Strider-only run

[Chocobo_Fan]

I seem to have no such luck; my AIs never stop and attack my iron traps, they either ignore them entirely, or run into them immediately :/

Yeah, it does seem a bit random. I focused most of my traps on the upper-right (where the second wave appears). One was in that narrow path directly below where the wave appears, another was to the left of that (but only blocking the way down, not the way left; I think blocking them out entirely would make them decide to just trip it, or worse, take the far right path), and another was in the choke point directly above the tent. I think I may have set one at the far right choke point too, but I remember them tripping that one every time, so maybe I didn't bother that time.

Remember that most of the enemies in that battle have between 19 and 23 HP, but some of them have up to 10% slash resistance. I would recommend at least 20 strength for both sisters, maybe slightly more. I believe Emma had 22 strength with the rusty sword when I started. Also, you could try waiting until the iron jaw trap bug is fixed; that should expand your strategic options considerably.

Edit: I suppose I should also mention that I tended to place the traps directly above the narrow passages, not inside them. I felt that way was better since it stops enemies earlier (especially important when factoring in the slow status from iron jaw traps).

[Chocobo_Fan]

I...I did it. I actually did it.

Unfortunately, it was a little disappointing; though I do enjoy seeing people take on minimalist challenges that force them to find cool exploits and strategies, in RPGs that strategy is usually just "I hope you like level grinding!". You have to overlevel so much for the camp battle that everything after is trivial. I remembered the Coria Bridge battle as excruciatingly difficult, but I just ended up cheesing it by popping adrenaline pills. Rescuing Sarn Kamina got a little dicey, but I interpreted my challenge to mean I could use any vital (starred) unit, so Silithis managed to hold the line while the Striders murdered everything. I actually did lose Battle with Clotch a few times until I realized I had to rush the north tunnel if I didn't want to get overwhelmed, then it was easy. And, just like in my first game, I cheesed the final battle by flying over and oneshotting Tarion. I found that battles with lots of weak enemies were a lot harder than boss battles, but that's to be expected, considering that swordsmen specialize in dealing heavy damage to single enemies but have no method for crowd control. Their physical resistances got so high (those stats are without armor, by the way) that standard enemies couldn't do anything more than chip damage -- Sabrina actually managed to get over 100% crush resistance, and Emma got 101% slash resistance! The only thing that really posed a threat was Mind Blast, since unlike elemental attacks it can't be dodged, but you don't see enemies use that on a regular basis until the very end.

It was funny to see how it broke the story, though. There were so many scenes where Emma asked questions or gave orders to thin air. Also, I got to see everyone's last words!

[bugfartboy]

Congratulations! You completed the game in the most masochistic manner imaginable! What will you do next?

In all seriousness, wow. I think I'll leave the self abuse to you, and just play normally.

[CraigStern]

Ha ha ha! Amazing. I had some doubts that this could actually be accomplished, but clearly they were unjustified.

[Chocobo_Fan]

Well, I only managed it thanks to the Pull exploit. Without level grinding, I doubt I would have even made it past the caravan battle.

It occurs to me that it might make sense to make the final mission harder, either by buffing Tarion or changing the victory condition to "kill all enemies" (though the latter would be really evil). Boss enemies just aren't very tough in this engine.

[CraigStern]

Yeah, I did that in the last patch. The main issue with that battle was with the scripting, I think, rather than with Tarion's stats.

[Chocobo_Fan]

It's still possible to rush Tarion by abusing adrenaline pills and overwhelm him before he can strike back, though. Oneshotting him definitely isn't guaranteed, but most players will have gotten both steamthopters, and two-shotting him is quite feasible for a reasonably-leveled party. Maybe make the gap between his island and the main battlefield an impassible barrier, to force players to use the switches?

[LightningLord2]

There's a few story breaking elements that can be fixed in a few ways:

1. Just let story-central characters who are not the striders get wounded instead of them dying so they can't fight but still contribute dialogue.

2. Create an NPC like Biff the Understudy whose sole purpose is to read out lines for people who've already died.

Also, why do adrenaline pills stack? The 40% move bonus stacks exponentially, the damage is basically nonexistent at high levels and they come in stacks of three. Having one of these and a steamthopter on a damage dealer is basically "instakill a unit anywhere on the map". +40% boost is okay for the non-repeatable sprint, though.