FFRK - The Dirge Begins (VII) Event & Strategies

[Kirin]

"You didn't think they could improve on the masterpiece of Final Fantasy VII, but Dirge of Cerberus proved us all wrong." - No-one Ever, 20XX.

At least Reeve is in it, but instead of someone actually worthwhile FFRK gets Shelke.

"I don't know what you're up to, but I want absolutely no part of it." - Vincent
"Vincent Valentine, we've found you." - Shelke

Three years have passed since the Meteor was summoned by Sephiroth. Reeve Tuesti, pilot of Cait Sith and leader of the World Regenesis Organization, hears word that the remnants of Shinra in Deepground are plotting something. Sensing grave danger, Reeve calls upon some old friends to aid him. Among them is Vincent Valentine, a former sharpshooter in the Turks.

Event Start Date: August 3
Event Bonus Battle: August 6
Event End Date: August 24 (Three Weeks!)

All information is taken from a mixture of Reddit/Spreadsheets/Kongpakbao Site and my own obviously expert analysis.

Most info for the event comes from this site: https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKee...wb&sh=1c06fa3a

Though the information provided is used as a guideline and not always taken directly from the thread. When necessary, additional thoughts on Cid Missions and battle strategies are added.

Notable Rewards:
S Adjuster - Accessory. Moderate sleep resist and atk +15.

New Characters Acquired:
Shelke - Combat 3, Support 5, Celerity 5, Machinist 4

Dress Spheres Acquired:
That is, indeed, Cait Sith.

Old Characters Acquired:
Vincent
Tifa
Red XIII
Barret

New Memory Crystals:
Shelke MC1/MC2/MC3

Old Memory Crystals
Vincent MC1/MC2
Tifa MC1/MC2
Red XIII MC1/MC2
Barret MC1/MC2

New Record Materia:
Shelke RM1: Recover 1 celerity ability use at the start of battle.
Shelke RM1: Deal moderately more damage with celerity abilites.
Shelke RM3: Attack becomes Double Cut.

New Legend Materia
Vincent LM1: Turk of Turks - Small fire damage up.
Vincent LM2: Inner Beast - When HP Critical, self 100% HP heal and enter Gallian Beast trance - all stats +20% and halved cast time for 25 seconds.
Red XIII LM1: Ferocious Fang - Small support damage up.
Red XIII LM2: Proud Warrior - 30% buff duration.

New Record Sphere
Shelke - Support Damage Boosts (9% total)

Characters Needed for Battles
Beat 'A Girl Named Shelke' (Classic) with a party of Vincent + 4 other VII heroes.

Cid Missions
Complete Ultimate++ fight with a party of VII heroes.

Relics
The last FFVII event wasn't too long ago, and now it seems were about to have a retread (or entirely new to global, depending on how you value that free Blizzaja) VII event.

That doesn't (or shouldn't) change whether you want to pull here or not. There isn't a whole lot special, but some of it is nice if you are thin on VII synergy.

Banner 1:

Vincent, Shelke, Red and...Sephiroth?

Vincent obtains his USB here, predictably of the fire/non AoE variety with en-fire, 1x shortcharge, and Cerberus mode which provides a boost (either of atk or mag - depending on what the damage trigger was) of 30% and chases fire abilities with a self-shortcharge. His above decent BSB returns (w/Radiant Shield fun!) as does his en-fire SSB.

Shelke is a decent addition honestly. Her BSB is an instant Pentabreak with 10 hits of thunder and while it's on a spear, it provides thunder+ w/o realm synergy. The commands are a little lackluster though, providing magic and mind breakdown with only 1 hit of damage for Cmd1/2. Her SSB provides a very rare AoE dispel with party esuna and high regen effects.

Red gains an ultra as well, adding Astra and Hastega to his old SSB and swapping out a situational mind boost for a more functional res boost. Said SSB also returns.

Re-treads include Cid's goddamn tea, and Sephiroth's BSB2 for filler.

Banner 2:

Gusty blowey stuff.

Lot of repeats here, so you likely have (or chased) a lot of this stuff at one point recently. But at least you have another shot at Rufus's SSB!

Zack's BSB and Chain show up.

Cloud BSB 2 is here! No, BSB 2 is not a typo for USB.

All of Tifa's recent stuff is here, but man is her SSB dated at this point. And Barret's BSB and Pentabreak SSB show up as well.

Dat Rufus imperil dark gun doh!

Legend Materias:
Banner 1 - Red XIII: Debuff duration +30%.
Banner 1 - Vincent: 25% chance to double cast fire abilities.
Banner 2 - Cloud: 35% chance to chase wind abilities with shortcharge 1.
Banner 2 - Tifa: Physical hits builds atk up. 1% -> 35%.

Relic Discussion
https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKee...el&sh=6f60c229

http://ffrk.kongbakpao.com/event-124/

[Kirin]

Bonus Battles

Battle of Church Square +

Dragonfly
HP: 129.670
Target Score:

• Defeat the Dragonfly without being KO'ed.
• Reduce the Dragonfly's attack.

Weak: None
Absorb: None
Resist: None
Null: None
Status Vulnerabilities: None

Crimson House (w/Guard Hound)
HP: Crimson Hound: 80,488 - Guard Hound: 22.997
Target Score:

• Defeat the Crimson Hound without being KO'ed.
• Reduce the Crimson Hound's attack.

Weak: None
Absorb: None
Resist: None
Null: None
Status Vulnerabilities: None

Notes: Both fights are entirely physical, but the Dragonfly does need ranged attacks to hit it.

The Guard Hounds will respawn, so don't bother with them much.

Darting Around The Wilderness ++
Pegasus Rider
HP: 36,000 (each)
Target Score:

• Reduce a Pegasus Rider's attack.
• Reduce a Pegasus Rider's defense.
• Reduce a Pegasus Rider's resistance.

Weak: None
Absorbs: None
Resists: None
Null: None
Vulnerabilities: Stun

Notes: 3 waves of 2/2/1 Pegasus Riders. Also an entirely physical fight.

Heavy Soldier +++
Heavy Soldier (w/DG Soldier)
HP: Heavy Soldier: 149,627 - DG Soldier: 29,277
Target Score:

• Reduce the Heavy Soldier's attack.
• Reduce the Heavy Soldier's defense.
• Reduce the Heavy Soldier's resistance.

Weak: None
Absorbs: None
Resist: None
Null: None
Vulnerabilities: Stun

Notes: Again, 100% physical fight. The DG Soldier's will respawn, so don't worry about them too much.

Seeing a trend in these fights? Oh, theres more!

Ultimate + Apocalypse Battles

Pack Beasts (U)
凶Crimson Hound (w/凶Guard Hound)
HP: Crimson Hound: 200,000 - Guard Hound: 44,000
Target Score:

• Reduce the 凶Crimson Hound's attack.
• Reduce the 凶Crimson Hound's defense.
• Reduce the 凶Crimson Hound's resistance.

Weak: None
Absorbs: None
Resist: None
Null: None
Vulnerabilities: None

Notes: 100% physical fight.

Only one attack does not fall prey to retaliate, so yeah. Nuke this from orbit.

Azul's Threat (U++)
凶Azul
HP: HP: 350,000
Target Score:

• Reduce 凶Azul's attack.
• Reduce 凶Azul's defense.
• Reduce 凶Azul's resistance.

Weak: None
Absorbs: None
Resist: See Notes
Null: None
Vulnerabilities: None

Moveset:
Attack (PHY: ST 110% physical)
Attack (PHY: ST 188% physical)
Attack (PHY: AOE 250% physical)
Cannon (NAT: ST 314% ranged physical)
Kick (PHY: ST 267% physical)
Shockwave (NAT: AOE 300% ranged physical)
凶 Cannon (NAT: AOE 300% piercing 0.5 ranged physical)

Notes and Strategies: Oh look, another 100% physical fight. His name is also loosely translated as "Blue the Blue".

This is another one of those omni resist bosses. Above 20% of his HP, Azul will take 90% damage from all elements. Under 20%, he only takes 30% damage, so keep that in mind.

There are 3 barrels that spawn next to Azul. They have ~108k HP and upon destroying them they will deal 75,000 dmg to Azul and cause him to take 20% more fire damage. So deal 108k damage to deal 75k damage. Fair trade.

Cid Mission: Bring Barret or Red (or Shelke) for the Power BD and Fullbreak. Otherwise, staff your team with who you want. Nothing he has is honestly THAT dangerous that you need specific character or specialized CM set-up here. Tank & spank.

Shelke The Transparent(Apocalypse +)
滅Shelke
HP: 450,000
Target Score:

• Reduce 滅Shelke''s attack.
• Reduce 滅Shelke's defense.
• Reduce 滅Shelke's resistance.

Weak: None
Absorbs: None
Resist: See Notes
Null: None
Vulnerabilities: Stun

Moveset: (>70% HP)
Attack (PHY: ST 110% physical)
Attack (PHY: ST 188% physical)
Low Thrust (NAT: ST 422% physical)
Counter High Speed Thrust (10%/20%/30% response to physical attacks; PHY: ST 344% physical)
(Default only)Thrust (PHY: ST 290% physical, 2 hits)
(Default only) Attack (PHY: AOE 300% physical)
(Default only) Retribution (PHY: RT 200% physical, 2 hits)

Moveset: (70% - 40% HP)
(Weak/V Weak only) 凶 Low Thrust (NAT: AOE 400% piercing0.5 physical)
(Entering Weak/V Weak only) Countertek (WHT: AOE Dispel)
(Weak only) Thrust (PHY: ST 320% physical, 2 hits)
(Weak only) Retribution (PHY: RT 250% physical, 2 hits)
(Weak only) Combo (NAT: RT 110% physical, 9 hits)

Moveset: (<40% HP)
(V Weak only) Thrust (PHY: ST 350% physical, 2 hits)
(V Weak only) Retribution (PHY: RT 300% physical, 2 hits)
(V Weak only) Attack (PHY: AOE 350% physical)
(V Weak only) Combo (NAT: RT 150% physical, 9 hits)

Notes and Strategies: 100% physi- aww forget it. You know not to bring Shellga by now.

Shelke uses her scripted regular AoE dispel at phase transition at 70% and 40%, so refresh that Protect and drink your goddamn tea.

Another omni-resist fight. She starts out only taking 30% damage from elemental attacks but that increases to 40% and then 50% as she gets weaker.

Also depending on phase, Shelke's main threat is a 10/20/30% chance to counter physical hits with a potent physcal counter of her own. Luckily, none of her attacks are ranged so back-row fighters help out.

Jump Start Notes: Same fight as the A+ version, however the phase transitions occur at 80% and 50% respectively.

[hyoton]

I never played this game, but it has vincent in it and I like vincent so it can't be that bad.
When I played VII my team was cloud vince (limit breaks make him uncontrollable) and cait sith (random limit break effects). I think I just stopped using limit breaks after a certain point.

[Kirin]

I never played this game, but it has vincent in it and I like vincent so it can't be that bad.
When I played VII my team was cloud vince (limit breaks make him uncontrollable) and cait sith (random limit break effects). I think I just stopped using limit breaks after a certain point.

Gird your loins, my friend.

Vincent can't save you (or this game, sadly).

For a character that plays a pretty pivotal role in the larger scale of the VII plot, Vincent is very poorly used and treated story wise.

[Alkar]

Welp this event lasts three weeks lol.

[hyoton]

3 weeks?! What do they have up their sleeves?

[Ratatapa]

FT Melted is not even funny

[hyoton]

Ult++: I actually used the bizarrely tanky barrels to help vincent out with his firebased soul breaks. Other than that I just beat Mr. Blue down.
Apoc: I used dingus bssb to drawfire/reta. Very easy.
Jump start: Even easier than the apoc (like "I had cloud RW usb set up but it took too long to set up" easy).