As a quick note, this post will presuppose that the reader knows how to avoid most, if not all of the boss attacks. With that said, you can read my strategy below.
First off, ensure that you have the following skills/gear: Septimal Surge, Luxcaliber, Cooldown Lens+ (x2), and Quill Signet. The last two items are imperative for defeating the true final boss without the benefits of Lumen's Anthem. Septimal Surge boosts the kudos you obtain by a substantial amount. You should make a habit of using this skill at least once in every boss fight, to ensure that you get a high amount of kudos. Lethal Levalier+ also helps, of course.
Proceed normally* through the bosses, taking care not to use any offensive skills, until you get to Nova's second form. Use Luxcaliber to finish him off when his health is low enough (you can pair Luxcaliber up with Septimal Surge for a kudos boost). Why do you want to do this? Well, primarily because it resets your kudos counter in the most beneficial manner. Yes, you want to reset your kudos before the fight with true final boss. Not because he's such a difficult opponent, but because having a large amount of kudos hinders you in the fight. When the true final boss charges at you with his Flashfield and you're forced to counter it with your own, your EP Energy meter becomes drained, and the default rate at which it recharges just isn't fast enough to allow you to attack the boss before he recovers his energy. As a result, you have to equip items that make your recharge rate quicker. This is where the two Cooldown Lenses+ and Quill Signet come into effect. Equipping all these items will increase your EP recovery rate to around the same speed as the Anthem boost. This comes at a price, though. The Cooldown Lens+ caps your kudos at 1,200. You can't go any higher than that, and if you happen to have, say, 5,000 kudos before you equip the item, your counter will revert to 1,200 after you do equip it. This is why you want to reset your kudos with Luxcaliber before the fight with the true final boss: to ensure that you benefit from all the kudos you racked up beforehand.
Now, it bears mentioning that you don't have to keep the Cooldown Lenses and Quill Signet equipped throughout the entire fight with the true final boss. You really just need to have them on for when he charges at you with his Flashfield. After your EP Energy recovers, you're free to switch back to whatever gear you had before. Personally, I like to keep two Dynamo Eyes+ and a Blue Streak Band+ equipped.
You certainly don't want to have Cooldown Lens+ equipped by the end of the boss fight, however. If all went well and you didn't get hit by the boss, you should have accumulated about 1,000 kudos during the battle. Finishing him off with a special skill would probably set your counter to over 1,600, which the Cooldown Lens+ doesn't allow, so definitely ensure that the item is off when you're about to deliver the final blow to the boss.
And that's about it! I hope this strategy helps those who are trying to S+ Special Mission 5!
*"normally" with the exception of Elise, whose Resurrection you can easily manipulate to rack up extra kudos
An alternate, much easier route, for those having troubles keeping Kudos on the last few battles. It basically consist of securing most of your kudos before you reach Nova.
ReplyDeleteHere it is:
Part 1: From Merak to Viper.
- Equip Astrasphere, Luxcalibur, Voltaic Chain, and Septimal Surge. Equip Lethal Lavaliere+, and have a set of 2 Adrenaline Lens+ available.
- Beat the first four bosses normally, using Septimal Surge once per battle to boost kudos and save time. Switch to a pair of Adrenalines+ when activating it to save as much skills as possible. If you get hit, retry.
- Make sure you reach Viper (5th boss) with at least two skill points (wait until they recharge before the battle if you must).
- When you reach his third phase, attack him for a bit, and end him with Luxcalibur right when he rushes at you, before he reaches the fire collumn. Should be enough to kill him. (Optinally, switch to Adrenaline Lens+ when activating it). Now you have checked your kudos so far, with a final strike bonus, without the need to face Viper's final form (I think we've all had enough of it to get an S+ on Babel).
Part 2: Elise and Copen.
- Beat Elise normally, drag the battle as much as you can for extra kudos (if you feel confident). Hopefully you'll have a skill point to use Septimal Surge here.
- Fight Copen normally, and end the battle with an offensive skill. Doesn't need to be Luxcalibur. In my experience, it's more reliable to use one skill point on Septimal Surge, fight him normally until he reaches his very last drop of HP (dodging his special attack is not an issue), and finishing him with Astratosphere.
- Now you have checked another good chunk of kudos, from your fight with Elise and Copen.
Part 3: The rest of it
- You've already secured most of the score you need for S+. Now all you need to do -besides surviving- is to secure the bonus you get by ending each form with an offensive skill.
- You can probably wait a bit before fighting Nova for a skill point to refill. Depending on how lucky you've been when switching to Adrenaline Lens+, you might be able to activate Septimal Surge at the start of the battle (though I recommend prioritizing the Astratosphere final blow if you don't have enough to do both).
- Fight both forms of Nova normally. Hold as much kudos as you can before you end each form with Astratosphere.
- As mentioned above, switch to a pair of Cooldown Lens+ and QUILL Signet before fighting Nova. Fight him the best you can. As the post above, I too recommend to switch to Dynamo Eyes+ and a Blue Streak Band+, specially to avoid Nova's Voltaic Chain easily.
- End with an Offensive Skill! If you're lucky enough to reach half of this battle with Septimal Surge activated and two skill points available, you can end him with Luxcalibur before he launches Voltaic Chain. Attack him when he's already about to end his second third of health, damage should be enough to finish him completely at that point.