05D: Operation Nora

05D: Operation Nora

Astor Protoflorian Battle

At the next juncture of the platform we encounter a unit of Sanctum Corps soldiers who are very much not dead, and we make them dead! Good on us!  A Milvue Velocycle is awaiting us at the next juncture and if you have not fully ID'd that by now go ahead and hit it with Libra to start this fight.

As you wrap up the fight with the Cycle a new squad of Sanctum troops drops in, and it appears that they recognize that Hope is the weak link here and concentrate their fire upon him.  You will need to keep a close eye on his health bar, as he can easily get incap'ed if you do not.

Around the next bend is a Treasure Sphere with an Ethersol in it, and just beyond that is the next save point - so you should use that.  Ahead of you there is a Cycle and some Marksmen for you to fight on what turns out to be a giant lift!  After you kill them use the controls to raise the platform and you will have an encounter with an Astor Protoflorian!

First this is a nasty fight - probably one of the most complicated ones you have faced so far.  This thing has a vicious special attack that does significant damage to both of you at the same time, which means you had better be used to switching to and using healing mode!  The key to killing this thing is to concentrate on keeping your team healed, and its stagger bar filled.  Switch between Yin & Yang and Dualcaster until it is staggered, and then slice it up!  You may have to do that several times to kill it, but you can kill it!

The successful end of this battle has many rewards, from spoils and CP to the expansion of the Crystarium!   After the battle you get a CS in which Hope declares "Operation Nora Stage One Complete!"

When you engage the Crystarium you are notified that your characters can now advance their jobs - excellent!  Check the status bar and you will see that we are now in Stage 4, and we have a pretty good sized chunk of CP stored up, so let us use that, shall we?  You have way more than enough CP to cap off all three jobs for Lightning and Hope - which leaves all of Hope's jobs at Level 2 and capped for Stage 4 and Lightning has Commando and Ravager at Level 2 and Medic at Level 1, all three capped for Stage 4.  It may not seem like it but having these all capped gives you a strong edge in many of the fights to come!