Worst to Best - Strago Lores

[@MALEMization]

Man oh man I CANNOT wait for Worst to Best Gau RAGES and Espers!

[@cocomunga]

Worst- Intangir Best- Stray Cat

[@blittoo]

"Holy Shit" -Bdewd, probably

[@iamthehobo]

Sudden hour long video, I'd be down

[@UnabashedNerd]

Man, Gau is one of my fav characters. Cat scratch is the best, especially for Wind God Gau. Aspik, Over-Mind and Retainer were my go to's

[@enlongjones2394]

@@cocomunga wouldn’t the best be Rafflesia, with that charm effect they didn’t program anything to be immune to?

[@mb8226]

You can re-fight Hidon later. Occasionally, whenever you return to Thamasa after taking him out, Gungho will mention that he’s reappeared.

[@dansmith1661]

All those years of trauma over an unstoppable foe and it comes back because it felt like it.

[@Bdewd]

i only learned about this shortly after it came out that apparently he comes back. when did FF6 have respawnable bosses :O

[@veghesther3204]

You can be the Lore still SUCKS since Ultima still does MORE damage and Force Field is ONLY gotten off of the Doom boss IN Kefka's tower and kind of sucks as well. But while Grand Delta sucks its NOT the WORST lores that has to go to BOTH Self Destruct and Transfusion since BOTH kill its user the only difference is that you can still revive Strago if he kills HIMSELF by using Exploder Transfusion in FF6 works the same way as its FF5 version killing its target and removing his sprite on screen so that he can't be revived until AFTER you win the battle.

[@JanusHoW]

​@@veghesther3204There is one thing Grand Delta has over Ultima - it can't be blocked by Runic. That's the reason Omega Weapon (GBA only super boss) uses it instead of Ultima...

[@reindrops-izm33]

This is the first time I've heard that you can fight Hidon again. Even after 4 or more playthroughs of the game.

[@TheNN]

An EXTREMELY niche use for 1000 Needles is to know where a boss's health is at. After all if you know how much health a boss has, you can know what phase it's in, and thus prepare yourself or avoid an attack that's a lot harder to handle. Actually, unless something changed, I believe you can return and fight Hidon again, so it's not as one-shot as you might think.

[@GWFanSoftcoreBrony]

Fun Fact: If you have high magic block, you can actually miss yourself when casting Self-Destruct (saving you from dying) but still do damage to the chosen enemy. Self-Destruct is useful against Wrexsoul since you have to either kill yourself or cast Break on party members to make him appear. Roulette used via Rage will only target enemies interestingly. Dischord is useful for farming rare drops, particularly the Imp equipment if you want them. You forgot to mention the Rippler bug in older versions that allows you (or enemies) to steal Interceptor from Shadow permanently. Every enemy in Narshe (WoR) can be hit by Lvl4 Flare. Not Umaro's cave though where oddly all enemies are effected by Lvl3 Confuse. All enemies in Kefka's tower give Gill divisible by 10, so Lvl? Holy will never change its level making it very useful there. You can go back and fight Hidon as many times as you want to learn Grand Delta. Talk to Gungho until he says that Hidon has reappeared.

[@Bdewd]

Self destruct miss sounds amazing ngl

[@kevingriffith6011]

A lot of strego's lores suffer from a similar problem: in Final Fantasy 6 your party members have low health and high damage potential, while monsters have high health and low damage potential. It's why Confusion is such a lethal status to your party while being pretty underwhelming when used against enemies. So naturally any attack that is based on the caster's HP is going to be more valuable for monsters than it will be for Strego. Self-destructing for 4000 damage sounds cool until you realize that the best attacks your party can dish out without blowing themselves up already do close to that amount as well.

[@Bdewd]

enemy uses self destruct: OH NO Strago uses self destruct: oh no, anyway

[@orelas167]

That's not the only reason confusion is so terrible. Tools: Chainsaw>>A Enemy: Muddle! Magic: X-Zone>>A Enemy: Muddle! 1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8>>A Enemy: Muddle!

[@Xygor]

This is by far the best Lores video on KZbin. Great work sir!

[@Bdewd]

tyty dude im learning from watching the best *eyes at xygor*

[@generaljimmies3429]

White Wind also has another benefit in that it ignores Reflect status. So if your party needs to heal and you don't want to use an item this is a great option. Dischord can be extra useful when paired with Locke, Gogo or Shadow(with Thief's Knife) as the Steal/Mug success rate is dependent on the level of the thief vs. the level of the enemy. The higher your thief's level the higher success rate of Steal/Mug. Rippler can also be used to transfer Interceptor(Shadow's dog) to another party member but be forewarned, if a monster uses Rippler on Shadow and dies, Interceptor is lost forever.

[@atmosdwagon4656]

Notes on Grand Train: In most versions of FF6, learning Grand Train is perfectly consistent and is furthermore, NOT permanently missable. (Hidon respawns after a time and you can fight him again; Strago's friend even comments on it) Hidon is programmed to use Grand Train when he has MP and all his Hidonites are dead (only once). You will even get a message and animation showing Hidon glowing before he uses the attack, which is the event triggered by the death of his last Hidonite. The real issue with getting it is that Hidon doesn't actually have all that much MP to cast it, and is quite likely to run out of either MP or HP before all his Hidonites expire due to each one having some sort of silly defensive gimmick(like perma-Reflect, Elemental Absorb, high Defense/Magic defense etc). There are many ways to bypass this issue, with the most direct method being the Meteor spell since it can't be reflected and ignores Magic Defense. Any strong non-Elemental Esper summon works well too, though be prepared to finish them off piecemeal.

[@enlongjones2394]

I can’t remember if Hidon is undead. If not, you can chuck him some ether to make sure you can get the spells.

[@Bdewd]

i was told during stream today that Hidon comes back which is wild to me cuz he must be the only respawnable boss then :O

[@JindraAG]

@@Bdewd Its also funny that he only respawns until you learn Grand Delta.

[@enlongjones2394]

@@Bdewd I suppose the only other respawnwble bosses would be those random bosses that can show up on the Veldt, like Behemoth King and Holy Dragon

[@veghesther3204]

it is use float/4x Gaia gear armor uses my lv of 65 one use of Quake does 9999 damage and the boss that isn't Hideon don't even have 9999 HP but it can use poison blind and zombie so 4x ribbon users are a must and the 4th ribbon is normally found in Kefka's Tower itself (party 2).

[@DoraKage]

Favorite Character is Shadow. It was finding out the mystery behind his past that I found alluring. And yeah I believe there was in interview with one of the Devs in the 90s that pretty much confirmed that he IS Relms biological father. In the games code, there was a deleted scene where Strago confronts him, ask him to reveal his face to confirm it. In the pixel remaster- I didn't have much of an issue with Shadow leaving the party, but yeah did I fear that when I was playing it on the SNEs. Good list btw

[@orelas167]

My first playthrough I thought Shadow was Relm's brother because of the Memento Ring's description. Relm's dream doesn't make the connection very clear. And I always took Shadow's departure from Thamasa to have occurred *during* the events of the game (he decided to go off to fight Kefka on his own). You have to have a more sinister understanding of life to understand wanting to leave for Relm's sake as happening before the events of the game.

[@talesofgore9424]

the special effects on strago's lores were always my favorite part. That stuff was mind-blowing to see in the early 90s. Pushed the console to the limits and that's why FF6 is a classic.

[@Chadius]

And remember, Strago can't learn lores if he can't SEE it. So if he's under the blind/darkness condition he won't learn Grand Delta. (Sometimes Zombies can inflict Darkness and Silence.)

[@DFloyd84]

The one thing that Blind actually did in the SNES release.

[@ArkThePieKing]

Oh I didn't know that! That's so cool!

[@talesofgore9424]

Sounds like a carry-over from table top gaming. Mute is like that, too. Can't cast spells if you can't chant their verbal component.

[@xenxander]

well blind was bugged in the original SNES version and didn't do anything because physical evasion was broken and didn't work.

[@SlimFit-ye1yc]

​@@xenxanderjust like m def does nothing on FF7. Wtf square!

[@Scott89878]

I usually take Strago and Relm to the floating continent as that dungeon is designed for them. In the first dungeon, the burning house, Strago can learn self destruct. Then in the mountains where the espers are, he can learn Pearl Wind. Then he can go around the world and get things like step mine. Then on the floating continent, you can get Blowfish, Lvl 3 Muddle, Lvl 4 Flare, Lvl 5 Doom, and Condemned. Then in the world of Ruin, a bird enemy on the map can teach Aero, and revisiting Setzer's Tomb will give you Sour Mouth. Then Big Guard is on the map right away too. Discord, Rippler, and Transfusion are easy to get on the map too.

[@SpiritLife]

This is such a fun series! God bless

[@Bdewd]

thx for watching glad you enjoy :)

[@lostfan5054]

Love this series!!! I know you cant do EVERY rage, but it would be cool for you to pick your top 10-15 Rages, maybe some of the more rare ones and explain why they're worth getting/using.

[@hypertane]

Was waiting for this one, i love how derranged blue magic is

[@admrlraynor]

Man your videos popped on my recommended and have now got me so tempted to buy the Pixel Remaster and play. These videos give quite a perspective to potential mixups on multiple playthroughs.

[@skyrander]

These videos are awesome. Imo I KINDA wanna see a list of top 10 of best sketches Sounds kinda weird. But is an aspect that I never used and I think I just wanna see what I been missing out.

[@Bdewd]

ill sit on this idea. pretty niche thing but might be fun to look into at least

[@skyrander]

@@Bdewd it might be over inventive. Only reason I kinda like it is because of Relm is the best mage in the game. So her skill is really forgotten as a result. Besides the glitch on the snes that is haha

[@StudioVRM]

You can re-do Ebot's Rock by speaking to Gungho after defeating Hidon. So if you miss Grand Delta (aka Grand Train or Grand Trine) the first time, you can grind through the dungeon to get it again.

[@lucascecil6287]

Yay another one! Keep this train rolling! You should consider ranking other things in the games you play.

[@Bdewd]

i have a couple of ideas after this, but i only have a handful more ff6 ones anyways and wanna finish them out first. thanks for watching :D

[@chazzeo]

3:08 AKTUHYALLY, Pep up/Transfusion can be learned in WOB by learning Intangir rage on the veldt and using that rage with Strago in the party 🤓

[@burk314]

He's ignoring rages though. Maybe trying to avoid spoilers for an upcoming rages video? That would be a long one if he does them all.

[@chazzeo]

@burk314 so worth it though. Nobody has a good, clean comprehensive rage video that I've found yet.

[@veghesther3204]

About that Doom the LORE the boss of the Floating Continent uses Nerapa during the countdown to the destruction of the planet the Zombone rage (fight them) via the Sealed Gate cave its rage uses Doom as well. For the FC take Relm as well since the enemies that can use 1000 needles their almost NEVER use it unless you sketch it BUT for Mighty Guard on the Pixel Remaster the Earthguard rage is pretty much required their permanent sap/poison status that kills them on the Pixel version STILL works even if you DO manage to cast the STOP spell on they BEFORE the die. But the Earthguard enemies (land rays) on the Pixel version are the only ones that use Big Guard for Strago to learn it no required/optional boss FF6 has uses it and Dark Force Kekfa's tower has a whopping 23 to 24 lores the only ones Dark Force Can't use are Grand Delta Hideon only Big Guard and Force field.

[@CoolHandMikeYT]

Could Reflect ??? be used to inflict the ailments on enemies not normally susceptible to those ailments?

[@terradraca]

Easy way to learn Grand Delta: Hidon automatically uses it if you kill all his minions and since they're all undead, just use holy waters on them, including Hidon himself once you learn his lore.

[@maxmodeIRL]

It was the 90's, the most powerful magic was represented by triangles spinning around on your screen

[@rogueyoshi]

Force Field is used in some of the GBA extra dungeons to cheese the encounters, or sometimes just make them even survivable.

[@PinkMawile]

Dischord is also good for stealing, because the levels are used in the steal math.

[@emeraldazakite]

When this game hit snes, I used exploding tactics for the rare boss / monsters that I knew I wasn't ready yet. It was fun to do actually.

[@kenefactor3764]

Beware, in the non-PC versions of FF6, Rippler affects unique "statuses" due to a bug. Such as "Interceptor protects this character", which can be transferred to an enemy. You can lose the dog forever!

[@Bdewd]

counter point, you can get that dog to a completely different character if you have the patience for it in a reach frog fight as well!

[@pharmcat8484]

Bad Breath was even more of a meme on the SNES when the enemies were called Marlboros

[@WesleyWyndam-Pryce]

Strago always warms the bench for me. And if I didn't get Gau rages he sits next to the old man. Though if you put in the work into Gau he's an S tier, but most do just as good for minimal effort. Both character and their specialties should have been executed better.

[@ElvencloudYT]

I love mighty guard. I'm not sure why they buffed it for 7, it was good enough in 6. But I'll take haste too, *thank* you square.

[@onadaTotihotiH]

In all of my years of playing FF6, I have NEVER heard someone pronounce Strago as "strah-goh" instead of "stray-goh" lol

[@CRASHjester]

I never really used Strago much until FFRK came along (one the best water mages in game). But this was a nice vid to pop up in my feed. You've earned a sub.

[@dendostar5436]

I got into Lores after the first couple playthroughs. They are shockingly badass, you just have to get them.

[@justinmacdonald2102]

Strago can be pretty beefy if you get his more useful lores.

[@KookieKooker]

Mighty guard goated as usual

[@erikofskullisland3987]

The SNES version, I use Vanish just to use Dischord on enemies that it can't be used on otherwise. Like the Pugs/tonberries, to steal all the Minervas I need. Grand Delta, yes Gung Ho, Hidon comes back.(or I steal a thornlet). Traveler, I like it, but such a pain when trying to get a second Magus rod from the Tonberry/pug in the colosseum. Especially when I try to meet up with a Grenade for Gau in World of Balance, walk around too much.

[@seapeajones]

If I recall, having reflect status makes enemies susceptible to instant death spells.

[@veghesther3204]

Only banish works on those the actual Doom/Death spell IS reflectable.

[@CosmoRetroGaming]

Awesome content, dude! Heck yea!

[@Bdewd]

Thanks! You too bud keep it rocking!

[@CosmoRetroGaming]

Thanks man! That means a lot! You are a legend, for real!@@Bdewd

[@gbarrancos1]

My favorites later in the game were Aero, Great Prism and Pearl Wind. Fun to see all other options though, i never took the time to learn them all! I did not know that big defense was available on ff6, I used it extensively on ff7 via enemy skill materia though

[@Bdewd]

mighty guard is a bit better in ff7, but it carries it's own weight in ff6 as well for sure

[@dillonkarchnerNBCU]

Love this series. Looking forward to the massive Gau list lol

[@Bdewd]

lololololol

[@jefferybrown6690]

Love this video! What would you rank your favorite final fantasy and why?

[@Bdewd]

this game and that's cuz of the story, characters and gameplay are top notch on one of the best consoles ever!

[@BrianD0313]

Does Roulette work on Kefka? Can't wait for the Gau video :D

[@veghesther3204]

I wish but no while Vanish doom/X zone did work on Loads of WoR bosses on the SNES/PS1 version Kefka is actually immune to Vanish on both the PS1 and SNES game. But the Roulette Rage not only hits the ENEMIES only but its actually possible at least on the SNES and PS1 version to kill Cactaurs WITH IT.

[@liber5964]

Can't wait for gau's video!

[@BJGvideos]

Fun fact i have the same birthday as Strago! It's funny to see Lvl 5 Death so low when in 9 it's completely busted given how early you have access to Red Dragons. You can farm them endlessly and get boffo growth from it. It's hilarious.

[@Mystwarrior1]

for the completionists out there, here is the list i compiled for getting them the quickest/easiest/stressless. uses relm and gau as well. make sure u kill zombie dragon, ingtar, onion knight, chaser, trapper for rages for gau to help with lores for strago. some may not be necessary but they may help out. (Fyi this isnt my original list. i used a list from someone's Gamefaq and then adjusted it to fit me. forgot who the original owner is. sorry.) it also uses Snes Names. Pep up = transfusion / Big Guard = Mighty Guard / Clean Sweep = tsunami / Step Mine = Traveler. A. WORLD OF BALANCE Lores to Collect: Aqua Rake Stone Revenge Exploder Pearl Wind Condemned Pep Up Step Mine Dischord L.3 Muddle L.4 Flare L.5 Doom Roulette Blow Fish 1. Strago begins with Aqua Rake, Stone, and Revenge. 2. In the burning house in Thamasa, cast any fire-elemental spells on Balloons until one of them uses Exploder. 3. Go to Esper Mountain (northwest of the Thamasa peninsula, past the forest) and fight an Abolisher in the mountain range (not cave). After fighting for three turns, it will use Pearl Wind. 4. When you regain control of the airship, switch Gau into your party along with Strago. Have Gau perform the Zombone|Condemned and Intangir|Pep Up Rages, and Stago will learn them. Also, if Gau happens to have the Trapper|L.3 Muddle Rage, he can 'teach' it to Strago, too (but not dreadfully necessary, since we will need to find real Trappers again soon). 5. Fly in the airship to the plains outside of South Figaro, and fight Greasemonks. Use Muddle, Cait Sith (sorry, "Stray"), or Edgar's NoiseBlaster until the Greasemonks use Step Mine. 6. Now, fly to the Veldt and walk around until you find either Telstar or Chaser (they are both flying saucers with arms). Do not kill Telstar for ten turns, and it will use Dischord. Chaser may use it sooner. Also, Trappers on the Veldt will eventually use all of L.3 Muddle, L.4 Flare, and L.5 Doom if you wait long enough--just make sure you can survive them! Finally, with Relm in your party, scour the Veldt for Pipsqueaks. Sketch a Pipsqueak for Roulette. 7. Now, go to the Floating Continent. When you see Brainpan, kill all the monsters except for the Brainpan. It will use Blow Fish. B. WORLD OF RUIN Lores to Collect: Big Guard Rippler Aero Sour Mouth CleanSweep L.? Pearl GrandTrain Quasar Reflect??? ForceField 1. After you use Relm to rescue Strago, fly all the way back to the Solitary Island (where you began the World of Ruin) and Sketch an EarthGuard for Big Guard. 2. Zip over to Jidoor forest and fight a Reach Frog until you learn Rippler. 3. Fly to the plains outside Kohlingen and fight a Harpiai until you learn Aero. 4. Run into Daryl's Tomb, just south of Kohlingen, and fight Mad Oscar until you learn Sour Mouth. 5. Fly to Figaro Castle, and use it to burrow down to the Ancient Castle. In the underground pathway, an Enuo will use CleanSweep when you kill its buddies. 6. L.? Pearl gives you a couple of options. If you haven't done the Phoenix Cave, I recommend going there and letting Relm Sketch the Red Dragon. Otherwise, take Strago into Cyan's Dream and fight some Critics until you learn it. If both events are gone, you can look for Critics in the Veldt, or fight Innoc in Kefka's Tower. Finding Critics will probably be easier, depending on your party's strength. 7. For GrandTrain, go complete Strago's side quest by talking to his friend in Thamasa. When you reach Hidon, make sure to kill all the little Hidonites first, and Hidon will use it. 8. On Kefka's Tower, Dark Force has a one-in-three chance, every seven turns of casting Quasar and Reflect??? (along with several other Lores you might have missed--see below), so be patient. As an alternative for Reflect???, Didalos will cast it if any of your characters have the Rflect status (e.g., wearing Wall Rings). 9. Sadly, the only way to learn ForceField is to fight (and win against--duh) Doom - the first statue. Make sure Strago is in Team #1 when you enter Kefka's tower.

[@GoeTeeks]

"All you have to do is sketch a Land Ray..." I know you know it is NOT that easy. Land Ray's have like 4HP and start the battle with Sap inflicted on them. Meaning they take 2HP damage every few ticks. So they die, on their own, very quickly. In order to pull off a sketch Relm pretty much needs to start with Haste, quickly select Sketch on the Land Ray and pull it off before it dies. And then you have to hope she does Mighty Guard and not a normal attack (50/50). I mean it's not difficult or risky, just can be annoying and more time consuming than necessary. Especially if you don't know about this strategy at the start (I managed to control it once and even tell it to use Mighty Guard only to learn it doesn't have the MP to cast it).

[@Bdewd]

i never thought about this, does casting antidote or something to that effect to cancel out the drain on them?

[@GoeTeeks]

@@Bdewd Sap is different than poison. Dispel might work, but not poisana or antidote. Maybe Esuna?

[@kevingriffith6011]

@@GoeTeeks According to the wiki you can get rid of it with a Remedy, Poisona, Esuna, or Strego's Rippler can steal it.

[@GoeTeeks]

@@kevingriffith6011 Good to know. But, any way you slice it, you still have to be fast enough to use one of those before it dies. And even if you do, Relm's sketch could still do an attack which would kill the Land Ray anyway. So it's not going to be super helpful in the long run.

[@pp-zj1mv]

use a gale hairpin and runningshoes

[@shirrenthewanderer414]

Self-destruct usually does unblockable fixed amount of untyped damage, and does more the more HP the user has, so it at least has that going for it. Then again Sabin, Cyan, and Shadow have basic moves that ignore defense, automatically hit and nothing is immune to physicals, maybe in another FF? Honestly the biggest problem with Blue Magic type skills is that they are usually designed for the enemies to use, but not so much in the hands of the player. The mostly useful Blue Mage spells are basically ones that lets you do something you normally would not be able to otherwise (like in the video pointed out, the ability to inflict wind and water damage, something not available to Magicite spells). Also Blue Magic skill sets kind of fail in Job System type RPGs where anyone can equip a job/Magicite/Materia/Junction, etc. etc. as everyone and then Fire/Ice/Lightning/Cure/Revive/Punch/Slash-All, and you don't have to go out of your way to learn those. Quistis and Quina basically are the better blue mages because getting Quistis her spells are easy enough to do (just get the right item, and some of theme are awesome (not to mention Quistis is best FF Waifu and sexy AF). Degenerator instantly kills anything, no questions asked other than bosses. Shockwave Pulsar straights up breaks the 9999 damage limit, without Eden overblown animation. Quina can just straight up break the game with Limit Glove + Eat ny killing the Grand Dragon right at disk 1, and then LV Death grind latter. Frog Drop can get you 9999 damage in the game where the Bonus Boss has 65k HP. Also, Gau has access to better lores than Strago does.

[@Celanoj]

I love Strago as a character and used him often. But the Lores would be better if the game was harder. They are great in desperation moments but those moments are very rare.

[@cronoesify]

Lots of 6 would be better if the game was harder.

[@jeremybearimy-m1k]

About 20 years ago I dusted off my old SNES and started a new FF6 save, because I had read about the No Equipment, Natural Magic Game (NENMG), a challenge where you do everything in the game with the exception of the Magi Master without equipping espers or equipment. For your sanity, you are allowed to equip sprint shoes in areas that aren't timed. There were a lot of specific strategies you needed to employ, especially in some WoR boss fights, but it made certain characters indispensible, and the chief among these was Strago. Being unable to equip armor meant Big Guard was necessary for every fight, and Pearl Wind was the only reliable heal you had outside of items for the bulk of the game. It made the game much more challenging, especially the WoR. But it was a fun challenge, because it required you to use almost all of your party members for some particular fight or another. The only character who is completely useless in this challenge is Cyan, as he can't do Bushido without a sword equipped.

[@deedoubs]

The biggest problem with FF6 is how easy it is to teach a character ultima, give him/her a celestriad, and then never do anything else.

[@deedoubs]

I think you can beat magi master with natural magic only, especially if you relax the rules of espers by allowing yourself to equip them but not to learn spells with them. All it really takes is a well timed Palidor summon to dodge ultima.

[@cronoesify]

@@deedoubs I know people like to say "just don't do it if it's broken", but needing to restrain yourself to make a game enjoyable just takes you out of its world. 6 was made so much worse by the myriad of ways you can pretty easily break the game. If you want to break games, do it the way star ocean does.

[@Ceratisa]

Finally someone who appreciates Aqua Rake, White Wind and Mighty Guard

[@Bdewd]

they are sooooooooo good

[@thewisefool4049]

I always thought it'd be funny if the devs put in a move like level 5 death but then made sure no enemies in the game had a level divisible by 5.

[@TiroDvD]

Enuo will use Tsunami only when it is the sole surviving monster.

[@Bdewd]

TIL!

[@veghesther3204]

OR you RAGE or Sketch it.

[@patricklatham3897]

The Mighty Guard in FF5 and FFX are much better. They also include Float and Haste, or 1 charge of each of Yuna's Nulspells respectively.

[@Bdewd]

ff7 also has a really good mighty guard

[@veghesther3204]

Not really in FF7 its crap why bother using it so that Lapis Laser (Carry armor battle) won't kill a full party when at lv 60 with 9999 HP 999 MP AND KNIGHTS of the round usable on it I'll kill it instantly with it. Before that I still didn't need to use in on the Demon Gate boss (temple of the ancients) at lv 45 with 5000 to 6000 HP 500 to 600 MP users at all its only useful against Emerald weapon which in turn that FF7 boss will dispel it.

[@wcjerky]

A lot of Strago's Lore have more utility in a low-level or stat-maxing run, where debuffs are much more useful. Intangir can be beat before WoR. It takes two characters having stop and all characters having Rasp and Osmose to negate the final Meteo. It also takes an afternoon to do it that way, but it's possible. This strategy is only optimal in later versions; otherwise, use Death or Stone while it's invisible. Strago has Dischord to change levels of the enemy, so there's more flexibility than it seems. The level spells also ignore reflect and have caused me a few game overs before. Brainpan is the first enemy with 1k Needles; at that point, a 1k hit for its MP cost is pretty good. Economizer, or its new name equivalent, also applies to Lores.

[@Bdewd]

fun fact if you do it in the pixel remaster version, you get stuck in a loop where he tries to counter, can't and the banner keeps rotating and you get hard locked. source: me thinking im smart LOL

[@wcjerky]

@@Bdewd Pixel remaster is a buggy mess.

[@veghesther3204]

Besides in the Pixel version even my LV 50+ party members with Rasp barely did like 50 to 100 MP damage WITH the spell and it still has 16,000 MP. If you really want to off it BEFORE the Floating Continent SABIN MUST have Phantom/Bum rush blitz to learn it BEFORE the 2nd half he MUST be at lv 70 but it WILL do 9999 damage to Intangirs else I still barely had even a lv 50+ party top even 500 PER physical hit and in the WoB its pretty much immune to every SINGLE ESPER spell besides Meteor Ultima and Flare. To Meteor/Ultima it to death BEFORE the Floating Continent you need Terra and Celes AT lv 99 for Ultima and Meteor Respectively.

[@Bdewd]

Enjoyed the video? What would be your top 3 lores for Strago?

[@tv1990]

"not using Strago" lore is pretty strong

[@cocomunga]

aqua breath, step mine, grand delta? There’s so many weird lores. I also don’t get why they love making roulette a blue magic when nobody in the right mind would ever use it.

[@JindraAG]

So because you pondered it: Yes Dischord does alter whether an enemy can be effected by a Level Lore.

[@justinbremer2281]

I always under-use Strago, I lack the patience for Blue magic

[@DarthEquus]

Since Level-? Holy depends on the last digit of your money, just use the Coin Toss/Heiji's Jitte to reduce your gil as needed (as soon as you get it, of course). The most you'll have to lose is 9 Gil.

[@rune9055]

I wonder how effective is Roulette and Doom if the rest of your party uses jump. Are they still selectable or not?

[@zrayburton]

Strago and Relm are almost always benched for me. Not sure if I should change that up on my next replay… which is fairly overdue at this point. 🤔

[@jmarx3943]

To be fair, Relm has the highest magic stat if leveled up with everyone else, so she hits harder with magic than anyone except morphed Terra

[@zrayburton]

@@jmarx3943 I remember her being really good to use for the kefka battle too but it’s been a while.

[@Null_Experis]

level halving abilities can work well with the level 4 flare/level 5 death, since the game rounds down levels when halving them. This means a level 81 enemy would be halved to 40, making it able to be hit by level 5 death AND level 4 flare. A good example of this is the Fiend from Kefka's tower, at level 73, you can half its level to 36 and now hit it with level 4 flare. Same with the level 89 crystal dragon, half that and it becomes 44. Flare time baby! Movers are Level 51, halve it to 25 and Level 5 death works on them.

[@Bdewd]

dang thanks for the info. I figured there had to be some good uses for it but hadn't really delved too far into where and when, mostly based off not knowing EXACTLY how the game halves decimals on levels

[@Null_Experis]

@@Bdewd It's even crazier in FF5 when you have Dark Shock to halve levels and Level 2 Old, which means you can use L2 Old on any enemy in the game, and even better, L2 Old reduces the enemy's level by 1 every tick, so if you time it right, you can land L5 Death on most enemies.

[@Bdewd]

@@Null_Experis death by math, the ff5 snes glitchless speedrun classic!

[@veghesther3204]

That Most enemies but Omega has Auto reflect so even if you level it UP to LV 255 since you can't lv it DOWN to lv 5 Lv 5 death in FF5 is actually reflectable so for Omega when you lv it up to lv 255 you'd have to use lv 5 death on your own party under the reflect status to kill any enemies that are under a permanent reflect status with it and Dark Shock I believe in FF5 is reflectable as well.

[@Zahri8Alang]

MatPat be like LOORRREEEE

[@gregorystiver7198]

Trivia Rippler can transfer the "Interceptor" status that Shadow has, meaning those toady boys can permanently steal shadows dog Because of the SNES versions evade bug making mblock the only evasive stat for both magic and physical the literal only thing the blind status does is stop Strago from learning lores.

[@xenxander]

Lv.5 death... kefka's tower where only magic can be used.. every enemy is divisible by 5... they are all a multiple of 10. You say 'kefka's tower' but I think you mean the final tower.. Kefka' tower is the magic only tower, as called' kefka's tower'. So that's a really good use for it.. in that one area.. it works 100% on all.. well if they are undead it's a moot point. (sorry yes I had the terms confused.. fanatics tower)

[@Bdewd]

No that's cultists tower. Kefka tower is the final dungeon.

[@Zalis116]

At least in the older versions of the game, Lore isn't usable at all in the Cultists Tower. Only standard magic.

[@xenxander]

@@Zalis116 Oh. Well farm economizers from the dinos (Stealing them) and ensure you cast berserk so you can fight (or just bring Umaro because he breaks the rules and fights in the tower).

[@RagnarokAvatar]

Do worst to best Magicite next!

[@Bdewd]

summons is on the list, not the next one but coming up soon!

[@BlankSpacePub]

For the SNES version I was never a big fan of aqua rake. Mostly used Quasar, Grand Train and Big Guard by end of game.

[@Selgeron]

You mention using dischord to half the level to make more targets for level 5 death level 3 confuse etc. But any target that can be halved to become a multiple of 5 or 3 was already a multiple of 3 to begin with before their level was halved, unless you can halve like, a level 9 to a 4.5 which rounds up to a 5 or something like that.

[@iamsykel]

you can halve an odd number and in some cases it will truncate the decimal and become a multiple of 3 4 or 5.

[@Kevinsyel]

Based on my research... Dischord's formula is L = (EnemyLevel + 1) / 2 Secondly it's all integer math... So anything that would evaluate to a ".5" is floored to the lowest whole number. So a level 9 enemy (10/2) when halved becomes 5, and a level 10 enemy (11/2) when halved becomes 5. Meaning that the only scenario where Dischord can make an enemy vulnerable to L5. Death is if the enemies singles digit in its level is "9" since you wouldn't even bother Dischording an enemy who's level's singles digit is 0

[@Bdewd]

oh dang i never looked that far into it, but that makes it...meh? idt a lot of enemies end in a level X9 but i could be wrong

[@Kevinsyel]

@Bdewd here's a list of enemies who's levels end in 9 that aren't immune to "Instant Death" so Dischord can hit... I don't know if you can further halve their levels more than once, but if you can, that'd increase this list: Zaghrem Trillium Apparition Opinicus Fish Belzecue Proto Armor Trapper Flan General Lenergia Chaser Bogy Cloudwraith Exoray Death Warden Slagworn Al Jabr Pluto Armor Pandora Parasite Io Landworm Daedalus

[@costby1105]

If Final Fantasy VI uses integer math like Final Fantasy V does than any decimals in equations are dropped. For example Atomos's level is 41 and half of the would be 20.5 so the level becomes 20 so Level 5 Death works as it also bypasses the Heavy typing that gives Atomos immunity to instant death.

[@mopbrothers]

Water and wind. What did Square have against these two elements? Why weren’t they regular magic spells?

[@Bdewd]

I still ask myself these questions

[@apokryltaros]

You can use Transfusion/Pep Up from Gau's Intangir rage, if you want to bother learning it. It's also the reason why the Intangir is my least favorite rage

[@RPGtourguide]

Zero arguments on that number one here. It is one I definitely use whenever a variation of it pops up. 👍 That old man has some neat tricks. It’s just too bad he comes in as late as he does and the tricks could be better for late game. Either way, another list well done!

[@Bdewd]

a thumbs up from the rpg master? im living my best life rn :)

[@chadd990]

For the lvl5 death spell, you say "I'm not sure what would happen if you halve the level with another spell and then use this..." This had me curious about what enemy levels would potentially make an enemy vulernable to l5 death, using dischord. I guess it depends on what "round up if a level is odd" means. Does it round up and then divide, or divide and then round? If an enemy is level 19, it would be halved to 9.5 and rounded to 10, or lvl 19 would be rounded to 20 and halved to 10. I'm not entirely sure if my maths is correct because my brain glitches from time to time, but it seems like if an enemies level ends in 9, it will always be a multiple of 5 if halved, regardless of how you round it up. It doesn't seem to work with any other number. In conclusion, if a dischord/l5 death combo does work, then any enemy with a level ending in 0,5,9 is vulnerable to it.

[@shucroc]

I think it's funny how the lower half of the spell list were all made available to blue mage in FFXIV. Didn't use any of them in either VI or XIV. I think they are just for OCD collectors.

[@frankbrodie5168]

Fantastic videos. Just watched this after your Gau video. I'm a FFVI veteran. I used to sit down and do 1 sitting speed runs through the game in about 8 hours when I was bored in the couple of years after the game's release. I wouldn't say there's nothing I don't know about the game. But there isn't much lol. I personally wouldn't ever use defensive anything. But each to their own. Again, loved the video.

[@Julius-di8fl]

Best to worst: Relics

[@Clouded-Logic]

Bad breath is the spell designed to give people the ugly.

[@Bdewd]

looooooooooooooooooooool

[@gabrielesquaratti5709]

strago was my favorite ff6 char

[@Bdewd]

was? isn't anymore? D:

[@NFITC1]

"Can you use Discord then the Lv X lores?" I did this years ago with the original and it worked, but it doesn't make many more enemies susceptible. Ideally there are some level 41 enemies that you can Dischord down to level 20 then use Lv.5 Death and/or Lv.4 Flare on them, but the effort involved in that is really cumbersome.

[@Zalis116]

I figured it would work, since the equivalent spells in Final Fantasy V function the same way. I've seen speedrunners use that game's "Level 2 Old" spell, which causes any target with an even level to gradually lose levels, then cast Level 5 Death at the exact right time to kill bosses. Sometimes Dischord was used to get them to an even level to start with.

[@thatoneguy4452]

Crazy how Aqua Breath is one of the best Lores and he starts out with it. I usually find it better than Aero and Tsumami in most cases.

[@brobasticbroham446]

I feel Strago should have had a Guitar as a weapon and his lores are all face melting guitar solos😂

[@zrayburton]

I would enjoy this.

[@brobasticbroham446]

@@zrayburton right! He even dresses like a old burnt out Punk Rocker 🤟

[@johngavin1175]

If he were bald, he would resemble Rob Halford of Judas Priest.

[@Zalis116]

Huh, so Stone works like FFV's Goblin Punch attack with its "same level as target" mechanic. Never knew that. I have found Dischord (nice little "discordant chord" sound effect when it was introduced here at 8:10 ) useful when trying to steal rare items, since you can bring enemies' levels down and thus raise your steal success %. The main complaint I have about Lore in this game is that it's not allowed where it might be most useful: in the Fanatics' Tower. After all, it is a magical skill that largely inflicts magic-type damage, including wind and water that aren't otherwise available. Perhaps the SNES programming couldn't handle a system of "allow Magical Lores, disable physical ones"? Surely I'm not the only one who's Berserked the tower's boss, only to find that he's vulnerable to wind/water. I guess that's the game's way of teaching a lesson, "the exotic, hard-to-get skills aren't worthwhile, may as well just learn/spam Ultima with whoever has the highest Magic stat." Still, I find Dischord and most of the Top 12 useful and worthwhile to get, aside from Quasar. I swear I'm never going to the Veldt to find and sketch Pipsqueaks/Onion Knights to learn Roulette again, though.

[@Cloudcolin]

One note about Mighty Guard (Big Guard in SNES). To have Relm successfully Sketch Land Ray (EarthGuard in SNES), her recommended Magic stats is 52 or higher and equipped with a brush. If Relm's Magic stats are too low, her sketch would only result in Poison Tail instead. (Tested during livestream while trying to get Strago to learn this. Took me some time to figure this one out.) Summary : Strago and Relm should be in the party. Relm's Magic stats should be 52 or higher and is recommended to be equipped with a brush. have someone cast Stop on the Land Ray before Relm get to Sketch it.

[@thedopplereffect00]

I can't believe it's this complex and esoteric. When I played the game as a kid I used Fight and Cure* 99% of the time, lol

[@GorbixElite01]

May goose....magnus....no. we'll get this.

[@TiroDvD]

You get zero Gil in Kefka's Tower. Set it up and abuse Lvl? Pearl.

[@TheUKNutter]

You missed Northern Cross. You can learn it in one very specific room in Kefka’s Tower.

[@dynenuitari8930]

Does the game know of this information cause it heavily disagrees with you on account of it keeping pretty much all attacks that can inflict the Frozen status away from the players hands outside of one rage. While yes you can learn it from Fiend Dragon/Doom Dragon in the one room in Kefka's Tower there are also 4 bosses and 2 normal enemies that use this ability so it isn't super hard to get

[@Mrdantheman510]

I never gotten Quasar before. However, I gotten Grand Delta (Grand Train in the US version?) and Mighty Guard, so I used those a lot. However, I think Traveler (Step Mine) should be a little worse, like at #9 than #7. According to a fandom, you need 319,968 steps to make Traveler max damage. Other than that, it's a pretty solid ranking list. I can't wait for more.

[@Bdewd]

traveler was a weird one to place and one i sat on. then i decided to look at a piece of paper and if something felt like it deserved a specific number different then do it that way. never happened so left it lol

[@veghesther3204]

I barely had even 100,000 steps by LV 99 so I barely had it top even 3000 damage.

[@Mrdantheman510]

@@veghesther3204 All the characters at level 99? I think there could be more steps you can do, like grind for Gau's Rages, Strago's Lores, and all the people with magic. However, I could be wrong on that though.

[@veghesther3204]

Yes all in fact I won't have Gogo/Umaro join at ANY lv that isn't lv 99 and while Umaro at lv is still crap at lv 99 I still only topped out at barely 130,000 steps (3000 per Step Mine/Traveler) use at lv 99. My barely 130,000 steps at lv 99 is also with all 12 party members + LV 99 Gogo having EVERY spell usable as well.

[@CalebByRamen]

you rule bdewd

[@Bdewd]

no YOU

[@fattmusiek5452]

Love the content!

[@Bdewd]

ily

[@aegismagusangelteeth]

i remember getting killed by traveler used by a master tonberry in narshe mines anyone else?

[@johngavin1175]

Plenty of times😂😢

[@MugfulofTekken]

Real content 🎉

[@Marinanor]

He's one of my favorite characters. But his magic stat is such a shame.

[@Bdewd]

earrings/hero ring to the rescue!!!

[@Chadius]

Wow, I wonder what power I'll get when I Rage Intangir! ...Pep Up/Transfusion oh....

[@MrEvilbyte]

Right? Biggest disappointment ever. Would have been an unreal defensive rage otherwise (virtually absolute status and element protection).

[@Kruggov]

I mean, it is, you just need to silence Gau beforehand.

[@InsanityForce]

Magic Urn is great but takes a while to get.

[@veghesther3204]

But if Pep up triggers AFTER you Silence/Mute Gau then you will actually NOT get the Elemental absorbing effect at all so the rage is still crap. At least on that T hack mod the Rage doesn't actually use Pep up/Transfusion at all.

[@InsanityForce]

@@veghesther3204 I remember that name from GameFAQs. Somehow, I'm not that surprised.

[@MrEvilbyte]

".... AND THEY WILL DIE!" xD

[@Bdewd]

what else there to say LOL

[@iokcs]

Oops all Stragos

[@Raphies.mp3]

I see they nerfed Mighty guard in VI, in FFV, Mighty guard also cast levitate on all party, plus to Shell and Protect. Casting Mighty guard, Hastega and Ruby Light was a GODLIKE combination.

[@Bdewd]

They may have realized how op mighty guard was and decided to tone it down some lol

[@Raphies.mp3]

@Bdewd yeah, they we're afraid of such power 😔

[@AlexanderMartinez-kd7cz]

you can definitely get some use out of force field in the postgame. like most of the big dragons focus on elemental damage. I think kaiser dragon has some strong elemental attacks too.

[@Bdewd]

in my head i figured learn it on doom, can't use it on goddess or poltergeist w/o swapping the parties around so there's tiers. however the GBA content would be maybe worth in retrospect!

[@veghesther3204]

Yes but ONLY the GBA/IOS/Android version has a post game the SNES PS1 Pixel remaster do not.

[@markusb84]

The More You Know 🌈⭐️

[@atmosdwagon4656]

In no way is Forcefield worse than Pep Up (Transfusion) or Exploder (Self-Destruct). Giving up all possible action economy for Strago in exchange for basically an Elixer is never going to be worthwhile. If you're in that sort of situation where last ditch-healing is necessary...just use a freaking Elixer! High end curatives are available early and often throughout the regular game, and can be farmed indefinitely from certain creatures the moment you get the airship in World of Ruin. But, frankly, the game never forces you to use them unless you really screw up anyway. Self-Destruct does potentially high damage, but the problem is Strago has bad HP growth without ricing it via espers, and more importantly, he starts with access to stronger attacks from the moment you first get him. The only reason to use this in theory, is that Strago is low on MP but high on HP, you have one target left and plan to heal with a Tent after the battle anyway. For pure damage purposes, it's still crap because Strago has access to much stronger attacks from the moment you get him until the end of the game. Forcefield is utter dog-water, but you aren't permanently harming your chances of success in any given battle by using it at the very least.

[@Bdewd]

it was mentioned today the best use of pep-up is use it in a tiers fight so strago isn't in your party anymore for tiers LOLOLOL

[@atmosdwagon4656]

@@Bdewd I assume that's a joke because if I'm doing the Tiers battle and not using Strago, I'll just...put someone else in from the start instead of preparing to fail.

[@Bdewd]

@@atmosdwagon4656 it is a joke for the most part. or an absolute chad move

[@atmosdwagon4656]

@@Bdewd I will defer to the "It's a bold strategy" meme.

[@Grombrindal]

Strago was always very interesting in theory but disappointing in reality. Blue magic in a nutshell.

[@Bdewd]

blue magic is either really good or really not, and there never seems to be a middle ground for them haha

[@kevingriffith6011]

IMO blue magic goes something like this: Final Fantasy 5 : Meh Final Fantasy 6 : Meh Final Fantasy 7 : Absolutely the most broken materia in the game. It does *everything* Final Fantasy 8 : Meh Final Fantasy 9 : Meh early, absolutely does everything lategame Final Fantasy 10: Meh Final Fantasy 14: Yoshi P hates you.

[@Kruggov]

Correction: FF5: Bonkers if you know where to look to get spells early, and it's the single most versatile job command in the game. Sucks that its stat budget is low, so not so good on physical characters. FF8: Most are meh, as in every game, and then there's busted stuff. Degenerator is OP, Mighty Guard/White Wind are great as usual, Bad Breath shuts down anything withou total status immunity, offensive stuff is good for its time, and Shockwave Pulsar is the best damaging move Quistis has. FF9: It's mostly just White Wind, Night, Frog Drop, Earth Shake and Twister that are good. Maybe Limit Glove for challenge runs. Everything else is either an inaccurate status spell (Mustard Bomb/Frost), too expensive for what it does (Poor Mighty Guard, maybe Angel's Snack) or is a gravity spell for whatever reason (Aqua Breath).

[@kevingriffith6011]

@@Kruggov I think part of the problem with 8 is that because it's a limit break it has to be compared to the other limit breaks...and as a limit break it's pretty poor compared to Squall's, Zell's or the absolute demon that is Irvine's if you've synthesized the right ammo. Blue magic just works better as a command than a limit break. For Final Fantasy 9 it really is that there are like... 5 good blue magics in the game, but they're good enough to keep up with all the other end-game mages while also bringing way more utility than any of the others. Pretty much "It's bad until you get the good spells", then it's great. I do admit it's been a minute since I played Final Fantasy 5, so maybe I missed some good blue magic spells, though.

[@dannysimion]

Strago is my favorite and I think the top 5 are the most useful. Mighty guard is the best!

[@pikachu-uk1bg]

The funny thing is that revenge blast caps at 9998 damage