Talk:Demon's Gauntlet/@comment-25185703-20140716061935

Managed to clear first w/1-crystal and second with 0-crystal.

Team: Muse (SS/Max), Aura (SS/Max/1 HiPo), Pino (S/Max), Tanya (S/Max/+3 HiPo), Tifa (S/Max) - DC of 189

Importantly, all team members have >2000HP and Tanya's third HiPo gives everyone an extra 100HP which has allowed Tifa to survive by a thread from many attacks.

First clear, helper was Sheryl, but came in 3rd round after Aura got clobbered by thunder. Without her boost + shield I eventually lost out in final round to one of Asmodeus' combos and spent 1 crystal to recharge.

Second clear, helper was Pino, who replaced Tanya in the boss round (which was kind of a good thing because at that point I needed emblems way more than I needed nuke).

Tifa kind of sucks but she's the only other blue healer I have with >2000HP and her elucidation skill meant I could keep up combos to keep Aura's AS in play. With both Muse and Aura AS working, Pino hits fire for up to 3000, and even Tifa can do 1700-2000 damage. Fairly certain this shortened boss round considerably, first clear without Aura for a considerable portion took a lot longer and I had spirits constantly getting knocked out (Sheryl revived Pino twice before the whole team kicked the bucket).

I watched a clear video from the Japanese version of the game to see their strategy. For first two rounds, clear blue, then red, but try to give time to charge up skills, however if your damage against blue is not too high I would focus on clearing out red first as the Suzaku skill lock is very hard to get around. For third round, not sure what is better; I cleared yellow first because if it charges and attacks, it will certainly take out one of your team. Shield will protect against it but doesn't charge fast enough to always block, and you need delay handy going into boss battle. Suzaku's ratio damage is very rough but it doesn't seem to use it that often and you should be able to heal after.

For boss battle, I focused on clearing blue fodder, then red fodder, then Asmodeus. Blue fodder will lock your whole team for one turn, essentially wasting that turn. It has low HP and should go down fairly quick. Red fodder weakens. When it does, use your delay so that by the time Asmodeus attacks the weaken is gone. So far I haven't had weaken sync with Asmodeus - if that does, it's an instakill. It doesn't weaken too often, so you should be able to recharge delay in between; if not, put up your shield. If all your spirits have >2000 HP you should be able to survive Asmodeus' attack (barely). Shield also works well to soften the blow and give you more chances to heal.

Japanese wiki suggests Asmodeus has a pretty high drop rate (I got him to drop the second clear) but even so, I'm not sure whether it's worth crystals to keep fighting. If I can 0- or 1-crystal clear, I will probably try to get 2 more so I can evo him to A+ but the requirements for this quest are pretty insane.