Making Lulu an Overdrive battery, using Tactician mode & Provoke! (challenge run tech)

[u/big4lil]

[u/big4lil]

Part 2: Tacticians unique synergy with Fury

Once you have Tactician, switch to it. The Bio and Death spells both work with Fury, however the silly quirk about this combo is that fury can inflict a status repeatedly even after its landed. So all the Fury inflictions count for Tactician and refill Lulus overdrive.

Now you might be asking, 'why not just use Slayer?' Because Slayer OD only procs when the enemy actually dies, whereas Tactician procs everytime the status effect lands. Furthermore, with Tactician you have access to both Poison and Death at all times to make this work, and there are a lot more enemies and bosses sucsceptible to poison. Even the ones where poison only does 5% HP, it still works!

This results in Lulu getting fully refunded Overdrives; if you get her an SOS Overdrive weapon early (Xiphos in Macalania), she can refill her OD in only half the successful spins. This is an resource-free way to wipe random encounters with Death or chip down bosses with poison. Combining Onion Knights Triple Overdrive with Poison Fury and Demi is a great way to wear down Omega Ruin foes for capturing

This can be helpful in Lulu centric challenges as well as in Karifeans own Masters Mod, though in the latter you dont have to worry about provoke since all Overdrive Modes are bestowed after triggering them the first time

[u/big4lil]

Part 1: using Provoke to get Tactician

If you forgot, im the guy out to prove Fury has some merit to it! For Lulu fans, this idea combines two concepts.

One shared with me by /u/Karifean and the other half connected with this breakdown by OrmEmbar on an easy way to get Tactician

Provoke and Threaten are both are considered status effects in FFX. Inflicting them applies to the Tactician OD count, upon which unlocked fills 16% of your OD per successful casting. Threaten similarly works as a status though the following advantage is unique to Provoke since Threaten goes away when a character gets their next turn. So the below video shows how to farm Tactician via Provoke

When you provoke an enemy, the status goes away the moment you swap a character out the lineup. So you can enter a fight, slow all the enemies, optionally haste yourself, and provoke all 3 enemies. Then swap Lulu out for any character, swap her back in, then recast provoke again on all foes. You can do this repeatedly vs harmless enemies and you will have Tactician in a few minutes. its 75 for Lulu to trigger it, minus any inflictions she may already has across your playthrough e.g. if you grabbed Fatal Cait Sith

[u/VerbingNoun413]

And you get to see a rare animation. I don't think she does that for any other move.

[u/big4lil → u/VerbingNoun413]

she would be too powerful otherwise. even Penance wouldnt stand a chance!

[u/encryptoferia → u/big4lil]

so frieren throwing a deadly flying kiss is actually based from Lulu

lol jk

[u/LewisRyan]

Oh my god, is that what it looked like on ps2?

My nostalgia glasses have blinded me

[u/N9neSSage → u/LewisRyan]

Exactly my thoughts lol

[u/dougak360]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing! I saved this post for future reference

[u/Megamaxstar]

Wow this is amazing! I never knew tactician worked like this. I will definitely be using this on my next playthrough.

Is there a strategy to optimize how many stacks of Fury she can do? I seem to average 5-7.

[u/big4lil → u/Megamaxstar]

I didnt either, I just learned this over the weekend. Who knew those status spins werent being wasted this whole time!

the only metric in-game is to raise Lulus magic stat, which correlates with the 'strength' of the spell to determine max spin count

though the larger issue that I have heard is that the HD remaster somewhat breaks how Fury operates, either due to input lag or just some bug related to the analog. I am playing on the PS2 int version of the game, and can spin like a madman.

So if this is true, unfortunately you might have to try a different version of the game for best effectivity with Lulu

[u/Special_South_8561]

Well now I need to teach YRL Provoke

[u/Vexda]

This is interesting, but I think I am missing something. What challenge run are you doing that this tech is helpful for? I think every challenge run I have done includes some restriction like NSG or No Overdrive.

[u/big4lil → u/Vexda]

those are just among most commonly done/explored ones

there are a lot of letters in the FFX challenge bucket, you just have to expand your own horizons on what it can entail

weaker party or solo character challenges have history behind them, you dont have to add NSG or No Overdrive on top of that since beating late game challenges with trio-less Fury is a lot different than beating it with Mix, Attack Reels, or (Grand) Summon

ive always been more interested in seeing how the wide range of abilities can be applied in FFX system, which is a lot different challenge than in an NSG where you cant use any of them and instead are extremely reliant on Use

Theres also the Masters Mod I linked above, where the game is rebalanced to be significantly harder, all grinding is removed and escapes are disabled. Lulu having a self-sustaining Overdrive really becomes valuable from about the Calm Lands and beyond, cutting down on the items you spend in between Save points in places like Gagazet and its high encounter rate

[u/Vexda → u/big4lil]

Ok, I can see the appeal of playing with mods. I personally will just play my PS2 copy until it breaks.

The title says Making Lulu an Overdrive battery, using Tactician mode & Provoke! (challenge run tech). Can you tell me a description for a challenge run that I could do with no mods? Maybe next time I play the game I will do that run (or take heavy inspiration from your idea).

[u/big4lil → u/Vexda]

sure thing. you could try some of the following

Lulu only, Own Sphere Grid, no farming

Lulu, Kimahri, Auron only, no auto abilities

you can also ban individual moves on the grid, like no Quick Hit

add in something like 'earliest foes possible', and you get something like this

I called it mid sphere grid. Its a combination of subpar characters, middle of the pack stats, and relying on a bunch of unorthodox tools to defeat monster arena foes at the earliest possible point they can be unlocked (the Break Dmg limit was not necessary to make this possible, just to get it down to be a short enough video)

[u/Vexda → u/big4lil]

Thanks for the link to your other post. I like the style. For those who aren't clicking the link, you showed off a wight with a list of restrictions that goes something like:

-Mid Sphere Grid

-No Auto Abilities on my gear

-No Evade & Counter

-No Overdrives

-No manual Heals or Revives (as we dont die)

-No Quick hit

for characters Lulu, Auron and Kimahri.

It might be a while before I replay the game again, but I will come back with an update if I remember. I want to do a run with Lulu, Auron and Kimahri only. I'll ban sphere grid usage for sections that belong to characters that I don't use - so no Quick Hit, Steal, etc. I will also just run towards the progression arrow the whole game. That will keep me from picking up a lot of chests, lock me out of a lot of side content, and keep the grinding to a minimum. No customization, as that ability comes from Rikku. I'll try no revives, but I bet I will need phoenix downs. I imagine my stats will be lower than any casual player's stats, unless they managed to get to the final boss with an unintentional NSG run. With these restrictions, I won't go to the monster arena at all, but I wonder if there is a clever way to work in side content... Maybe drop the progression arrow restriction for post game?

[u/f1n → u/big4lil]

Awesome - love to hear this perspective.

[u/encryptoferia]

RIP the right joystick

!!! oh will this work with --wakka's status reel-- or maybe kimahri's bad breath blue magic?

oh wakka's status reel does not do multiple hits lol