10C: The Dreams of Man

10C: The Dreams of Man

Cid Battle

-- Cid Fight --

Okay, you knew we were going to have to fight him, right? 

This is the boss fight for this chapter.  I am glad that the Combat Clinic deck is loaded for this fight, because that special attack of his (once he grows the wings) is deadly enough to take any one of the team down to a heartbeat of life!  Combat Clinic lets you quickly heal up when he is recharging, which you will need to do many times.  Simple deck management was really all that it took to master this guy, and you should find it the same..

When he cut loose with his kung-fu special attack I swear it felt like fighting Chuck Norris!  And everyone knows you do NOT fight Chuck Norris!  Throughout the fight Van kept saying "Oh yeah?" only she sounds like Little Nell from Rocky Horror, which introduces some very disturbing mental imagery to this fight, but thankfully she did not break out into song..

If you have trouble with this fight you may want to try to prepare for it - use your shrouds, and going into the fight be sure that you cast Slow on Cid.  Once he transforms with the wings he starts using a pattern of attack and defense - the attack that starts with him glowing and then exploding into light is very very dangerous.  If you are not nearly fully healed when it happens he will kill you - so once he transforms you want to keep an eye on your health.  Use your potions strategically, and try to stagger him as quick as you can to dish out the hurt!

If you still have trouble on your own just do the following:

• Add the deck Attrition (Med/Sab/Sen)
• Cast Aegisol
• Cast Fortisol
• Start the fight and switch to Attrition
• When Cid has all 4 debuffs switch to Relentless Assault and work on his stagger
• Use potions strategically between attacks
• When he is in Guard Mode switch to Combat Clinic and heal up fully
• Switch back to Relentless Assault and pound him
• When his debuffs wear off, switch back to Attrition and re-apply all four

Using the strategy above - the same that I used in the video - you will easily 5-star this fight and you will not die.  You may have noticed that I sort of compacted all of the dialogue in this video into one section (grin).  I was shooting for a haiku but I did not have much to work with - I still think it is funny though :)

If you fail with the above strategy chances are it will happen towards the end of the fight when he is closer to death - because that is when he starts spaming debuffs on to you and buffs on to himself.  If that happens you either had really bad luck or you were not staying on top of your health with potions and Combat Clinic...

You will get a sense for when he comes out of Guard mode - and you should be fully healed before that happens - and while you will be dealing most of your damage when he is not in Guard mode do not shirk on smacking him around while he is!  Every little bit of damage helps get this battle over quicker!

After you defeat him you will get as spoils the ticket for the Moogleworks and a Tetradic Crown - the Crystarium will then expand again, and Cid will die like a character in a good Spaghetti Western.  As he is dying he gives you some good advice, and then he turns into a crystal!  I guess losing to us was his Focus!  How about that!

Head along the path following Snow and you will come to a save point - before you use that go ahead and load the Crystarium and level one of your current jobs (I know, you were thinking you would cap off a bunch but at this point Lighting only has enough CP to get Commando partially raised) and then go shopping to replace all the stuff you used up in the past level of fights.  Now you can save!

The inability to cap even one jobs may be a bit disappointing - but bear in mind that one of the things you leveled was health here and a lot of it!  This is an RPG after all, and everyone knows that RPG's require a fair bit of grinding.  You might be thinking that you have a decision to make now - continue on or find a grinding spot.  It is understandable that you might be considering this now, as you are heading for the end of this chapter - and in fact the first part of the chapter that follows this one will be a LOT easier of you are capped-off, but if you are considering stopping to grind, please do not.  I'll explain why in a bit.

Now that we have the chores out of the way, use the controls on the lift and then fight the bombs waiting for you as the lift lowers.  This is a long ride!   At the bottom head down the ramp and through the two doors and you will find yourself on the end of a bridge facing another fight.  There is a ledge to the left that circles around the area - you can use that to avoid the fight if you want to or are in a hurry, but I say let us fight!

The fight is between a Pulsework Knight and a pair of Ooze - and you!  After you jump down and follow the path you do battle with a pair of Knights and a pair of Ooze, and then   To the left as you exit the area is the ledge that you would have arrived at had you taken the one above, but then you would have missed out on two nice battles mate!

Inside the hallway here is a save point - may as well use it now right?

Entering the next area triggers a CS in which a bunch of bombs and Knights are unleashed upon you!  Once you stagger them the knights die fast - and the three together are worth almost 800 CP which is not bad.  The four bombs are only worth a bit over 500 CP, so this is clearly not a great grinding spot. 

In the next area is a pair of Knights and a Sikini -  and the Stik should be your priority since one of its debuffs will paralyze you.  Halfway down the next hall is a Treasure Sphere with a Feymark in it - you want to grab that mate - and then continue to the end of the bridge ahead where you will kill a pair of Knights and some Imps. 

Below you is another bridge with a Greater Behemoth on it that can be reached either by using the jump point on the bridge - but that is a one-way jump, and you cannot get back up once you take it.  If you want to avoid that fight - but I have no idea why you would want to as this guy is a wimp - you can take the ledge at the end of the bridge and use the jump points on it to get to the exit from the bridge below.  The upper bridge is accessible from there if for some reason you needed to get back up there - if you wanted to backtrack or whatever, but really, you should go kick that GB's buttoski!

The next area holds four bombs, and the area after that has a Greater Behemoth, a Stik, and a pair of Skat's for you to pound on!  Try to take the birds out first as they have a nasty debuff - then take out the GB - who without the interference of the birds is something of a push-over, spinning saw hand or not.  This fight was worth 1012 CP - which was a lot considering the minimal effort that we had to put out...

You may have noticed that there are two exits besides the one we came in by - so let us take the one that does not follow the path first!  As we enter this area we get a CS and see a Treasure Sphere, and then a Berserker pops out of the door and the doors leading in to this area are locked.  Once you defeat the Berserker the doors unlock, so hit the Treasure Sphere for its 3 Electrodes and then backtrack to the previous area. 

Following the path to the next area leads to a save point (which you should use) and a lift.  You can use the lift controls to move to the next area.   You may be thinking that this could be a nice grinding spot, since the string of re-spawning mob groups does tally up to just over 1,900 CP, but there is a better spot coming ahead, so hold off on the grinding for now.

Now that we have that out of the way, head on to the lift and use the controls to send the lift down, where you are immediately jumped by a Stik and two Skat's  and further into the area, a Berserker..  Head through the doors at the other end of the area and hit the save point there, and then follow the path on to a bridge where you fight another pair of Skat's and then a Stik and two Skat's  and finally, towards the other end, a pair of Stik's and a Skat. 

Head through the doors and into the left side alcove to hit a Treasure Sphere with 2 Otherworldly Bones, and then go through the door at the far end of the hall to trigger a CS in which you see a pair of Berserkers appear.  You fight them one at a time, so it is not really a tough fight, and if like me you capped off the main offensive jobs of your crew, the fight was probably over faster than you were expecting as well.

There is a save point to the left of the doors here, so go ahead and use that now.  Before you use the controls to open the blast door here you should know that this is the entrance to the area in which you have the next Eidolon fight - and while these are not as tough or as complicated as the boss fights they can be a challenge if you forget that the object is not to beat the Eidolon, but to build its bar and activate it so that you dominate it.

If you did not cap off your offensive jobs yet and you want to so that you are prepared for the next chapter, now is the time to turn around and start grinding...  Otherwise use the controls to open the blast door and pass through for a series of long CS's in which you first see the new area from a sort of cinematic view, and then listen to your party chat.

Fang offers you her opinion - that you are in a L'Cie boot camp - and Sazh comes a little bit unglued.  Snow vows to be brave and succeed, and proclaims his faith in Serah - and Raines though that last I cannot completely accept.  Van throws her lot in with Snow, as does Hope, and Sazh's Choco signs up as well for some comic relief.  Fang opposes their plan, acting strange - but wait, we have seen THAT before...  We are about to confront her special friend Bahamut - who I have to admit does look rather spiffy!