Bravely series

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

First part of  Chapter 2 with the Solo Exorcist:



Edea had a lot of equipment to buy in Hartschild.  Good thing I had New Game Plus money!  The Flame Robe halves Fire damage, which was nice to have on a volcanic continent!  The Locket was a must-have because it protects against Charm.  Status ailments that take control away from the player are the death of solo characters in any RPG.  The Vambrace is an accessory that increases defenses, which might be situationally useful for bosses that don’t have status ailments.  Edea already got a Courage Ring from the Ancheim windmill if she had to deal with Dread status.  Dread means you can’t Brave or Default for a few turns, and not being able to defend is another problem for a solo run.
 
The enemies on the Eisenberg continent gave good experience when Edea had the Growth Egg, so I leveled up to 27.  It felt nice to have 4 digit HP!  The next mandatory boss has attacks that can ignore Default, so I needed the raw stats to push through if Edea’s attacks weren’t strong enough.  Fighting the random encounters in this area made the simplistic random number generator rear its ugly head again.  Edea would die to some unlucky critical hit on the second battle in a streak, then I reloaded, then I knew to reject continuing the streak for that encounter.  When the random numbers are obviously rigged, it was easy to manipulate the random encounters after a death.  It felt like seeing through a stage magician's tricks. 

This applies to boss battles too.  I kept dying exactly the same way to a certain Chapter 2 sidequest boss even with different equipment on different attempts.  This sounds almost as primitive as Etrian Odyssey 3’s RNG that allows AI companions to reliably kill a few Sea Quest bosses on the first turn if you saved and reset.
 
Speaking of bosses that defeated me multiple times thanks to non-RNG:
 
Profiteur:  22,500 HP, no weakness, Human
Merchantry Thug:  1980 HP, no weakness, Human
Merchantry Mage:  1980 HP, no weakness, Human
Merchantry Blade:  1980 HP, Lightning weakness, Human
 
I tried to be fancy and KO the minions with Eradicate, but the seed wasn’t right for that and only one of them died on my first attempt.  Then the remaining minions would put Edea to sleep and kill her the same way for several tries.  After that, I decided to adopt Profiteur’s own strategy of throwing money at the problem.  Or in this case, Bomb Fragments that dealt 500 damage each to the minions.  1 Brave rush with those was enough for the “pay to win” strategy to work. 

Profiteur himself was easy when Edea could Auto Undo his damage every round.   He sometimes used Pay to Play to boost his critical hit rate, but his regular attacks were too wimpy to make much use of it.  His other attack, Takeover, was a fixed attack that always did 400 damage, or his level times 50.  Think Gil Toss, but weakened to the point where no one would want to use it.  Leveling up for the HP gain paid off because he could never kill Edea with it.  Well, that’s more because he was only willing to use it twice after a turn Defaulting. 

Acid Rain still did more damage than the other Specials, despite the Exorcist’s C rank with staves.  I switched to Hack and Slash with the Defender sword late in the fight because it buffed my regular attack’s hit count, and I only needed to Default 5 times to use it.

P.S.  I forgot to mention I used the Thief’s Dagger to steal an item from Profiteur.  It was Rare Cheese.  The fake French accent should have given that away!  
       
Edea was too weak to survive the next boss’s attacks, so I leveled her up for a while.  Unlike Final Fantasy 5, character level affects more than just your HP and MP.  STR governs Physical Attack.   VIT affects Physical Defense.   INT is for Magic Attack and status ailment chance.   MND increases Magic Defense and the power of healing magic.  Dexterity helps with accuracy, bow and gun damage, and the chance of starting a random encounter with 1 BP instead of 0.  Agility governs evasion and turn order.  For the sake of comparison, I included Edea’s Exorcist base stats at level 30 and level 32. 
 
Level 30

HP 1211
MP 280
STR 24
VIT 27
INT 31
MND 33
DEX 27
AGI 26
  
Level 32


HP 1317
MP 298
STR 25
VIT 28
INT 32
MND 36
DEX 28
AGI 27
    
Level 32 wasn’t enough to guarantee survival against this annoying boss’s attacks:


Aimee:  30,000 HP, no weakness, Human
 
Aimee has no minions to help her, but she doesn’t need them to murder solo characters.  Aimee will buff herself with Condor on the first turn to pierce Default, and will follow up with one of three attacks.  Her regular attack isn’t too dangerous, and Maverick has a negative turn order priority.  Sidewinder can either hit all opponents or be focused on one character for maximum damage.  Guess what that meant for Edea.  A bad roll could do over 2000 damage, about 700 more than her level 32 HP.  Ouch!  This was no doubt the toughest boss so far for a solo run, and she came right before the next town where I could buy better equipment. 


After many failed tries involving Withering Wave and other half-baked tactics, I discovered a slow but sure method of defeating her.  Purgation removes all buffs on its target, including Condor.  After Aimee lost Condor, she always spent a turn re-applying it.  Sidewinder costs 1 BP more than regular attacks or Maverick.  So the trick was to use Purgation to debuff her, Undo Action to dodge her attack, and repeat until Aimee used Sidewinder.  Then Edea re-applied Undo Action and used a Bomb Arm to damage her for 1500 HP.  This took a while, and a single mistake could result in a Game Over.  After winning, I saved a few times more than necessary just to make sure that I would never have to replay that fight.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Upon defeating Aimee, I went to Yunohana and bought Edea some new equipment.  Anyone who’s read the 4 Red Mage playthrough will know why I bought the Noxious Rod.  Those who haven’t will learn a little trick for dealing with one of the most annoying dungeons in the game.  The Ninja Suit was the best physical armor available for Exorcists, and its +2 AGI bonus would make it even more useful.  Whenever I played through Bravely Second with my earlier variants, my characters would often wear the Ninja Suit for most of the game to get around that pesky RNG turn order.  The Exorcist is in a mediocre AGI tier too, so Edea would need every bonus she could get.
 
 
Next up was the Grapp Keep sidequest where you choose to fight Artemia the Ranger or Ominas the Black Mage.  I wanted to defeat Artemia and other physical bosses early, because Exorcists have A rank MND and C rank VIT, and could therefore deal with the harder Chapter 5 versions of mage bosses. 

Unfortunately, Artemia was too much for Edea at level 32.  Artemia has Multiburst, an attack very similar to Final Fantasy 5’s X-Fight.  With 3 party members dead, all 4 hits would target Edea and KO her several times over.  Artemia and her undead archers were too fast for Edea to reliably go first and set up Auto Undo as well.     
The only way to get through Grapp Keep without excessive leveling was to fight Ominas instead:
 

Ominas:  15,000 HP, no weakness, Human
Bahamut:  22,500 HP, Water weakness, Fire absorb, Dragon
 


This isn’t the Bahamut from Final Fantasy!  Bahamut in Bravely Second is a palette swap of a random encounter from the prologue.  Before the fight, Edea equipped the Bishop’s Staff, Ascetic’s Cap, and Flame Robe for the Magic Defense bonus.  When they weren’t using their regular attack, Ominas and Bahamut hit Edea with Firas, Pico Flares, and Femto Flares? for half damage.  Acid Rain and Antarctic Winds defeated them quickly.
 


There were no more sidequests left at this point, so Edea had to march off to Geyser Grotto and the dreaded “berserk room”.     The second room of that dungeon gives all allies and enemies Berserk status.  The Physical Attack buff meant the two mandatory enemies could do 800-1000 damage each on a bad roll. Time to grind until I get 2000 HP or so!  One odd thing I discovered when I forgot to turn off random encounters was that the Berserk status wears off if the battle lasts long enough!  The Defender sword’s Physical Defense bonus might make it better for the solo Exorcist than the Noxious Rod’s poison chance.  Random encounter enemies have variable max HP, by the way.  Using Antarctic Winds on a Flare Lantern, for example, will sometimes kill it in 2 hits instead of 3.


 
Getting to the right level to beat the two enemies in the “berserk room” took much longer than expected.  Edea was about level 34 after defeating Ominas.  She needed to be at level 47 to have enough HP to survive two random Valtora enemies under Berserk status.  47!     A normal party would be that level at the end of Chapter 4!  Now you know why I allow the Growth Egg and Obliterate as mercy rules for any solo variant. 


Because I forgot to unequip it after a grinding session in the Ancheim windmill, Edea tried and failed to use Obliterate against the Valtoras because she was below the level 52-53 threshold needed to instantly KO them.  The Valtoras attacked her, but their damage rolls were low enough for Edea to survive and finish them off with a Bomb Arm after Berserk wore off.  Remember when I said the Physical Defense accesory Vambrace might be “situationally” useful?  Well, it turns out that those situations happened more frequently than I expected.
 


The next section of Geyser Grotto had the Icefire Shield.  Fire and Ice immunity on one item was a welcome find!  One later part of this dungeon gives 3 BP to all combatants at the start of the battle, which is good for getting winning streaks.  If only I had that BEFORE the “berserk room”! 


 
The next boss should be familiar:

Janne:  30,000 HP, no weakness, Human



I was so annoyed with the programmers for creating the “berserk room” that I tried autobattling Janne to death with my overleveled Edea out of spite.  It didn’t work.  Fencers have a Stampede passive ability when using their Aurochs stance that counterattacks physical blows.
 
However, Specials don’t play by the rules.  Bolt Storm and Hack and Slash could safely hit Janne without the risk of Stampede, and their buffs stack as long as you can keep the music going by using another Special.  Solo characters have shorter turns, and therefore have more time to abuse music buffs.  Buff and debuff Specials such as Lux and Withering Wave are based on a turn count instead, so they’re not as effective for solo runs. 
 

The Defender sword and Vambrace came in handy once again, and prevented Janne from killing Edea so long as she Defaulted.  Later in the fight, Janne switched to using the Wolf stance and Braving into negative BP.  Edea took advantage of this, and used Hack and Slash on the turns when he was unable to act.  Yew auto-revived 3 times during the battle to have conversations with Janne, but being at level 3 for the entire game meant Janne could take him out with one hit each time.  No need to make my characters kill themselves with Aerora this time!
 

Starkfort didn’t have many items that would be useful for an Exorcist.  The Rod of Fire would have been decent if I were playing as a mage class.  It turned out Edea was not as overleveled as I might have hoped for the next boss:
 
“Heinkel”:  30,000 HP, Lightning weakness, Human
Sky Dueler:  6750 HP, Lightning weakness, Wind resist, Human
Sky Pikeman:  4050 HP, Lightning weakness, Wind resist, Human        
Sky Archer:  4050 HP, Lightning weakness, Wind resist, Human
 
Whitson in both his “Heinkel” and “Kikyo” disguises was tough for Edea.  “Kikyo” sounded like the easier fight because she had no minions, but her somewhat unpredictable attack pattern meant I couldn’t find a safe opportunity to attack.  When I though I found an opening, she Braved twice with her priority attack Shippurinjai and knocked out Edea.


“Heinkel” wasn’t any easier at first, and the enemies in that fight often outsped her.  When you aren’t guaranteed to outspeed a Knight at level 47 while wearing a Ninja Suit, you know you have crummy AGI.  Eventually I figured out “Heinkel” starts buffing his Physical Defense instead of attacking after the first turn.  This gave me the opportunity to throw three Pantheon’s Wraths at the minions to knock them out.  After they were dead, Edea Defaulted until she could use Piercing Bolt with the Lightning element part to exploit “Heinkel’s” weakness.
 

The next mandatory boss in Yunohana was a cake baker:

Angelo:  37,500 HP, no weakness, Human
Imperial Katana Van:  8325 HP, Lightning weakness, Human
Imperial Medic Van:  3217 HP, no weakness, Human


 
The gimmick for this fight is that you have to pick one character to be in Ghost status for the duration of the battle.  Ghosts are “dead” according to the game, and can only Brave, Default, and cast spells.  To keep the spirit of the solo challenge, I had Tiz Default the whole battle.  Yew and Magnolia kept reviving themselves to talk to Angelo.  Making them commit suicide with Aerora shortly afterwards was a bit irritating. 

The first attempt at this boss ended in failure after Angelo used Charm Cheescake on Edea, and a few turns of inaction was enough for the katana minion to use his “instant kill if target is at low health” attack.  Equipping a Locket protected Edea from Charm, and took her to victory on the second attempt.  She mostly used Pantheon’s Wraths to take out the respawning minions, and this did most of the damage to Angelo too.
 
 
Unfortunately, Tiz gained a few levels by finishing the battle as a Ghost, so I gave him two rods in case he couldn’t kill himself in one turn without equipment.  When he was cured of his status at the hot springs, it was time to go back to Hartschild and take on this boss:

 
Superd’nought Baël:  45,000 HP, Water weakness, Inorganic
Sergeant Sapp:  7500 HP, no weakness, Human
Private Piddler:  6000 HP, no weakness, Human



 
The HP count for Sapp and Piddler is misleading.  They kept reviving throughout the battle, so Edea’s main offense was Pantheon’s Wrath again.  Arctic Winds would have exploited the mech’s Water weakness, but I didn’t want to run out of money before Chapter 4 by buying more attack items than I needed.  Even New Game Plus funds have their limits when you’re throwing 2000 pg per Pantheon’s Wrath.  In Chapter 4, you can exchange Chompcraft minigame currency for regular money, making for effectively unlimited money if you have the patience for it.


The Defender sword and its Physical Defense boost was better than a rod or staff for this fight.  The Icefire Shield gave immunity to a Water attack from one of the soldiers, but the mech and the other soldier could hit with powerful physical attacks.  One bad roll resulted in a Game Over on my first attempt.  On the second try, indirectly throwing money at the problem worked once again.  So ends Chapter 2!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

The solo Exorcist has completed Chapter 3!    


Florem had some equipment for Edea, but not as much as I hoped.  The Earthing Rod accessory was the most important item, because it grants immunity to Paralysis.  Paralysis in Bravely Second will make you lose turns until it wears off, and you don’t even get BP while you’re sitting there taking hits!  It’s as bad here as it was in Final Fantasy 1.  The Adamant Shield has higher defense values than the Icefire Shield, so Edea would need that for purely physical bosses.
 
Speaking of “physical bosses”, the next sidequest gave me the choice of fighting Einheria the Valkyrie (read:  Dragoon), or Barras the Monk.  Barras and his Invigorate attack would probably have been too much for Exorcist Edea to deal with at this point, so Einheria it was:
 
Einheria:  45,000 HP, no weakness, Human
Rhea Veeling:  15,000 HP, no weakness, Human   

 
Her parents named her “Rhea Veeling” because she wears shorts, I guess?  Anyway, she was weak to Poison, so the level 4 rod Special Holy Weapon poisoned her near the beginning of the fight.  1500 damage per turn to a character with no healing abilities meant Edea could safely Default until Rhea died.  Einheria’s Crescent Moon attack hits all four characters, which would be bad for a normal party.  For level 47 Edea, it meant a free turn to attack because Crescent Moon costs 1 BP to use and Einheria insisted on using it at 0 BP.  Most of the fight from there was mostly Defaulting until she could use the Physical Defense-ignoring Piercing Bolt.  Physical armor combined with the Defender sword helped Edea shrug off all of Einheria’s attacks. 

 
The Florem weapons and armor were rendered obsolete almost immediately after the Einheria sidequest!  After going through a dungeon with no boss in a game where you can turn off random encounters, Edea went to Sagitta Village and bought some new equipment.  One interesting thing about Bravely Second is that there are rods dedicated to physical damage.  Specials are based on Physical Attack, and non-Glossolalia Exorcists don’t cast spells, so Edea always preferred physical rods. 


The accessory shop sold elemental charms that reduce damage of that element by half.  The Fire and Ice charms weren’t necessary because of the Icefire Shield, but the Lightning one would come in handy soon.
 


Those elemental charms were useless for yet another purely physical boss:
 
Praline a la Mode:  60,000 HP, Light immune, Human
Praline Admirer:  4950 HP, Lightning weakness, Human
Praline Enthusiast:  4950 HP, Lightning weakness, Human
Praline Devotee:  4950 HP, Lightning weakness, Human

 
The first time Edea fought this boss, the fight was going smoothly until Praline knocked her out with a critical hit.  Then, I decided to grind levels until Edea reached 51 and had over 2500 HP.  Sorry, I have standards and will not take losing to a comic relief character lightly! 


Praline spent her turns either buffing her party’s Physical Attack or using her regular attack.  Level 51 also gave Edea enough AGI to outspeed the minions more consistently, and she used 4 Bomb Arms whenever Praline respawned them with Adoring Fans.  Why Bomb Arms instead of the Lightning elemental item Pantheon’s Wrath?  I had more Bomb Arms stockpiled and didn’t want to spend more money than necessary.
The Defender sword came in handy again for the Physical Defense boost.  For that reason, Edea used Hack and Slash instead of Piercing Bolt this time on the turns when Praline was alone. 

Forgetting to change out the Growth Egg for the Vambrace paid off!  Edea went to level 52, saving me a few minutes of grinding.

 
Fighting the next boss was a lot like fighting myself:

 
Geist:  90,000 HP, no weakness, Human
3 Imperial Sniper Guards:  5175 HP, Water weakness, Human


 
It’s the Exorcist vs. Exorcist showdown none of you have been waiting for!  Most of the fight consisted of throwing Bomb Arms after Geist respawned the snipers, then Defaulting to gain BP when Geist was by himself.  The battle was funny when he used Undo HP to heal himself.  This would be a problem for most low-offense solos, but it turns out Edea could undo. . .Undo!  The battle menu helpfully tells you how much HP your target would have upon using Undo HP, and the Undo Trois passive extends the range from 1-3 turns instead of just 1.  So whenever Geist healed himself, Edea negated it on the next turn. 


The fight was surprisingly easy, except for one embarrassing loss on the first stage of the fight because I wanted to conserve Bomb Arms.  Never hold back while the snipers are still alive!  Edea equipped the Ninja Suit instead of stronger armor because I was paranoid about Bravely Second’s finicky turn order.  It took about 58 Bomb Arms at 2000 pg a pop to win the fight.  Solo playthroughs are for wealthy New Game Plus files only!   Geist can be poisoned, so I may have to remember that for solos where I can’t Undo his Undos.


 
The next boss fight took a while:

Vucub Caquix:  75,000 HP, absorbs all elements, Aerial, Inorganic
 
Private Piddler and Sergeant Sapp were back with another mech.  Be sure to remove any elemental parts on your offense Specials before starting this fight, kids!  I got my 4 Red Mages through this fight by abusing Withering Wave, since Special-induced elemental weaknesses override immunities.  Solo Exorcist Edea dealt with Vucub Caquix in a similar way to how she dealt with Aimee.  That is, she used Undo Action to negate the mech’s multi-hit physical attacks such as Double Lariat and Boomerang, and Purgation to remove its El Dorado attack buff.

Defaulting while the mech wasted a turn transforming and while it was in the “bird” form gave Edea the charges necessary to use Piercing Bolt until Piddler and Sapp were defeated for good.



Nikolai:  30,000 HP (two lives), no weakness, Human
Imperial Guardshield:  10,575 HP, Lightning weakness, Human
2 Imperial Guardspears:  5100 HP, Lightning weakness, Human
 

If you have to fight two  bosses in a row, Bravely Second is merciful enough to let you re-fight the second if you die during that battle, but without any items or Special charges that you spent.  Knowing that, I decided to use Eradication and go to -4 BP to see if I could wipe out the soldiers in one round.  It instantly killed all of them!  Nikolai never respawns his  minions, so this was a huge advantage. 

I probably over-prepared for Nikolai’s spells, since Lightning Lightning did 300 damage to Edea at most with the Thunder Charm equipped.  His physical attacks were far stronger than they should have been for a healer, so Edea equipped the Defender for most of the fight. 

Nikolai had a predictable pattern.  Every time he Defaulted, I knew he would use Lightning Lightning or Holy Night on the next turn.  Edea Defaulted until she built up the charges for Hack and Slash, then used it along with 3 regular attacks whenever Nikolai gave her an opening.  The fight was long, but Edea was safe so long as she remembered the pattern.  And Chapter 3 is done! 

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

The solo Exorcist survived Chapter 4 and the Chapter 5 boss rush, so here's a new update!



Edea wasn’t strong enough to take on either of the Chapter 4 sidequest bosses immediately.  Alternis Dim and his Dark Squires were too fast, and could knock out Edea on the first round.  Khamer and his Khamer Footmen could cast Stop.  Stop isn’t nearly as dangerous for an Exorcist as for other solo characters because of Auto Undo, but it still leaves extra chances for unlucky critical hits.  Edea found the Mage Shell in a Grandship treasure chest, whose Magic Defense boost could be useful for Chapter 5 bosses.

I was worried about the first boss in the Skyhold until I discovered its quirky mechanics:

 
Revenant:  75,000 HP, Light weakness, Dark absorb, Human
Imperial Guardshield:  10,575 HP, Lightning weakness, Human
Imperial Guardstave:  10,575 HP, no weakness, Human
Imperial Guardsblade:  10,575 HP, Lightning weakness, Human
 
Square Enix really didn’t care about balancing elemental weaknesses in this game, did they?  Lightning vulnerability seems to come up much more often.  Revenant’s gimmick is that he will Possess a character, much like Wrexsoul from Final Fantasy 6.  At first, I was concerned that Revenant would Possess my solo character and cause an instant Game Over or something.  However, he never did that.  If he was alone, as I saw on my first try, he stuck to physical attacks until he respawned his minions. 


The first attempt ended with, you guessed it, a critical hit out of the blue for about 3000 damage!  VIT is much more important than MND in this game because only physical damage can cause critical hits, barring some passive abilities that only the player can have.  Edea returned to fight Revenant at about level 57 so she wouldn’t die to a dice roll again.    
 

What followed was one of the weirdest battles I’ve experienced in an RPG.  Pantheon’s Wrath and Holy Weapon took out everyone but the Imperial Guardstave and Revenant himself.  Revenant would keep Possessing the poisoned Imperial Guardstave, take about 8000 damage, and go back to his haunted armor body.  My task was to keep the minion alive with Undo HP!  Not often have I decided healing an enemy was a good idea, but it was my main source of damage in this fight.  The Imperial Guardstave sometimes cast Stop, so sometimes Edea couldn’t heal him.  When the minion finally died, Edea took out Revenant with a few more Pantheon’s Wraths.  (No, there isn’t a Light elemental attack item.)

 
Edea found the Hermes Sandals in the next room.  Don’t get too excited.  These aren’t as good as their FF5 equivalent that gives permanent Haste and immunities to several status ailments.  In Bravely games, Hermes Sandals give +5 AGI, and that’s it.  However, that still makes for a great accessory in a game with variable turn order. 


 
After I got the Hermes Sandals, it was time to take on the Dark Knight:
 
Alternis Dim:  75,000 HP, Dark resist, no weakness, Human
2 Dark Squires:  10,325 HP, Lightning weakness, Human
 
Normally, I tried to abstain from using auto-revive Enopu Mushrooms during this playthrough.  This fight was an exception.  Holy Weapon and Pantheon’s Wraths were needed to take out the Dark Squires on the first turn before they used Minus Strike.  Minus Strike is the ???? Blue Mage spell from Final Fantasy 5, in that it does damage based on the amount of HP that the user has lost during the fight.  For enemies that have over 9999 HP. . .well, let’s say only a Monk could survive that!  Enopu Mushrooms brought Edea back to life whenever Alternis hit her with Minus Strike, and Auto Undo fully restored her health afterwards!  If I ever need to beat an otherwise impossible or unfair boss, this is the way to do it.  Piercing Bolt defeated Alternis like so many other bosses.
 

To get over 4000 HP required grinding to level 70!  That’s within the level range for the last boss!  And even then, Edea died many times to critical hits while fighting a familiar foe:
 
Janne:  75,000 HP, no weakness , Human

 
He doesn’t have any minions or fancy tricks, but Goring Aurochs can deal over 4000 HP without a critical if you get a bad damage roll, even with the best physical armor available for an Exorcist.  I was so frustrated that I resorted to the Enopu Mushroom trick.  Even then, there was still a chance to lose if Janne outsped Edea enough times.  Janne left himself open on turns when he decided to Brave and use Wolf Fang and Goring Aurochs, leaving him at -1 BP for the next round.  Piercing Bolt, Arctic Winds, and Bomb Arms slowly defeated him.   
 


Once you beat Janne in the Skyhold, DO NOT FIGHT THE NEXT BOSS UNLESS YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY SURE!  THIS IS A POINT OF NO RETURN!  Okay, with that out of the way, I bought some Bomb Arms and Enopu Mushrooms to prepare for this:
 

Anne:  75,000 HP, Fire weakness, Insect, Human
 

On the first turn, Anne always turns invisible and creates shadow clones.  If you hit the clones instead of the real fairy, Anne will repeatedly attack with The Pointy End, and not even an Enopu Mushroom can save a solo character.  Enopu Mushroom auto-revives don’t end the enemy’s turn.  With that in mind, I made sure to check for buffs.  Only the real Anne can buff her attack and defenses.  You Sicken Me was the reason I used Enopu Mushrooms for this battle, because it consistently did 9999 damage to Edea.  I think it’s coded as a random target multi-hit attack.  That would explain why the damage is so high.  Bomb Arms and Piercing Bolts dealt with Airy’s weaker sister.
 

Immediately after defeating Anne, she converts all the random encounters into Ba’al fights.  Remember why I said this was a point of no return?  Edea had nothing better to do at this point than to move into Chapter 5:


Kaiser Oblivion:  75,000 HP, no weakness, Human


I don’t know why Agnès, Braev Lee, and Alternis Dim lost to this guy.  He’s predictable, and only hits you with his regular attack for some reason in the Chapter 5 fight.  Kaiser Oblivion started the fight with Noble Eagle, a field effect that buffed everyone’s Physical Attack and Magic Attack to 200%.  Buffing enemies as well as allies is the reason many players dismiss the Kaiser job when they get it near the end of the game.  Noble Eagle meant the Defender sword and regular attacks could defeat him, and he didn’t even get a lucky critical hit!
 


The next rematch is really the one you need to prepare for in Chapter 4:


Bella:  60,000 HP, no weakness, Human
Cu Chulainn:  75,000 HP, no weakness, Human


 
Edea kept dying to Cu Chulainn’s Trample when it got a critical hit, so I had to alter my tactics a bit.  Defaulting with the Defender sword helped her withstand his hits.  Edea used Undo Action on the same turn as Piercing Bolt to evade Cu Chulainn’s attacks.  The Hermes Sandals and Ninja Garb ensured she could outspeed both bosses.  Pantheon’s Wrath exploited Cu Chulainn’s Lightning weakness, and Edea defeated him first.  Bella was easy to beat after her partner had fallen.  Spirit Rain could never deal critical hit damage, and the Spirit Mist damage over time effect was healed by Auto Undo.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Here's another Chapter 5 update, because I can't figure out a way to get past the next boss without a long level grinding session.


After picking up the blue treasure chest key in the Gathelatio cathedral, Edea was ready to take on the other sidequest bosses.  Not many of the Chapter 5 treasures were useful to Exorcists, but the Blessed Shield was an improvement over her Chapter 4 Cross Shield.  Heiji's Jitte was a slightly better Physical Attack rod than the best Chapter 4 version.  After failing to defeat Kikyo and her unpredictable attack pattern, Edea defeated this boss for her first Chapter 5 sidequest instead:
 
Holly Whyte:  120,000 HP, no weakness, Human
2 Nurses-In-Training:  7200 HP, Lightning weakness, Human
 


Edea died on the first attempt after an unlucky initiative roll meant all three enemies could attack, and knocked her out with physical attacks like This Might Hurt.  This is why AGI and Physical Defense are better than MND, even against mage bosses!  On the second try, the Hermes Sandals and Ninja Garb ensured Edea could throw 4 Pantheon’s Wraths and knock out the minions whenever they respawned.  Holly occasionally cast Curaga on herself, but Edea could deal with it by using Undo HP.  Always use a Magnifying Glass before you start playing with Undo HP, or you might accidentally heal the boss instead!  Piercing Bolt did most of the damage when Holly was alone.  Holly also cast Holy on occasion, though 1650 damage or so was nothing when Auto Undo could cancel it out.   


 
Which boss did Edea go after next?  Khamer defeated her easily with Stop, and Barbarossa’s Double Damage combined with a Physical Defense debuff attack meant he would need some grinding to beat too.  That left:
 
Artemia:  120,000 HP, Fire weakness, Human
3 Skull Hunters:  7350 HP, Fire weakness, Undead
 
A boss in this game that’s weak to an element other than Lightning?!  What a surprise!  Edea lost on the first attempt to a surprise double Multiburst late in the fight, so I had to use an Enopu Mushroom to win.  A Fire elemental Holy Weapon with the Undead Slayer part took out all 3 Skull Hunters in one hit, and Artemia never respawned them. 
 

The boss was conservative with her BP for most of the fight, and spent much of her time Defaulting to prepare a Multiburst or Targeting.  This gave Edea free turns to use Bomb Arms, Piercing Bolts, and most importantly, Undo Action.  There was no way she could survive a critical hit Multiburst without an Undo Action dodge, and an Enopu Mushroom alone couldn’t save her if she died to the first Multiburst in a Brave rush.  On rare occasions, Artemia outsped Edea.  This concerned me a bit, but wasn’t enough to keep me from winning.


 
Thanks to his job's limitations, the next boss didn’t scale well to Chapter 5:
 

DeRosa:  120,000 HP, no weakness, Human
2 Mage Apprentices:  7350 HP, no weakness, Human

 
DeRosa may have more HP in Chapter 5, but he’s stuck with his Chapter 2 spells.  None of the Asterisk Holders have level 11 abilities either, so no Chainspell dualcasts for him either!  Edea hit the minions with Holy Weapon with a Poison status part, then Defaulted until they died.  The reason I didn’t fight him in Chapter 1 was because he could Charm Edea with Captivating Cologne.  With the Locket accessory from Chapter 2, DeRosa was a joke. 

Occasionally, he would cast Drain for 800 while Edea was Defaulting, or 1600 on turns she was going to attack.  Drain wasn’t enough for him to out-heal  Piercing Bolts which came close to the 9999 damage cap.  Yes, Bravely games combine the Final Fantasy 5 damage cap with boss HP that makes Shinryu look weak.  This is why defense is so important for teams that aren’t exploiting multi-hit Spellcraft magic.  DeRosa fell after a fairly long but easy battle.  For a bit of trivia, Specials can activate DeRosa’s Revenge ability to give him BP.
 


The only other sidequest boss Edea could beat at level 71 was the Monk Asterisk Holder:
 


Barras Lehr:  135,000 HP, no weakness, Human
Swetti Tracsute:  22,500 no weakness, Human


 
Swetti Tracsute is another victim of the Bravely series pun names, but he’s not a joke in a solo playthrough.  Edea died to one of his attacks on the first try.  After using an Enopu Mushroom on take 2, Edea used the Tempest Fang Special to poison Mr. Tracsute.  She Defaulted until he died, and then exploited Barras’s predictable AI. 

Barras often buffed his Physical Attack with Invigorate, then attacked, leaving him at negative BP.  Edea beat Barras with Piercing Bolt, as usual.  A level 1 Special that ignores Physical Defense is too good to pass up even if you have a mediocre rod proficiency.  Near the end of the fight, Invigorate failed and did damage to Barras.  It would have damaged Edea too if she hadn’t been using Undo Action to dodge it.


 
The best choice at this point was to fight the next mandatory bosses and get a few extra items:


Revenant:  75,000 HP, Light weakness, Dark absorb, Human
Geist:  45,000 HP, no weakness, Human

 
How did Geist lose so much max HP?  Normally bosses only do that by joining your party!  All he does in this fight is slash you with his sword and occasionally heal himself with Undo HP.  He doesn’t have his sniper friends either.  Knocking him out was easy with Piercing Bolt, and Undo HP reversed his healing like before. 


Revenant wasn’t much tougher.  He never used Possess on solo Edea at all!  Maybe the AI is forbidden to do that.  Once I hit him enough times with Piercing Bolt to raise his Soul Power to 100%, I made sure to Default to weather the Soul Cannon.  Considering it hit for about 2100 damage while defending, it probably would have knocked Edea out in one hit at full power.  This was much easier than some of the sidequest bosses.


After that, Edea could go to the Florem Gardens, and that meant some useful treasure for a change!  The Life Rope accessory that nullifies Ghost status was necessary for the next rematch:
 
Aimee:  75,000 HP, no weakness, Human
Angelo:  67,500 HP, no weakness, Human

 
Aimee wasn’t nearly as bad as she was in Chapter 2.  Her stupid AI insisted on making her attacks Fire elemental even when it was clear that they did nothing to Edea’s Icefire Shield.  Angelo killed me on the first try by using Fire Cake to turn Edea’s immunity into a weakness.  After that, a series of Aimee’s delayed Shrike attacks hit Edea at the end of a later round and killed her. 
 

The second try was more successful, though it required Enopu Mushrooms.  Turns out using Purgation on yourself dispels both the Fire weakness debuff and the Enopu Mushroom auto-revive.  It can’t remove equipment immunities or Fencer stance buffs.  I probably should have mentioned that earlier.  Sometimes, Angelo tried to turn Edea into a Ghost with his cakes, which would have resulted in an instant Game Over if not for the Life Rope.   Piercing Bolts and attack items from Edea defeated Anglelo first.  After that, victory was inevitable.
 


Edea switched to the Clothespin accessory for the next boss:
 
Minette:  75,000 HP, Water weakness, Human
Bismarck:  90,000 HP, Fire weakness, Beast


 
Eradication knocked out Bismarck the lion on the first turn just like in Chapter 1.  The Clothespin prevented Minette from putting Edea to sleep with Catnap, and her physical attacks weren’t much of a threat.  Piercing Bolt was the go-to solution yet again.  Most of the offense in this fight comes from Bismarck, and when you’re using a class that can instantly kill him, the fight becomes anticlimactic.  Other solo classes can poison Bismarck with Specials, in case you want to try a similar challenge.


 
Edea found the Death Axe when she went to the Skyhold for the second time.  It works like in Final Fantasy 5, but you don’t get any rewards from any enemies that die to the instant kill effect.  Boo!  The last battle with two familiar bosses was up ahead:
 
Nikolai:  67,500 HP, no weakness, Human
Janne:  75,000 HP, no weakness, Human



This was an ugly fight for Edea.  She had to go through several Enopu Mushrooms on occasions where Janne and Nikolai hit her with Lightning Lightning, Goring Aurochs, and Wolf Fang on the same turn.  Undo HP came in handy whenever Nikolai healed himself for 9999 HP, and Piercing Bolt slowly killed him on turns after Janne Brave rushed into negative BP.  After Nikolai fell, Janne switched to his Falcon stance.  Falcon Claw’s multi-hit properties once used up an Enopu Mushroom, but Undo Action could negate the rest of them since that attack has a 1 BP cost.
 


In the Geneolgia Crypts, Edea found some new equipment.  The Dark Shield has better stats than the Blessed Shield, and nullifies Dark damage too.  Anyone having trouble with Alternis Dim should consider getting this shield before fighting him.  Safety Rings give immunity to instant death attacks, which might come in handy later too. 
 



However, Edea ran into a major problem with the second Kaiser Oblivion fight.  Kaiser Oblivion could activate the Winter Storm field effect that cancels healing for all combatants.  This includes Enopu Mushrooms.  The only way through would be to have enough HP and Physical Defense to absorb all of the boss’s regular attacks, and that means level grinding, possibly to 99.  If an Exorcist still can’t survive at max level, I may have to abandon the single class challenge for this fight and use Knight or Templar abilities.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Hello again!  Not much of an update today, because Exorcist Edea still couldn't defeat a few bosses at level 90.  Khamer can easily wipe out a solo character with his respawning minions, Stop, and Meteor.  If he's especially cruel, he'll cast Stop and regenerate thousands of health while you sit there helplessly.

Kaiser Oblivion 2 is another problem.  Edea can survive a few slashes when Kaiser Oblivion disables healing with Winter Storm now, but I may have to swap out some Physical Defense for the Hermes Sandals.  When low on health, he'll use a fixed damage move called "Blinding Flash" that can easily one-shot any character.  Only Enopu Mushrooms would allow her to survive it, and I need to go first to ensure that.

A few stat comparisons between the base stats of several level 11 jobs for the sake of comparison:

Level 99 Edea

Exorcist

HP:  7434
MP:  771
STR:  59
VIT:  66
INT:  81
MND:  88
DEX:  70
AGI:  69


There must be a bug or a translation error involving the Hermes Sandals.  The description says it raises AGI by 5, but it clearly increases that stat by 10 on the base stat menu. 


Next, the Kaiser job:

Kaiser

HP:  8786
MP:  716
STR:  92
VIT:  85
INT:  88
MND:  81
DEX:  83
AGI:  81


And now, the Hawkeye job.  I used 4 of them on a single class playthrough, and had problems with their fragility:

Hawkeye

HP:  8110
MP:  606
STR:  79
VIT:  79
INT:  69
MND:  69
DEX:  96
AGI:  69


Even Hawkeyes have noticeably higher HP and VIT!  Auto Undo combined with questionable stats make Exorcist an all-or-nothing class.  If you can survive one round of combat, victory is guaranteed.  But if your AGI is too low to take out minions before they can attack, or if your HP and VIT let you down, grinding is your only option.  You also need to spend a fortune to buy all those attack items and Enopu Mushrooms.

Anne 2 in Chapter 6 practically requires Auto Undo or Undo HP to survive Undermine, an attack that reduces your HP to 1 for the rest of the fight.  Any other solo classes might have to allow Exorcist abilities as an exception for that boss.


Now I should mention Evade.  Evade is for suckers.  Physical attacks in Bravely games work similarly to FF1 or FF3, in the sense that they are split up into a number of hits.  Therefore, it's difficult to dodge enemy attacks entirely based on Evade.  You might reduce the number of hits, but probably not all the way to 0.  You can see how this works if you fight someone like Kikyo the Ninja.  You'll notice that your regular attacks do less damage.  This makes Evade more of a small bonus to Physical Defense rather than a dodge chance.  So if you have the choice between Evade and Physical Defense on a piece of armor, always go with Physical Defense.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Another update!  Yes, solo Edea can survive Chapters 5 and 6 with excessive level grinding and auto-revive items.    


Being at level 99 was essential for surviving the Kaiser Oblivion rematch:
 

Denys:  75,000 HP (2 lives), no weakness, Human

 
Why can’t Yew recognize his brother when his only disguise is a domino mask?  Oh, well.  If this game is an “idiot plot”, they’d need a new term to describe the levels of stupidity the previous game's story had.     This boss is one of the reasons I say that the only "pure" solo class that can get through every boss fight is the Exorcist.
 

He started off the fight mainly hitting Edea with regular attacks.  Then he activated the Winter Storm field effect.  Winter Storm disables healing for all combatants for 3 turns.  Edea therefore had to have high enough HP and Physical Defense to survive for several rounds without the aid of Auto Undo or Enopu Mushrooms.  When Denys was low on health on either of his lives, he switched to using Blinding Flash. 

Blinding Flash hits all opponents for half of the user’s HP, and he started using it when he had enough health to KO Edea with one hit.  It was especially evil when he combined it with Winter Storm.  Waiting it out with Undo Action dodges was the only way to survive.  If you’re playing a solo challenge with only one class, you’ll have to make a temporary exception and allow Exorcist abilities for the Denys and Anne 2 fights.
 


At level 99, I fought Khamer. . .and lost near the end of the fight due to Edea being in Stop status one too many turns.  I’m leaving him for Chapter 6.  There might be equipment to deal with him there.
 

A certain pirate who didn’t resort to status ailments could be defeated, on the other hand:
 


Barbarossa:  135,000 HP, Lightning weakness, Water resist, Human
2 Death Pirates:  10,800 HP, Fire and Light weakness, Undead
 


Eradication took out one of the Death Pirates at the beginning, which is exactly what I wanted.  If both zombies died, Barbarossa could summon 2 more later on.  After the first turn, Edea only attacked Barbarossa with Piercing Bolts and regular attacks.  Yes, regular attacks that did 500-800 damage or so.  Attack items hit the entire enemy party except for the useless ones like Stardust. 

Level 99 HP and VIT helped when Barbarossa debuffed Edea’s Physical Defense.  Edea made sure to Default whenever Barbarossa was at 0 BP or higher, because a physical boss that can hit you up to 3 times per round hurts!  After Edea knocked out Barbarossa, she used a Piercing Bolt on the remaining Death Pirate. 
 

Edea went to the Skyhold one last time to fight the final boss of Chapter 5:
 
Diamante:  60,000 HP (2 lives), Dark weakness, Demon


Diamante was anticlimactic at level 99, but the fight was still tedious.  Its gimmick is its Mirror status that reflects all non-Special attacks.  In a party, you’d drain it with multiple weak hits.  Mirror charges 20% per turn even if it’s fully drained, making it impossible for a solo character to attack it with anything other than Specials.  Edea had to Default 5 times for every attack, and more if the boss used Dispersion to disable most commands.  The multi-hit attack Scintillation could do nothing because of Auto Undo, and the Lustrous Shield blocked the Light elemental attack Brilliancy.


 After that boring fight, the continent of Caldisla appeared, and some new sidequests with new equipment opened up.  Will Edea find an accessory to nullify Stop to wipe that smug look off Khamer’s face and abolish his sensible taxation policies?  Tune in next update to find out!


 
Chapter 6 began with Edea’s personal sidequest.  She looted Lontano Villa, Eternian Central Command’s jail, and Everlast Tower.  Not much was useful in any of those locations for her at that point except for the Aegis Shield.  The Aegis Shield is yet another item that’s a pale imitation of its Final Fantasy 5 counterpart.  Its only properties are blocking Dread and having more defense bonuses than the other shields up to this point.  Now, Dread immunity could be useful in certain situations where Defaulting is necessary to survive a hit, but other than that, it’s no chance to block any spell! 

 
Fighting Edea’s father was easy after the first few rounds:
 

Braev Lee:  45,000 HP (3 lives), Dark weakness, Human
Duchy Guardsman:  10,800 HP, Lightning weakness, Human
Duchy Pike Guard:  10,800 HP, Lightning weakness, Human
Duchy Mage Guard:  9000 HP, Lightning weakness, Human
 


The first priority was taking out the minions with Eradication.  Its 33% accuracy rate let me down a few times, and Edea needed Enopu Mushrooms to revive her after several bad damage rolls.  After the guards died, Braev never respawned them, making the fight almost a joke.  The Lustrous Shield made that possible by blocking Light element Radiant Blasts he used during every Brave rush.  It would be much tougher if he used the purely physical Giant Slayer every time instead. 

Piercing Bolts and Arctic Winds slowly drained all 3 of his lives.  Elemental weaknesses barely matter at this point for Piercing Bolt, because Specials tend to run into the 9999 damage cap hard.  Edea received the Grand Marshal’s Staff for winning the fight, which gave a nice Magic Defense bonus.



After that was a tedious battle in Lontano Villa that would be shorter with adequate preparation:
 
 
Ba’al Turtle Dove:  150,000 HP, Wind weakness, Earth immune, Aerial


No extra lives for Turtle Dove, only a big sack of HP.  Turtle Dove’s gimmick of giving party members Love status and making them fight each other was useless with only one character alive.  Several Enopu Mushrooms were required on turns where Turtle Dove decided to give itself BP with Little Gift and then attack with Seraph Blast, Rake, and Sweet Dreams on the same round. 
 
Sweet Dreams was the reason I said I was unprepared.  A Clothespin would have saved me several rounds when Turtle Dove decided to attack with the magical Seraph Blast instead of a physical move that would wake up Edea.  No, Seraph Blast is not Light elemental despite its name.  Some Tengu Sneezes would have exploited its Wind weakness to do 2250 damage per item instead of the 1500 damage I got from throwing Arctic Winds.  Oh well, I didn’t want to spend the pg at the time!  

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Here's the penultimate update.  Special thanks to "Sailor Nemesis" of GameFAQs for supplying most of the boss data.


Vampire Castle is different from most Bravely Second dungeons because the encounter rate is permanently locked at 0%.  Most of the enemies weren’t a problem for Edea, since Eradication coiuld take them out in one hit with some luck.  One encounter defeated me once because the enemies had extra BP, so I made sure to run away when the predictable RNG cycled back to that fight.  Lamia’s Tiara was a welcome find.  It’s a hat that nullifies Charm, so Edea could free up her accessory slot if she had to fight any future bosses  that could inflict that status. 

Edea’s love interest from Bravely Default reappeared in the Vampire Castle boss fight:
 

Yoko:  197,250 HP, resists all elements, Human



Yoko was yet another boss that had a bloated HP bar relative to a solo character.  Apparently, Magnifying Glasses only identify elemental weaknesses, not resistances.  I was puzzled as to why my Bomb Arms were only doing 750 damage instead of 1500!
 
Aeroja and Thundaja were not threatening at all, even when she cast Sloth to make Edea weak to every element.  Sloth also dispels Enopu Mushrooms, which made me waste more of them than I would have liked. 


The real danger was Consume Life, a multi-hit random target physical attack.  Sometimes, Edea would survive that with only about 650 HP before Auto Undo kicked in.  Once, it killed her and forced an auto-revive.  Consume Life has a chance of an instant kill for each hit, so a Safety Ring was mandatory. 


 
At the beginning of the fight, Ringabel from Bravely Default would occasionally attack with Specials that hit the boss for 4000-6000 damage each.  He once used Rejuvenation to revive my 3 dead characters, so they had to commit suicide again.  He stopped attacking for some reason later in the fight, leaving Edea to fend for herself.  What a cad!  Still, apart from some bad damage rolls on Consume Life, the fight was tedious and easy.  Defeating Yoko unlocked the Seven Deadly Sins monoliths. 
 


Defeating each sin beast unlocks the Yokai spells, but I don’t really care about that class other than Obliterate (auto-win random encounters that are 20 levels lower than you) and the ability to get level 11 jobs.  It’s basically an upgraded Black Mage with additional status ailment spells.

   
Since no stinky fish guts are available for Edea to burn, Asmodeus is impossible for her to defeat.  Or any solo for that matter, because it can remove one character from the battle, instantly killing them and bypassing Enopu Mushrooms and Safety Rings.   Other sin beasts weren’t much better.  The Gluttony demon could do up to 9700 damage with Octowhip, which was enough to one-shot Edea even with the Life Ring that gave her 1000 extra health.  These bosses are clearly intended for postgame parties.  Solos need not apply.
 

Next up was the Norende Ravine to unlock the final dungeon.  There, Edea faced the boss that made me pick the Exorcist job in the first place. . .

 
Anne:  225,000 HP, Fire weakness, Human, Insect
 


Anne is not quite as much of a variant killer as Airy, but she comes close when it comes to solos.  Her signature move is Undermine, which reduces max HP to 1 for the duration of the fight.  Yes, even if the victim is revived.  The only ways around it for a solo are blocking it with Undo Action or reversing it with Auto Undo.  Well, maybe if you were willing to spend SP to get around the damage cap or cheat your way through with Summon Friend. . .
 

225,000 HP sounds like a lot, but Yoko took much longer because of her extremely high defenses.  Insect Slayer combined with a Fire elemental part made Edea’s Piercing Bolt do 9999 damage even if Anne Defaulted that turn.  Her weaknesses also made Bomb Arms do 2250 damage a pop.  With all those advantages, Edea still had to burn through Enopu Mushrooms when Anne cast Acedia to dispel them.  Whenever Anne used Fairy’s Flight, I knew it was time to Default.  The multi-hit physical move Vortex hurts even in defense mode!  Anne had no extra lives, thankfully.
 
Anne dropped a worthless hat.  Why is the Royal Crown weaker than the Tricorne I bought 2 chapters ago on Grandship?  The final dungeon Via Celestio had some mostly disappointing treasure for Exorcists too.  Excalibur II and Durandal are nice. . .for Templars!  The Hermes Shoes were an upgrade to the Hermes Sandals.  The item description lies to the player again.  Hermes Shoes really grant +20 AGI instead of +10.  Khamer and the final boss are the only two viable remaining challenges left. 

This solo playthrough has been fun so far!  I don't think any other jobs are viable without allowing Exorcist abilities for the Kaiser Oblivion 2 and Anne 2 fights.  This will probably be my last Bravely variant for a while.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Right before the final boss, I had some unfinished business with a certain deposed king of Ancheim. . .
 

Khamer:  120,000 HP, no weakness, Human
2 Khamer Footmen:  15,300 HP, Lightning weakness, Human


Edea equipped the Lordly Robes she found in the Via Celestio for the Magic Defense.  It certainly paid off when Khamer’s Meteors were only doing 2000 damage instead of 5000-6000!  If you want a moment for the blooper reel, I forgot to unequip Obliterate after a session of money grinding and instantly killed the Khamer Footmen on the first turn.  Oops!  I wanted to fight this boss legitimately using only Exorcist skills instead of Yokai conveniences, so I reset the game and unequipped that ability. 
 

The second attempt began with consuming an Enopu Mushroom and using Eradication to take out one of the Khamer Footmen.  Edea attacked Khamer with Piercing Bolt for 9999 each time and threw Earth Mallets when she had enough BP.  Like Barbarossa, Khamer won’t re-summon the second minion if one of them is alive, so it was beneficial when he cast an HP regeneration spell on the surviving Footman. 


 
When Khamer decided regenerating his own HP was an even better idea, Edea dispelled it with Purgation.  I once misclicked when using Purgation and dispelled Edea’s Enopu Mushroom instead.  Even with my incompetence, the Lordly Robes allowed Edea to survive Meteors and occasionally dodge Stop.  Her victory over Khamer led to Grandship raising its taxes, and now a slice of ham costs 40,000 pg!  Grandship’s economy may be doomed, but I got my revenge at last.

 
 
Providence Bird Form:  150,000 HP (1.5 lives), Wind weakness, Earth immune, Aerial
 

Why 1.5 lives, you might ask?  Providence in his birdlike form will fully heal after you take him down to about 75,000 HP and gloat about it in generic RPG villain fashion.  Edea had enough Enopu Mushrooms stockpiled that this was more a battle of attrition than anything else.  In yet another moment for the blooper reel, I forgot that the Seven Stars multi-hit attack was Light element.  I could have saved a few auto-revives if I had equipped the Lustrous Shield a bit earlier in the fight! 
 


Piercing Bolts did much of the damage, and Wind element Tengu Sneezes were the go-to attack item.  Mandate of Heaven is this form’s main gimmick.  When he uses it, he’ll command one character to kill another before Providence’s BP goes back up to 0.  If the player disobeys, an attack will hit your entire team for 99,999 damage.  It was funny when he kept demanding that Edea kill her dead party members!  Near the end of the fight, he’ll request that you defeat him within 2 turns.  Edea obviously couldn’t do this when the boss still had tens of thousands of HP, so she died several more times.



 
Mandate of Heaven mechanics are a bit. . .weird when Exorcist abilities are involved.  Using Undo Action right before Providence casts it will negate it entirely and waste his BP.  If you use it right before the attack hits, you’ll delay it for a turn instead of cancelling it.  Auto Undo will restore your HP to full after the Enopu Mushroom revival .  The Pawn of Fate ability that causes Doom status seems to delay Auto Undo’s HP restoration by one turn after resurrection.  Edea had to use Undo HP to heal herself when that happened.  Was it a glitch?



 
Every self-respecting Final Fantasy villain needs a second form, and Bravely Second is no exception. . .
 

Providence Aa:  225,000 HP, Dark weakness, Inorganic
Providence Ab:  14,998 HP, Dark weakness, Inorganic
Providence B:  14,998 HP, Dark weakness, Inorganic
 


Don’t waste your time attacking the “Illuminati pyramid” until the obligatory “power of friendship” ends.  Providence tries to erase all your save data, but Yew tells the player not to give up, and now you can win the fight.  I lost on the first attempt because I thought my level 99 character could survive both the arms’ Ruin and Salvation attacks on the same turn, and then I had to re-fight the bird form. 


On the second attempt, I figured out a better strategy.  I had neglected to use Enopu Mushrooms on the first  try because the pyramid casts Dispel almost every turn.  However, the arms always act before the pyramid.  This meant Edea could resurrect right before the Dispel!  Killing the arms once with attack items de-synched their BP once they resurrected, so I could use Undo Action for two turns in a row to block their attacks.  After that, Edea could Default or attack as needed.
 
It wasn’t my blundering tactics that won the battle in the end, but luck.  The “Illuminati pyramid” was not immune to Poison, and a Piercing Bolt with the right status ailment part made the boss lose over 2000 HP per turn!  And so Edea beat every boss using only Exorcist abilities.  This was a fun playthrough that taught me more than I wanted to know about the game mechanics.  Feel free to comment if you have any questions.

(No, the 3DS doesn't let you take screenshots in this game.  I've tried.)




EDIT:  Solo Exorcist Edea wants to give all you Bravely Second players a parting gift! 

Friend Code:  4441-9940-1105

Assuming this works, you should be able to Friend Summon her.  She will use Piercing Bolt for 25,839 Power thanks to a Bravely Second boost.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Well, the urge to play through a Bravely game has struck again! 

But this time, it's not Bravely Second.  This time, it'll be the original Bravely Default, with solo Ringabel.  Why Ringabel?  He has slightly more AGI than the other characters, and he's funnier than Tiz or Agnes.  Edea had her turn in Bravely Second already.

The rules:

-Multiclassing is allowed.  Bravely Default is a much more difficult game than its sequel.

-The Growth Egg and Golden Egg will be carried over for grinding purposes, but other items are sold off.

-Norende data is carried over.  Nobody wants to go through rebuilding the town again after the 1st time.

-Jobs are carried over in case I need Obliterate to level up later, but job levels are reset to 1.  Location-appropriate magic will be used (i.e. no Meteor in Chapter 1).  Jobs will be used according to when you get their asterisks, at least in boss fights.  Random encounters only exist for grinding in this series, since you can reduce the rate to 0%.

-The challenge starts when Ringabel joins the party, but Tiz and Agnès play through normally until then.

-Ideally, I won't use High Jump with Hasten World.  There's no point to doing a challenge run if enemies can never touch you!    

-No Bravely Second or Summon Friend if possible, because those are silly gimmicks that destroy all balance in the game.



What are the differences between Bravely Default and Bravely Second, for people who haven't played the first game?

-Enopu Mushrooms don't exist, so no auto-revive without Salve-Maker or Time Mage abilities.

-Shops don't sell Elixirs.

-Special triggers cannot be customized in BD.  For example, you can use the level 1 Fist Special after getting 5 critical hits.  Rod Specials are based on number of spells casted, etc.  Triggers are also reset after switching weapon type.  This makes it much harder to abuse Specials in general.

-Stats are tied much more strongly to job level than character level in BD, to the point where there's a tooltip in BS that mentions it.  Level 1 jobs are very weak compared to the sequel.


-Norende sells equipment, unlike Fort-Lune.  You can get some overpowered weapons and armor early in the game this way, and yes, I will be using it.  I died many times to random encounters in Ruins of Centro Keep, and that was with the Angel's Bow that has +56 Physical Attack.

-Winning streak experience bonuses don't exist, so solo characters level up at the same rate as a party. 

-The Wizard, Bishop, Charioteer, Astrologian, Catmancer, Hawkeye, Patissier, Exorcist, Guardian, Kaiser, and Yokai jobs are not available.

-However, the first game has some jobs that aren't available in the sequel.  These include Spell Fencer, Salve-Maker, Arcanist, Spiritmaster, Vampire, and Conjurer.  (Vampire and Catmancer are basically Blue Mages, and the Conjurer's buffing abilities were folded into the Summoner.  Spell Fencer and Hawkeye are close to the FF5 Mystic Knight.) 


Angel Bows took out Holly Whyte and Barras Lehr.  I didn't care about this fight because it was right before Ringabel appeared.

Ringabel acquired a few character and job levels in Centro Keep.  Most fights were easy with a Brave rush, but occasionally an Orc Leader would survive and kill him.  This happened more times than I want to admit.


Not even fancy Norende equipment could guarantee success with the first solo boss. . .


Ominas Crowe:  2430 HP, no weakness, Human

Ominas the Black Mage often casted Poison, Silence, and worst of all, Sleep.  Ringabel would stay asleep for several rounds while Ominas cast Fire for about 150 damage to finish him off.  The Angel Bow wasn't strong enough to take him out in two Brave rushes either.  After many failed attempts, I decided to buy a Reflect Ring from the Norende shop.  Yes, you aren't really supposed to get that this early, but you shouldn't try a solo run on Hard without a New Game Plus File either.

Reflect Rings only last for the first 4 rounds of the battle too, so Ringabel could easily lose when the fight dragged on too long.  This happened a few times.  After that, I decided to attack once per round instead of Defaulting and building up BP.  Ominas was stupid enough to cast Fire on my Reflect a couple of times, then Ringabel finished him off with a lucky critical hit.

Ringabel's loadout for that fight:

Character Level 10, Job Level 3 Freelancer

Miscellany & White Magic commands

Magic Defense 10% Up passive ability

Weapon:  Angel's Bow
Hat:  Red Cap
Body:  Rainbow Dress
Accessory:  Reflect Ring