting it, then following up with chase will proc Counter Curaja THREE times.
• Shelke should try and switch focus to Entrusting Aranea around this point. Aphmau and Ramza should have enough in the tank between themselves to allow Aranea to OSB with the entrusted bars.

Hopefully your RNG holds here, and she goes down. Aranea critting OSB is the best RNG outcome, since it pushes the damage up to about 83k. In this instance, OK PUSB might be better than Ramza's Shout, purely for the crit fix alone.

As always, just aim to upgrade your magicites where possible. Mist Dragon can be upgraded for Necrophobe, and Isgebind and Darkmare can be replaced by Dragon Zombie and Hades respectively.

Isgebind

Drop: Major Ice Orb x1, Ice Crystal x1

RW: Fabula Guardian

Magicite:

• Main: Mombomb (IV)
• Subs: Marilith (IX), King Bomb (XII), Firemane (XII), Salamander (III)

This was one of the early ones I farmed that I was never able to sub-30. My farming setup isn't too different from my sub-30 setup - simply swap OK's Entrust for Affliction Break and that was what I used to farm it. For the sub-30, I had to take the chance on dodging Paralysis without an Astra or Affliction Break.

Refia, Shantotto and OK have 40% Fire damage from gear.

Strategy:

• Shelke uses Wrath once, RW's Wall, then Entrusts Refia. OK opens with BSB, then uses Smoldering Fire once, then Entrusts Shantotto. Aphmau opens with Protectga and uses Ultra Cure for a few turns. Refia uses Burning Rush as much as she cans, and uses Fires Within only when Isgebind is up in the air and immune to melee range.
• Shantotto can use Memento Mori on herself - with just Wall and no magic buff, Isgebind's opening AoE will put her HP within range to enter critical HP after casting Memento Mori on herself. With OK's BSB, Memento Mori, and LM2, Shantotto will have 3x 30% MAG buffs, easily hitting the softcap, and being able to throw fast cast Meltdowns.
• As usual, try lining up Aphmau's USB so that Refia can instantly cast her USB. Shantotto may not have a bar up at this time - if she does, cast her SSB, otherwise just wait for the next IC moment.
• Aphmau should once again be the one to cast Mombomb so as to avoid a DPS loss. OK uses Smoldering Fire where possible, and towards the end, Entrusts his bars to Refia, who will hopefully be able to spam USB.

It wasn't too RNG heavy besides Paralysis proc, but having Refia LMR will make this a lot smoother. If you have Refia LMR, OK can go back to using Affliction Break.

The magicites used here are already pretty optimized but you can always throw out Salamander for an additional Marilith or King Bomb.

Hades

Drop: Major Dark Orb x1, Dark Crystal x1

RW: Fabula Guardian

Magicite:

• Main: Unicorn (VI)
• Subs: Siren (V), Evrae (X), Kirin (VI), Shadow Dragon (IV)

Probably the hardest one to sub-30, due to a combination of his sheer tankiness and status effects. I avoided him until I had farmed up a Lv99 Siren and Lv99 Evrae for the additional EnHoly passives.

Beatrix and WoL both have 40% Holy damage from gear. Ramza has only 20%.

Strategy:

• Your party's position matters here, due to his 2x 3 random targets physical attack. He hits either 3 top, 3 bottom, or middle 3. Whoever is in the middle will get hit twice all the time.
• WoL's dive is actually necessary here, unless you want to play with resets and hope that Hades uses Flare on him. The dive adds a lot more consistency to the run, otherwise you have to give up the 30% damage RM (yes, Core Warrior's Lv99 RM is 30% sword damage!) for a Sentinel or SB up RM.
• Shelke does Wrath, Wall, Entrusts Ramza. Ramza opens with Shout, then Affliction Break. WoL opens with Protectga and uses Assault Saber twice. Beatrix opens with 2 Divine Crosses, then starts spamming Guardbringer.
• You will have to use Aphmau's USB early due to the damage from Insanity: Shadow Flare. Not to worry - Ramza will have one bar to use USB right after to chain party IC and allow Shelke to build a few more before Entrusting to Aphmau. Line up WoL's LCSB and Beatrix's USB here.
• Around the 17s mark, you will want to find a way to IC Unicorn. He will follow with Black Cauldron and its myriad of status effects (hence why you need Unicorn), and depending on your damage, he might immediately follow with Dispel. You will want to ensure that Aphmau has full ATB, or near full when he casts Dispel so that you can immediately re-Haste, and not lose tempo. He actually uses Black Cauldron once around 13s, but if you deal enough damage to him, you can possibly skip it.
• WoL should immediately re-cast Protectga so that Beatrix's Guardbringer always remains at 5 hits. I am planning to toy around with using Ramza's Tailwind here instead so that WoL doesn't drop tempo.
• Barring RNG from Stuns (this is why you still need Affliction Break), he should hopefully be a relatively straightforward fight.

For magicites, I can only see myself replacing Shadow Dragon with Seraphim for stronger Dark resist.