Final Dungeon

[Exoduso]

What.The.Fuck ... that's all I have to say.

They put a shitton of enemies together and then expect you to beat all of them too? Is this even doable without grinding in Pulse for 10-20 hours? It's really pissing me off how there's this one enemy, along with 2 cie'th, blocking my way to the next area... and I'm already well into this dungeon. >.< I just can't seem to beat this trio, even though I did just fine against this same monster paired up with a sanctum elite..

EDIT: I actually passed that part somehow, but this dungeon still seems to go on forever..

[Wakabo]

I am still grinding cp in GP but I was told it goes on and on and on and on....

[Exoduso]

I keep advancing and the damn thing just won't stop! I'm trying to avoid as many enemies as I can, but some of them are simply blocking your path and you have no choice BUT to fight them...

I kept going until the 3rd statue or w/e the hell it is (the yellow one) opened up a new path which goes upwards, but there are 2 extremely hard/annoying enemies that I just don't feel like fighting right now, so I stopped for the time being heh..
I just hope this thing comes to an end soon, because I've been going at it for a good hour-hour and a half now (each battle takes 5-10 minutes..)

[Wakabo]

Makes me wonder if I should just keep grinding the CP. Almost all my 3 main roles are capped. Might continue after those 3 are capped so all that is left is the ones that take forever to grind up

[niwaar]

I kept going until the 3rd statue or w/e the hell it is (the yellow one) opened up a new path which goes upwards, but there are 2 extremely hard/annoying enemies that I just don't feel like fighting right now, so I stopped for the time being heh..
I just hope this thing comes to an end soon, because I've been going at it for a good hour-hour and a half now (each battle takes 5-10 minutes..)

Gonna spoiler this shit just in case people cant realize that its a response to a later chapter.

Spoiler: show

Orphan's Cradle is a festival of "how can we make this place look cool while we extend the game for another 2+ hours". I love the game and I actually love this area because it is a huge challenge after challenge.

That being said, the key here for me was to debuff mobs quite a bit. I ended up using a default Sab/Med/Syn set up to start most fights and just spammed Fog and Pain on everything in the field while I was healed and buffed. Sanctum Templars SUCK as do those lame ass motorcycles. But all are susceptible to Pain and Fog which just makes them wander around aimlessly doing you no harm. The Sacrifices that spam death on you are also susceptible to Fog which pretty much negates most of their damage output so you can concentrate fire on whatever major monster is combined with them.

Another tip for some of the final gold sister area is that since each is on a jumpable platform, aggro and run off, when they turn their back you can get an easy preemptive, ruinga the lowhp stuff and go to town.

The Gold sister area with the "trash pull from hell" that you speak of is insane. I didnt grind but still had fang with 9k+ hp and still this would own me quick. However, you can skip it if you are fast, which is what I did. You can skip all but the gold sister's final pull before he fight.

Oh and props to SE for giving us a Magus Sisters reference. Gotta love it.

Makes me wonder if I should just keep grinding the CP. Almost all my 3 main roles are capped. Might continue after those 3 are capped so all that is left is the ones that take forever to grind up

Meh grinding takes away the challenge in the end as far as I am concerned. I did all of the first 5 D missions and that was it for my GP grinding and the final boss went down after 3 attempts. (only cause of lame RNG on SE's part or it would have been a single attempt)

You honestly do not need to grind though is what I am saying. The only advantage I had was that I managed to get enough incentive chips and perfume along the way to walk into the final fight with mid 30s' level 2nd tier weapons on 2 of 3 characters.

[Despain]

Orphan's Cradle didn't gimme problems. Just avoid the enemies.

For the fights you CAN'T avoid, just fight them accordingly. Hard to die if you buff/debuff. I remember a group of 3 Sanctum Templars. Took me 4 fucking tries to kill them, no joke.

Also don't forget. You have TP (Renew and Dispelga are GOD SEND). Use your TP; ethersols come in handy. Can't tell you how much frustration Renew saved me.

[Uzor]

yeah, I love Renew. If It's looking real bad and 2 characters are dead, I usually cast Renew and that can entirely change the tide of battle.

[Amiricle]

Energy Sash is nice to have equipped for tp gain (tp rises for every enemy slain) kept that and both catalogs on my third (Hope at that point).

[niwaar]

Orphan's Cradle didn't gimme problems. Just avoid the enemies.

For the fights you CAN'T avoid, just fight them accordingly. Hard to die if you buff/debuff. I remember a group of 3 Sanctum Templars. Took me 4 fucking tries to kill them, no joke.

Also don't forget. You have TP (Renew and Dispelga are GOD SEND). Use your TP; ethersols come in handy. Can't tell you how much frustration Renew saved me.

Lol the funny thing about the entire game ... The only TP I used was for Libra and Eidolons. I never once used an Ethersol. While I did use the other "sols" quite liberally.

I was kind of wondering what kind of usefulness Stopga was though. Out of curiosity, would it stop stuff like Retaliatory Strike and the like vs bosses?

[Kisamoo]

I had no problems once I equipped all of my characters with 50% damage reduction. With buffs, I just set Fang on SEN, spammed provoke/steel guard while COM/RAV tore them up 1 by 1. Once I got the crowd under control, it was just the standard clean up crew COM/RAV/RAV. I was able to maintain 4-5 Stars, and had no problems meeting target times.

[Exoduso]

I have trouble with this one fight you can't seem to avoid... it's a Sanctum Templar along with one of the weird Cie'th guys with the big sword that we JUST fought... now the thing is, the 2nd sister had me fight him in the separate room and he was hard as helllllll, so fighting him along with a templar seems impossible.

[Ardrial]

I have trouble with this one fight you can't seem to avoid... it's a Sanctum Templar along with one of the weird Cie'th guys with the big sword that we JUST fought... now the thing is, the 2nd sister had me fight him in the separate room and he was hard as helllllll, so fighting him along with a templar seems impossible.

It is a giant pain.

Best strat (for me) was to do SEN/SAB/SYN and spam debuffs on him and let yourself get buffed. However, the templar will start taking away your buffs and hope will endlessly try to reapply them and then they get lost again on your sent so your sent will prob have to go without buffs. Once people are buffed I went into delta attack / mystic tower to stagger the templar. Switching to combat clinic regularly to full cure. Once the templar is down, sab/sen/syn again to rebuff and redebuff the cie'th guy. Once you have bravery/haste/faith/etc and he has deprot and deshell. Then just spam reletless attack and he goes down pretty quickly.


The only problem with this is that I had grinded quite a bit (went back to pulse) so it might be harder for you. This method should work out in the end though.

[Exoduso]

Heh, you make it sound like the Cie'th is not an issue when he is the main issue. The Templar guy I can take down in a matter of a few seconds if I just had him there by himself... the problem is that I need to get him staggered, while still protecting my party from that insane Cie'th guy who attacks for wayyyy too much hp.

This fight is even worse than the machine/templar combo from a few areas before.. now THAT was a pain in the ass as well.

[Exoduso]

lol I actually passed them, now I keep dying to the 3 templars...
Fuck this dungeon, seriously.

EDIT: somehow made it to the Tiamat Eliminator... god only knows how I beat that thing.

[Baolin]

Is there a way to get back to the area with the Sanctum Templars and guys with the giant swords after you enter the Narthex?

According to the maps on twobrothersandasister there's supposed to be ways from the main hall after you warp back to the start of Orphan's Cradle but I can't seem to find a spot to drop.

[Kyo]

They really kicked the difficulty up in there, I was like god damn, but man was it fun to playthrough.

[Necronus]

I have trouble with this one fight you can't seem to avoid... it's a Sanctum Templar along with one of the weird Cie'th guys with the big sword that we JUST fought... now the thing is, the 2nd sister had me fight him in the separate room and he was hard as helllllll, so fighting him along with a templar seems impossible.

Easily avoided and I never did this fight. Just hug the left going up the ramp and make a hairpin turn. I ran past that Templar/Cie'th boss pair about 5-6 times, never fought once.

lol I actually passed them, now I keep dying to the 3 templars...
Fuck this dungeon, seriously.

EDIT: somehow made it to the Tiamat Eliminator... god only knows how I beat that thing.

Why is everyone having trouble with the 3x Templars? I found them literally no challenge at all. Killed the group 2-3 times.

Now the flying hoverbike thing with Cie'th ... that suuuccckkeed.

[Raen Ryong]

I didn't find Orphan's Cradle that bad, and didn't grind at all <_< I used Light/Fang/Sazh for the majority of the dungeon. When dealing with Sacrifices, put Cherub's Crown * x3 on Fang and used xxx/Sen/xxx, healing her every now and again although she largely didn't need it. Motorcycles don't do -that- much damage if you get caught by their super attack with your Sentinel out (2k?) and chain bonus accumulates on them REALLY QUICKLY if they are charging it.

Sanctum Templars are annoying but not too horrible (can zerg them) and the Sahagins are a pain in the ass but very easy if you pre-emptive attack them. If I didn't, typically I'd do buff/debuff => heal => pick one off => heal => etc.

The Undying Cieth you fight as a miniboss initially is really easy if you buff yourself beforehand (Protect/Shell being necessities) and then debuff him - he goes down so fast that way. Just make sure you have a Sentinel out for when he uses that attack he charges up.

[Correction]

the problem is that I need to get him staggered, while still protecting my party from that insane Cie'th guy who attacks for wayyyy too much hp.

You have to react in time to his move where he removes Protect, casts Deprotect and sits there for a second before cutting you in half. As soon as you see him charge this up, switch to a paradigm with SYN in it to get Protect back up ASAP or you eat that ridiculous damage. It doesn't hurt nearly as much if you time it properly. It pays to make said SYN your party leader so you can just queue up two casts of Protect to perfectly counter it.

[Necronus]

You have to react in time to his move where he removes Protect, casts Deprotect and sits there for a second before cutting you in half. As soon as you see him charge this up, switch to a paradigm with SYN in it to get Protect back up ASAP or you eat that ridiculous damage. It doesn't hurt nearly as much if you time it properly. It pays to make said SYN your party leader so you can just queue up two casts of Protect to perfectly counter it.

I did Delta Attack / Mystic Tower ... swapping to Combat Clinic / Solidarity when he used his big move. I completely stopped trying to negate the Deprotect and just let it be. Fang can handle it.