Final Fantasy
Cie'th Stone Missions - 6
Mission 46: On Silent Wings (Titan Quest E-2)
Rank: A
Mark: Zirnitra
Cie'th Stone location: Faultwarrens – Salamandrine Path
Mark location: Faultwarrens – Titan's Thone
Reward: Gilgamesh Inc
Zirnitra is a right two-faced bastard, hitting hard, afflicting you with Poison, and absorbing a lot of the spells you might attempt to throw at it. You'll want to first focus on evening the odds with a Medic to keep everyone healthy and a Saboteur to negate some of his defenses and slow him down. Switch to a Synergist role to increase your abilities once you've managed to hold him off for a while (a Sentinel helps greatly with this). He only takes 180% to Stagger, but getting him to that point with your party still alive is the challenge – once you've got everyone boosted and saddled him with a few downgrades, set a pair of your party on the offense and keep one in the background for healing duty. This won't be the last encounter with Zirnitra, and it won't get any easier, either.
Mission 47: Unfocused Rage (Titan Quest E-3)
Rank: A
Mark: Raktavija
Cie'th Stone location: Faultwarrens – Salamandrine Path
Mark location: Faultwarrens – Titan's Throne
Reward: Mnar Stone
Raktivija is similar in form and function to Vetala, but much more powerful. Again, your goal here is to shatter its defenses with a stagger and then go in hitting as hard as you can. Raktavija is a very capable spellcaster, however, and is capable of doing a huge amount of magic damage very quickly. Buff your magic defenses up and keep a Medic on hand to keep your HP out of the red. A few Saboteur debuffs will aid in slowing Raktavija's spell bursts as well as open it to a bit more damage.
Mission 48: The Abyss Stares Back (Titan Quest E-4)
Rank: A
Mark: Verdelet
Cie'th Stone location: Faultwarrens – Sylphid Path
Mark location: Faultwarrens – Titan's Throne
Reward: Twenty-Sided Die
Much like the other Verdelet hunts, if you can take out the Summoner quickly, it's pretty smooth sailing. The beast they'll be attempting to call upon this time is our old pal Tonberry again. If he does show up, follow the same strategy as your initial encounter, going for all-out offense above all else.
Mission 49: Tyrannicide (Titan Quest E-5)
Rank: A
Mark: Tyrant
Cie'th Stone location: Faultwarrens – Sylphid Path
Mark location: Faultwarrens – Titan's Throne
Reward: Particle Accelerator (x7)
With a name like Tyrant, this guy had better be tough. Tyrant's an interesting piece of machinery with the ability to call forth separate foes into the fight to attack you. If he brings one of these backup units into battle, take care of them first before focusing your attention on the big guy – otherwise, they can be very troublesome. His weaknesses are Thunder and Water, and his Stagger percentile is only 150%. Once you've buffed up and taken care of any of his auxiliary annoyances, you can safely head on in for the kill.
Mission 50: Road to Predation (Titan Quest E-6)
Rank: A
Mark: Humbaba
Cie'th Stone location: Faultwarrens – Nereid Path
Mark location: Faultwarrens – Titan's Throne
Reward: Scarletite
Finally, the last of Titan's special fights! Humbaba is another Behemoth-like enemy, and like his kin, he has two ways of fighting: on all four legs and on his haunches. Once he sits up (usually when his HP drops below about 1/4), he'll restore all of his health and gain stronger attacks. Fire is his weakness, so get your Ravagers ready to burn him to the ground. Don't expect to stagger him easily, though – with an 800% percentile, he's got some very thick skin. Still, his counter won't reset when he sits up and restores his health (unlike Tonberry) so a stagger certainly isn't impossible.
Mission 51: Attacus, the Soulless (Final Titan Mission)
Rank: A
Mark: Attacus
Cie'th Stone location: Faultwarrens – Sylphid Path/Gaian Path/Salamandrine Path/Nereid Path
Mark location: Faultwarrens – Titan's Throne
Reward: Genji Glove
Once you've conquered all of Titan's other challenges, you'll get to fight Attacus, one of the toughest foes in all of Final Fantasy XIII. He's got a whole bunch of HP, does very damaging attacks, is nearly impossible to Stagger (his percentile is 999.99%), and can cast Doom on your party leader when he gets down to 25% HP.
In other words, this is going to be a long and difficult fight you may have to retry several times.
Generally, Sentinels are among the least useful paradigms, but for this fight you should strongly consider bringing one in to help take the edge off of Attacus's most damaging strikes. Buffing/Debuffing via Synergists and Saboteurs is also a step you should take once the fight starts. For the most part, however, you'll just need to hold your ground and slowly chip away at his HP total. Ravagers will generally be more effective here than Commandos, so swap them in once you feel you've evened the odds enough. It's a long, tough fight, but with some patience and perseverance, you should be able to triumph in the end.
Mission 52: Head in the Clouds
Rank: A
Mark: Zirnitra
Cie'th Stone location: Archylte Steppe – Western Benchland
Mark location: Archylte Steppe – Eastern Tors
Reward: Gale Ring
Zirnitra is mostly the same foe you fought before during the Titan missions, and he isn't any easier this time around. Keep to a similar strategy and you should eventually come out on top.
Mission 53: Freedom from Fear
Rank: A
Mark: Zirnitra
Cie'th Stone location: Mah'habara – An Asylum from Light
Mark location: Yaschas Massif – The Pass of Paddra
Reward: Blaze Ring
Guess who? There's a few small enemies accompanying him this time around, but for the most part, it's the name Zirnitra you've come to hate fighting.
Mission 54: The Bigger They Are...
Rank: A
Mark: Gigantuar
Stone Location: Archylte Steppe – Northern Highplain
Mark Location: Archylte Steppe – Eastern Tors
Reward: Cactuar Doll
In order to even activate the stone with this mission, you'll need to find and defeat on of the small cactuar enemies wandering around the main expanse of the Archelyte Steppe. They're not terribly difficult, though they are incredibly amusing to watch.
Once that's done, you'll open up the stone that gives the Gigantuar quest. As ridiculous as this guy looks, he is not a pushover in the slightest. At every turn, he can hit a party member for approximately 10,000 HP worth of damage –which is probably enough to one-shot you if you're on your first playthrough.
To put it succinctly: You'll probably want to strongly consider saving this quest for your second playthrough.
It is possible – though extremely difficult – to beat Gigantuar without the boosts given by a second runthrough, however, you'll need: A) characters who already have very high attack power and B) an equipment arrangement to get a "Lucky Break" bonus. And then you'll just have to cross your fingers really, really hard that you can get Lucky Break to activate before Gigantuar does serious damage.
Mission 55: Can't We All Just Get Along?
Rank: A
Mark: Neochu
Cie'th Stone location: Oerba – Deserted Schoolhouse
Mark location: Archylte Steppe – Aggra's Pasture
Reward: Growth Egg
She's back and she's bitchier than ever! And this time, she's got a whole horde of those annoying Picochus to help her out. Thankfully, Neochu is still vulnerable to the Death-spam technique of the previous encounter, which can make for a fairly simple (albeit tedious) fight. Otherwise, use some Shroud buffs beforehand and, once you're in the fray, Quake and earth-elemental spells are recommended for the best damage potential. Keep a Medic on hand at all times. If you're not going to try and off her the cheap way, then this is another one worth considering saving for the second playthrough of the game.
Warrior (Fighter) — A specialist in heavy weapons and armor who can withstand tremendous amounts of punishment. Can become the Knight later in the game, who is able to use the most powerful weapons and some White Magic spells.
Monk (Black Belt) — A martial arts expert who is best left fighting empty-handed, but may also wield nunchaku, and the most basic of staves. Does tremendous amounts of damage in combat, but cannot wear heavy armor. Can become the Master later in the game. In the original Famicom/NES version a high level, barehanded Master who is unencumbered by armor, can do more damage in a single attack than any other character type; a party of four Masters can defeat the final boss monster in less than two full rounds. A rather weak class in the beginning, but you never have to buy much weapons/armor for him.
Thief — A high evasion/accuracy finesse fighter with very limited weapon and armor selection, but greater agility and luck (ability to escape from combat). However, the ability to flee is bugged in versions before the Origins release. Later in the game, the Thief can be upgraded to the Ninja class. Ninja can use almost every weapon and most armor, and can use many Black Magic spells.
White Mage — A specialist in White Magic. Not a good fighter, but can use hammers for physical attacks. Can be upgraded into a White Wizard, which allows the character to use the most powerful White Magic spells in the game.
Black Mage — A specialist in Black Magic and a very weak fighter. Becomes the Black Wizard later on. Black Wizard is the only character who can cast Flare (NUKE in the original North American localization), one of the two damaging spells that retain full effectiveness against Chaos (the White Wizard can cast Holy, the other spell, but it is less powerful than Flare).
Red Mage — A jack-of-all-trades character, able to use most but not all of both White and Black Magic, and possessing fighting abilities similar to but not quite as good as the Fighter. Becomes the Red Wizard later in the game.
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