Final Fantasy XIII - Mission 55: Neochu (8000 HP, no Death/summon/R:IC)

No Stage 10 Crystarium
No Tier 3 weapons
No Dark Matter equipment (Kaiser Knuckles, etc.)
No Death, summon, or Random: Instant Chain
Fang -- Venus Gospel *, Power Glove * (x2), General's Belt *
Snow -- Winged Saint, Aurora Scarf, General's Belt * (x2)
Hope -- Eagletalon *, Diamond Bangle *, Weirding Glyph *, General's Belt *
COM/SEN/RAV*
COM/SEN/MED
COM/SEN/COM
SYN/SEN/MED
SEN/SEN/SEN
SAB/RAV/RAV
Neochu's behavior:
First strike attack (it is to your advantage to Retry if he hits Fang), then
1. Attack x4
2. Screech (high physical damage, removes buffs)
3. Pollen (low damage, onslaught of debuffs, Haste/Bravery on any Picochus)
His main pattern is repeating Steps 1-3
When his HP falls under 50%, he uses Seed Dispersal
When his HP falls under ~10-20%, he uses Seed Dispersal
If a Picochu Pleads for a certain length of time, he uses Pollen (never let this happen)
Therefore, my procedure is as follows:
Eliminate initial Picochus asap
Set Neochu up for damage without reducing his HP below 50% (I raise his chain to 250+% -- you NEED Imperil)
Be ready for second (and third) wave of Picochus, IGNORE THEM (let Snow tank) to take out Neochu before next Screech
Finish off Picochus
If you want to ask me why I don't use Vanille instead of Hope, the reasons are:
Vanille heals more slowly
Vanille lacks -agas which are great against Picochus
Vanille lacks Vigor which helps to raise chain against Neochu
Hope's downside is his low HP, so I gave him a Diamond Bangle. Maybe you can go without one (or give him another General's Belt). His Lv 2 COM is also unnecessary because he doesn't spend much time in COM (using Offensive Screen is pointless when the Picochus are out).
This is certainly doable without shrouds, but you will scramble to finish off the Picochus before the first Screech. Start in Protection and buff before switching to Delta Attack. Shrouds give you more breathing room and you may not even need to Dispelga after the first Pollen.
Of course, there is always more room to push the threshold lower... I may try again if I feel like it.
Good luck!
By the way, this isn't to discourage you from using Death to complete the mission (in fact I recommend it to get Growth Egg as soon as possible). This is just for fun.

[@Dakuu75]

I despise this Boss with the white passion of 1,000 suns. I ESPECIALLY hate his high tier counterpart in the Titan Gauntlet. I tried this so many times with a legit method and strategies then gave up and did it the "Death" spell way which took me like an hour more or less. Compared to like, the DAYS I spent trying it legit, I want to paint this guys face onto the inside of my toilet so I shit on him everyday. But, Thanks for the video.

[@markwise7257]

its the same guy in titans trials i just used random chain

[@bioshockfreakna]

Love this comment

[@mac1bc]

I feel you bro

[@nin10doadict]

That's some beautiful strategy there... Neochu is tough, and you blew him up without Death before even beating Orphan. Well done.

[@cameraredeye3115]

Yes, this guy has earned my respect for sure.

[@giuliomorleo8194]

Thx dude, your trategy worked for me! It was the most painful mission of all for me!! Spent almost 5 hours trying to succeed... i used the exact same optimum, failed a lot of times because I lost the rithm but now, now I'm really happy.

[@ericdraven9269]

really nice, like a pro, didit know that dispelga could be so useful XD

[@xRachelxXxWillowsx]

Thanks so so so much for this! I was having so much trouble beating this thing (even though I have a level 10 crystarium), but when I tried this after watching the first minute of your video, I beat it in one try! :D

[@barrin666]

I like Picochus and Microchus. They're the most adorable looking enemies in FF13. :d The way they use Plead. XD

[@juliansan]

guess you dont need that growth egg anymore :P

[@MegaCoolOreo]

Awesome video!!! I'm going to follow this strategy just upgrade my weapons and accessories to MAX to make it a bit easier...thanks again!!!

[@mickeymouseyongphet3652]

You are very good, you are very fond of your play, you have witty skills, like.

[@Zindril]

Damn right man! I want a proper trilogy so badly too! What happened on Xiii-2 ending simply can't be summed up with dlc. Although I was expecting snow to be my sentinel... as a commando he will probably be overshadowed from Chichu -.- And yeah Valfodr must be nuts on 99 LvL mode. And well I'm a bit too much excited about lightning's dlc too because she is one of my favourite video game characters. Her strong personality captured me.

[@HalleJanssen]

Awesome ^^ I loved it, thank you!

[@adricompleanno]

THANK YOU VERRRRRRRRY MUCH!!

[@91137732]

im astonished how u managed to defeat him with such a pathetic HP! My guys are up to 20000 HP and still got killed ( Neochu´s scream + those little ones attacking at the same time)

[@lookhowshegobbledthat]

Either quickly switch to SEN/SEN/SEN or quickly summon an Eidolon when Scream appears on your screen to prevent being killed.

[@coolguy02536]

Yeah you NEED Tortoise for Screech and a permanent sentinel the entire fight. That's where Snow comes in for once. And this is probably the only fight you need Dispelga for.

[@aixio]

You did a nice job, you beat me at this. I couldn't do this one and the cactus one before chapter 13. The music is epic too, well fit for the battle.

[@brandiwetzstein3350]

I liked your use of hope because he is my fave magical character next to lightning and vanille. My hope is a badass! So is my lightning and fang so we will only hope.

[@slymaster608]

god i cant even do this fight with lv.4 crystarium yet he gets it done with 2

[@SugarfrostingMewMew]

I don't understand...I'm at stage 10 Crystarium, maxed out tier 2 weapons, I have great accessories, my team has over 15,000 HP yet...I still can't beat this guy!

[@austa10]

Use death and have a beladana wand

[@2bussy]

the one in titan's trials is harder I think

[@Zindril]

Yeah... Snow is sadly a Com monster... Chichus are nice that drop from Valfodr indeed and yeah, I really hope lightning is a fun dlc and not just a battle and a CGI scene thrown together. Have you noticed her roles while fighting Caius? Like ATK-Pal(Attacker-Paladin) or Bla-Wiz(Blaster-Wizard)? It looks like she uses new abilities during Caius fight like a 4 atb charge thunder attack. People speculate that her role will be an upgraded version of normal lightning but we will see I guess!

[@ziegly]

@RemembranceBlade 1- Arthellinus is using Venus Gospel for Fang, a tier 2 weapon. 2- Dark matters cost 840k each. 3- Shaolong Guis have over 10 mill HP. 4- The drop rate of Dark matter will be 30% if you 5-star it and equip the Connoisseur catalog. Unless you're playing a different version of the game.

[@symphony137]

Sentinel isn't even the original name for the role. In the Japanese and some other language versions of FFXIII it's Defender. Oh and if you're "old school" then Tank would actually be your term of choice since it was already used in the early 90s for MUD games, the predecessors of MMORPGs.

[@protozero0000]

Haste. No words.

[@Pet26Master]

Thanks a lot! It helped me soooo much :)

[@Zindril]

Yep I know what Fang is capable off (bravera and faithra are amazing) , it's a single player game though so I was killing Long Guis for farming with fang, but when it comes to fun I pick Snow just because I like him. As for XIII-2 I really don't know how fast or slow he is since I don't want to pay for a poker-style dlc, I only download coliseums and I'm looking forward to Eternal Arena and Requiem of the Goddess! May Valfodr bring me some sort of challenge!

[@MercuryChild]

WHOOOOOO I JUST DID IT!!! Took me a while, but the trick I learned is all about balance. Your main two paradigms will be COM/SEN/RAV and COM/SEN/MED and bouncing between those two after the 50% mark. Make sure Snow always has Protectera and Hope has Faithera. If you ever need to get your buffs on fast you can do Haste, Bravera, Bravera,do give you the haste buff but will still eat through any debrave effects. Of course though you can do that with any move. This is one of those monsters that you need to get down to a science, or using Death is also an option. Time: 6:15

[@MercuryChild]

The death trick does work (but you gotta factor in the probability of a success rate- meaning a KO not item drop). I realized that I was moving a lot faster by killing the old fashioned way. Cause if you wipe you have a game over screen, and reload...it wasn't time conducive for the amount I needed. Good times though....good times....

[@cameraredeye3115]

First time I fought Neochu, I tried doing it the hard way. That took 7 attempts and some grinding to get down pat since I didn't have a lot of skills with paradigms and shit like that. Second time, I found that using Random: Instant Chain works best for me. Once you stagger this thing, it's practically a goner due to its low HP. But good luck staggering it the hard way.

[@RileyTheCharmedOnes]

This is a quick fight, well, although, I haven't start all the mission yet, I still need to earn more CP before I can go further :-)

[@TinydogGaming]

after my 6th try i finally got death to land after about 2 minutes. used vanille, snow, hope. sab/ sentinel/ medic with both shrouds. after neochu died i used my summon and was able to take out 1 of those little guys by punching it with summon. after that went into gestalt mode spammed the gestalt that only uses 1 charge. then after about 8 charges left i did its super move and was able to bring the adds down to very little hp. switched to aggression paradigm and was awarded with 5 stars!

[@pelgrin21]

Very nicely done I haven't done mission 55 I'm going to do it next just to max my crystarium to 5 speed things a little

[@TrueChaoSclx]

I'm probably going to NEED to do it this way =/ ... I've been trying for two days to kill it with Death, but luck just isn't on my side -.- heh..

[@cameraredeye3115]

Damn, I remember fighting this guy 7 times with almost twice the stats and still lost the first 6 tries. After leveling up prior to try #6, I found the fight much easier IMO. It took that 7th try and an insanely long and tough fight for me to finally prevail over this son of a bitch. Next time I fought it, I went the Random: Instant Chain route. Much easier for me to deal with then, and it gave me 5 stars too (I prefer not to use Death since the success rate is so fucking low, lol).

[@jakerego1433]

FUCKING game is killing over 180 hours and i still having a hard time with Neochu's and mark mission 64 shits fucking stupid all the weapons and accessories are MAX LEVEL all level 5 max shits hard.

[@RemembranceBlade]

@Seizure00666 You need stage 3 level 50 weapons. Stage 2 isn't enough for the stronger oppenents of 13 and lv. 100 is required sometimes too. There's like 5 stages fot dtrength and magic accesories. To get to the 5th stage you have to buy a catalyst called dark matter. It cost 720,000 gil each.... Or you can kill a creature called a Shao Long gui(Which has 6,000,000 HP) for a 15 percent drop, not counting items that up the drop rate.

[@michaelhernandez1841]

Impressive to beat him before the post game

[@BoredAlways]

Woot! Nice job! You make this battle look easy!

[@shunpown2353]

What a GOD G@MER

[@theprinceofchakra8532]

an faster way is to have Vanille cast Death At the beginning to kill the neochu, then use aeroga on the little ones to keep off the ground and use thundaga

[@greggwooly2865]

great video, thanks

[@JetsDuck]

@MrIvalice I agree! This guy shows how TERRIBLE I am at this game, lol. But it goes to show how deep the system can be. I can't think of many other FF's that could've showcased a battle like that.

[@alexcabezas]

@alexcabezas In battle: When you stay alone with neochu, raise the stagger-points to 300, switching between RAV-SEN-RAV and SAB-SEN-RAV (take avantage of ATB Refresh always), then change to COM-SEN-RAV or COM-SEN-MED, hit restlessly until kill him, remember use dispelga against pollen, tortoise against screech, refresh your buff bravera and haste on fang, protectra on snow, faithra and haste on hope.

[@zacatkinson3926]

It looks like a germ from a cleaning product commercial

[@nikumimito3164]

Funny setup because Snow and Fang are like both tanks/dps, lightning and Sach are both dps and Vanille and Hope are both Healer/Dps. But fang is a beast in the strenght department.

[@Darloud]

Thanks men!!!!!!

[@Chan961217]

@Arthellinus I wanna ask you a question, why you keep on spaming the Imperil? When the Neochu already been buff by Imperil you still keep on buffing it with Imperil, Why?

[@amandaclaireon4065]

I beat ophran with 5 stars without having the egg but of course i need it to beat a adamtoise

[@alexcabezas]

Another approach for this battle, very similar to the shown in this video. Team: Fang, Snow, Hope. Paradigms > SYN lv2-SEN lv4-MED lv4 (active), COM lv4-SEN-MED, SEN lv4-SEN-SEN lv1, COM-SEN-RAV lv4, RAV lv1-SEN-RAV, SAB lv4-SEN-RAV. Equipment > Fang: weapon Glaive *, Warrior's Writband lv1 (x2), Brawler Wristband lv1; Snow: weapon Winged Saint *, General's Belt * (x2), Clay Ring lv1; Hope: weapon Eagletalon lv49, without accesories.

[@thetwinarchers]

i have never been closer to suicide than i was for this battle. i could take down adamantoise w moderate difficulty but neochu was one of the most awful battles of this game. the growth egg is totally worth it. when i fought it in the faultwarrens it was insanely easy but i synthesized lightning's lionheart w quick/instant stagger and the whole thing was over in 20seconds. congrats for the 5 stars i think my first time took me 30 minutes of trying not to die and obv no stars.

[@XXDaniphoenixXX]

this is the most adicctive FF i ever played :D

[@souldragon777]

Ah so Dispelga removes all statuses for everyone? Shit, seriously what is the point of Esuna, removing 1 status at a time? And the AI only uses it once per turn.... what POS spell. Thanks for the strategy, I went to the fault warrens and had to fight the Neochu (who is by himself at the start) and though by that time with 2 ultimate weapons and near max crystarium..nope, after she called in her babies I was toast

[@PowerFrames]

I think I was just blinded by light...

[@geminii80NR]

I started playing this game for the first time a few months ago, i have noticed that ppl really favor the Vanille/Death thing, not for just this mission, but for all these boss/missions whenever you search for a strategy...I dont see where the challenge is in that other than getting it to work. I used it once, it worked, but i felt unsatisfied after the battle and found another method. I feel like its the cheap way out. This is my last mission to complete, i have 5 stars on all of them without using Vanille/Death... but do what works for you, i just dont see the point in playing the games if you dont like the challenge and satisfaction of completing a hard battle with high scores without taking the easy way out... just my opinion.

[@Zindril]

Hmmm, I like that you changed your mood (although didn't expect my comment to do anything other than enrage you) so it's all fine. And of course Sazh is bad compared to other characters (slow animations...etc!) sometimes he is surprisingly good though! /watch?v=U0pf-1-P8E4 awesome example of his power (although eidolon usage). That doesn't mean I don't use Fang mostly for tough stuff, although I switch to snow when it gets boring despite him having lower strength.

[@ninjapurpura1]

I tried fighting that boss like 3 times with my own strategies, but maybe I was underleveled or something, I don't know, I just got wrecked with no chance of success. Then I tried the death method using Vanille, it was my first time ever using death. It killed that thing in my first attempt lol I swear. The boss had no debuffs on him, so I had 1% of chance to kill it, and I made it.

[@crymore7]

@tripMX it has to be all sentinel, and for fang/snow the sentinel lvl needs to be high enuf to obtain the passive abilities that reduce damage done to team.... im surprised ppl attempt this at such high lvls... i can honestly say (although it took me 31 min still got 5 stars) i did this as soon as it was available, vanille/snow/hope... death method of course + shrouds, but it was worth it because i got growth egg early and made the rest of the game a breeze...(had snow 7K hp w/ 1 plat bangle)

[@InTheBigMachine]

Alright, so after failing miserably multiple times, I've looked up your video. Definitely props are to be given. But anyway, was wondering if you could give a bit of advice? I've gotten the gist of this, but I'm still having trouble with Hope getting destroyed on Screech (Both before and after viewing this video). From what I could grasp from watching this, the key is perfecting timing with a shift to the all Sentinel paradigm... but I can't figure out when that is. What is the tipoff?

[@MattMacor]

I was very impressed. Though I think most people dont have the skills/reaction time to pull off what you did here, haha. Brilliant video though.

[@shadowlink03]

thanks dis strategy relle helped

[@meowz1894]

see, i dont have the APM for this

[@airbomb24]

it makes no sense how you kill all the picochus so fast

[@BocchiTheMeltDown]

Looks like Venusaur.

[@dvdmethod2]

Very nice.

[@InTheBigMachine]

@InTheBigMachine Oh, also, I may be silly for not knowing this, but how do you unlock the 4th item slots? I'm realizing that this could be a big factor to my failure, as well...

[@Nyxlave]

Either I got really unlucky or you got really lucky with the respawning Picochus. Neochu always brings more back about ten seconds after I finish killing them all...

[@TripMX]

No way!! It doesn't make any sense! I equipped two maxed out General's Belts + one maxed out Champion's Belt (gave well over 60% physical damage reduction) and Neochu's Screech STILL does the same 3000+ damage waves that crush the fuck out of my party! Paradigm Shifting prior to attack doesn't work either. My main's HP is around 11000...how the hell!?

[@lookhowshegobbledthat]

I killed him with Vanille/Fang/Hope and 'Death'. Equip Vanille with 'Belladonna Wand' or 'Marlboro Wand' (better debuffs), equip Hope with 'Vidofnir' or 'Hresvelgr' (longer buffs), equip 'Black/General Belts' (physical resistance) on everyone. Start with MED/SEN/MED to make them focus on Fang (SEN). Switch to MED/SEN/SYN to let Hope put 'Haste' on everyone. Switch to SAB/SEN/MED and spam 'Death' towards Neochu. If he doesn't do anything for awhile, quickly go to 'Summon' and wait for his 'Screech' to appear. Quickly summon 'Hecatoncheir' to avoid death. After that, continue spamming 'Death' and hope for the best. When Neochu uses 'Pollen'... I hit 'Quit' and started over. After 12734921349236 tries, 'Death' finally hit, I killed the remaining Picochu's and got my 'Growth Egg'. Yay.

[@cameraredeye3115]

inasexymood Try doing it this way next time. Or use Random: Instant Chain to go for that stagger kill. :)

[@LazyGoose872]

it can work but it takes ages sometimes and gets really boring :S

[@evoke2976]

I did it! used Random: insta chain and got his big butt. I used Sazh, Vanille and Snow at lvl9 crytarium. Died 15 times before I could one clip him in a single stagger.

[@Rainier624]

thanks you amigo ¡¡¡¡¡

[@nightzeroAX]

@Ryuuseibreak I was finally able to kill it and defeat them by changing my team. Snow Vanille and Hope. That was on my 6th try that very same day.

[@crystalrelic_art]

Did you fight this before or after beating the game? And is it recommended to use Death spell?

[@pinkinglily6447]

looking at her,swinging her lance,kinda make me wonder with that smooth and slow attack,how it can kill Neochu........

[@saffir99b]

At least there's an alternate method than the false 'death' method I had seen. Didn't they patch that out? It took me about 30,000 tries to stick Death to realize that it was immune to it.

[@richardsinclair7661]

Death is ridiculously hard to land. It has a base success rate of 1% that can only be increased with debuffs ( an additional 1% for each debuff). It's pretty impractical to use in my opinion, which is why I don't.

[@coolguy02536]

Pretty neat intentionally avoiding Fang's finisher.

[@mari.mer.ty420]

omg.... I don't even remember how I played this game after lol messed me up. ff forever❤

[@RileyTheCharmedOnes]

Oh I can't, this shit is too hard! >.< I try to follow your paradigm, but my fight is went very ugly.... (disappointing)

[@iamwarwick]

Haha, Snow is a Sentinel in the XIII-2 DLC, not a Commando :P

[@Oh_its_Mike]

Yeah, I used WoW terms the whole time I played this game. Ravagers are DPS, sentinels are Tanks, med is obviously heals.

[@Aranur]

wait what did Fang say when she slid in to hit that third one? I heard nothing pardon, as if she had thrown some kind of jab at Snow or hope.

[@Aranur]

I stand corrected she said not so hard. still sounded like something completely different

[@kpacf]

i used death on the ochu, and by a serious miracle of God, it got it on the first try. then all i had to do was kill the little ones. man it was such good luck lol

[@Seizure00666]

How are you doing 42k damage per hit for the last 50% of Neochu's HP? With Bravera, I'm only hitting for 14k.. I have Stage 10 unlocked and still can't match this damage... even have Fang decked out in STR accessories and lv59 stage 2 weapon... maybe I need omega?

[@Lucas7Claus]

Hey how do re-queue attacks from your last attack list. I know it exists but I never learned how. Thanks.

[@danielroblez8664]

All I want to know is: you hit it with imperil within the first SAB rotation. Why keep going? At least attempt deprotect or deshell if its vulnerable

[@arthogonal]

Hello! Neochu is immune to Deprotect and Deshell.

[@Chan961217]

@Arthellinus ok thanks and you really helped me, cause I take day to defeat it! XD lol!!!

[@nightzeroAX]

@RandyOrton595 I managed to kill it with death on my 5 Retry on the first cast. After my shrouds went off while fighting those little fuckers I lost. TIMING IS CRUCIAL -_-.

[@slymaster608]

lol i must retract this comment, i got my levels mixed up, by level 4 i meant role level not crystarium level

[@ArtemisAbend]

Gosh, looking back it this now after playing 13-2, makes me see how BROKEN the prevouis one is. And broken in a, "PWN everything" way. HP is reduced, plus damge and stats being changed. Auto skills don't really overlap into different roles. The tier 2 syn roles don't exsist and we have -ga skills. and Many more, heh

[@solomiguel8254]

question: why did you keep using imperil?

[@arthogonal]

+Solo Miguel Imperil adds chain duration, but more importantly, it normalizes Neochu's elemental resistance, which significantly improves chaining. It's much harder to chain without Imperil. I wouldn't be able to get the multiplier up as high as quickly as I do here.

[@solomiguel8254]

+Arthellinus does it add more chain duration than other sab spells?

[@arthogonal]

+Solo Miguel No, but the effect on elemental resistance is more important here.

[@solomiguel8254]

+Arthellinus sorry for too much questions tho but once imperil was imbued why didn't you cast deprotect deshell etc (haven't fought this guy yet so i dunno its immunities)

[@arthogonal]

+Solo Miguel It is in fact immune to everything except Imperil. I should have stated that up front.

[@ArmisHart]

got 2 generals belts on vanille and fang each and they both die once screech hits...dont see how you do this honestly. its either kill the little ones and get smashed by screech getting one shot or ignore the little ones and try to make death hit before screech happens. ive been attempting this and its ridiculous.

[@lechondre]

MrDcofjapan Try getting into triple SENs.

[@alexcabezas]

Why your screen said Stage 10 at the bottom?

[@one909]

Im quite lucky I win this boss the first time I fight it. then i tried to fight back, but keep losing for no reason =_= but the "death" trick is real.

[@KATinBLACK]

Why not me?!?! I can't win this battle! How come everyone else does!

[@oAronzeteMaistero]

crack :)

[@meseanmcleod7248]

How do I get more gil in chapter 11...I can't seem to find the items to get my weapons created.

[@Zindril]

Indeed! Blame FF XIII-2 news for false information :>!

[@juliansan]

snow is a tanker..

[@hamadalswaidi3194]

how do you get [Eagletalon] and [Aurora Scarf] and [Weirding Glyph ] .

[@ClydeVenus17]

If you beat him... Why didn't you get the growth egg? you got moonblossom seed? why is that?

[@COCOONFABULA]

Looks like the big froggies in FFXII

[@andrewvideogamesYT]

Should of used Sazh, he's great with enchanting it would of been quicker.

[@Professor_Cyn]

he'd have lost a medic though.

[@manofleipe]

And Sazh is terrible at pretty much everything else. Hope can do just fine,in fact you'll never be using Sazh again after you hit SYN lv3 with Hope.

[@andrewvideogamesYT]

Sub to my channel?

[@Zindril]

Buy me a good capture card

[@Kingdom34Hearts]

Also everyone you just have to believe in yourself, and with a little luck you can do it to also now I have the broth egg with 2 tries. ;-)

[@andrewnathan2903]

Pardon my French but that thing is fucking hideous