Tips for soloing Shred the Darkness missions?

[Azure Falcon]

Basically I'm having a tough time trying to solo Shred the Darkness and I'm looking for some advice on how I can make the missions easier to cope with than they currently are.

I use a level 55 human Acrofighter and I'm limited to playing solo as I don't have any friends to join. The problem is that I'm taking huge amounts of damage even from enemies that are 20 levels lower than myself, and as I can't have NPCs to help it is taking a huge amount of time to clear Roar of Flames B (my last run was over 45 mins). De Ragan is no problem at all (he barely hits me and drops easily) but the Jarba, Svaltus and Vahra take off insane amounts of health and there are far too many of them.

Can anyone list any equipment or strategies that I could use to aid in solo runs? Please note that I only have a limited amount of meseta (about 2m) and there are no stronger line shields within my budget.

[Beast Boy]

easier join a party (roar the flames) if you really want to solo i suggest just alot of trimate :L 10 scape dolls some light armour for the halll way wif svaltus down it (i brought 36%rabol lebfa costign 10m) u might wana go lower in price like 25% around that area and a pallette of quick moving weapons not slicers spears or something with dus majarra is a good choice and for the end (loads of vahra) 2 or 3 handguns with fast moving weapons such as spears use the hand guns to shoot the emeny while moving u wont get hit

[Hatemachine]

At 55 for a b run these things should be pretty easy depending on what PA's your using and weapon ranks.

Im a protranser and to deal with jarbas and other like large targets find bogga zubba with fists and Dus Majarra with spears. as your an AF you can use A rank fists so try them out and the cheap single dagger skill that only has 2 PA attacks is VERY powerful as it hits up to 3 targets AND hits quite a few times keeps you mobile and moving so it's hard for beasties to get a bead on you and it's cheap.

Get one of those RCMS things the little floating gun bots to take up the other spot with your dagger. I use a seraphi dagger as it has ALOT of PP and good damage. good luck out there and if you cant handle B runs just destroy lottsa c's till you can move up you have a whole month of it dude.

[Will_Nonheim]

At this point, the question is, what is your current palette? It depends on what you've already got... obviously, for any weapon, the stronger the better.
Your PA set is also relevant, as is your playing style. Do you manage to dodge a lot, or do you take hits in order to strike with heavier hits? I know you're AF, but each PAs has its specialties (for instance, for a Saber, Gravity Strike usually offers more blows than Rising Strike or Spinning Strike, but doesn't quite launch or even make enemies flinch quite as much as either, leaving you open to get hit). There's also the level of said PAs that really affects how destructive you can be.

Though overall, my personal technique, regardless of level, is a fearless assault into the enemies, smashing away with my PAs while using items for buffs and heals as necessary. Usually they die within one or two combos, and usually said combos wind up hitting more than one enemy. (Mob hitters ftw)

[Azure Falcon]

My current palette as an Acrofighter is just basically a high dark percentage Blackheart and Graldike and a high grind DBs Sword paired with a Varista. The Blackheart has level 40 Rising Strike to stun the large enemies and DBs Sword has Gravity Strike to slice through the small packs of fire enemies. To be honest damaging the enemies isn't a problem as they drop quickly, but the problem is that I get mobbed very quickly and have numerous enemies hitting for about 300 per swing. I've tried switching to a Fightgunner so I can use double sabers for crowd control, but all the ice or dark element Double Agitos and Crea Doubles have been snapped up in past day, and the Nightwalker I have barely scratches anything.

I think the underlying issue I'm having is that I don't like any of the online classes, Acrofighter has the great speed boost but no healing and poor weapon choice while Fightgunner has most of the weapons I prefer to use (double saber, twin saber, twin dagger) but also can't heal without items and even mildly effective weapons are far too expensive.

[kejen]

Why are you soloing? I can see soloing S2 to get some of the good drops, but at that level there is no point to solo. Getting levels should be your number 1 priority.

Those jarbas fight dirty. They are fire element, but cast ice. Better off wearing ice armor against them. Or used ranged attack.

Svaltus are rough for fighters too. Luckily they have low health and 3 hitbox.

Acrofighter doesn't have a poor weapon choice, only you have a poor weapon choice. They have access to 12 weapons, and you are using 3 of them. Of course you're gonna suck.

[stukasa]

Don't forget your traps! I use Burn Trap G on the Jarbas and Virus Trap G on the Svaltuses. Since you can only carry 5 of each type you have to be a little smart and decide when to use them. If possible, get two of them with one trap (some of them spawn in pairs).

When there are two Jarbas together I burn them with a trap first, then use Twin Handguns to kill one of them, and finish off the other with Rising Strike (be sure to stay behind it and watch out for its Dambarta attack!).

I use Twin Handguns on the Rygutass, it works pretty well and you shouldn't take much damage if you can avoid their attacks.

I use Slicers on the Golmoros since they tend to jump around a lot.

The hardest enemy to deal with is the Svaltus. If two spawn together you should use a Virus Trap G on them. PAs that flinch them work pretty well, just make sure to keep your Dimates and Trimates handy!

Block 3 isn't as bad because the enemies you kill drop lots of mates when they die! If you're getting swarmed by enemies, try using PAs that knock them around like Rising Strike (Saber), Bogga Zubba (Knuckles), Rising Crush (Twin Sabers), etc. You might also want to use fast PAs like Bogga Robado (Knuckles) and Moubu Seiran-zan (Twin Daggers) so you can dodge their attacks more easily. There are plenty of options, just find something that works for your playing style!

And De Ragan, well... you probably know how to kill him already. :p

[Dymalos]

Why are you soloing? I can see soloing S2 to get some of the good drops, but at that level there is no point to solo. Getting levels should be your number 1 priority.

Those jarbas fight dirty. They are fire element, but cast ice. Better off wearing ice armor against them. Or used ranged attack.

Svaltus are rough for fighters too. Luckily they have low health and 3 hitbox.

Acrofighter doesn't have a poor weapon choice, only you have a poor weapon choice. They have access to 12 weapons, and you are using 3 of them. Of course you're gonna suck.


That bolded segment is terrible advice, Barta or Megid from a Fire creature is still treated as Fire typed damage.

[kejen]

Amazing that someone that registered in 2002 still has no idea how elements work. Don't feel bad, many people don't.

[Dymalos]

I don't feel bad. Don't worry. I might have erred because I'm basing my statement off of damage in Phantasy Star Portable, which I played quite extensively before getting back into PSU. In that game at least, equipping a shield line of the same element as the creature greatly reduced the damage irregardless of what they were casting. So for example, A Light Elemental Shield Line would reduce a Kakwane's Dammegid, and a Dark Elemental Shield Line would instead increase that Kakwane's Dammegid. If this isn't the case in PSU then that's useful to know. Sorry for making an erroneous assumption.

[Azure Falcon]

Why are you soloing? I can see soloing S2 to get some of the good drops, but at that level there is no point to solo. Getting levels should be your number 1 priority.

I've not once joined a game where I wasn't either kicked the second I join or found they are a closely knit group of friends that won't offer even minor assistance. I have to rely on myself anyway, so I may as well just run solo and keep all the drops.

And thanks stukasa, I gave some of your suggestions a try and they worked quite well. Moubu Seiran-zan works wonders on the large packs of enemies and the traps help to take down the Jarbas before they cause much trouble. I think this problem can now be considered solved.

[desturel]

That bolded segment is terrible advice, Barta or Megid from a Fire creature is still treated as Fire typed damage.

This is not correct. Not in the case of magical attacks that is.

Jarba dambarta is still ice damage. Jarba megid is still dark damage.

Alternately physical attacks are linked to the element of the creature. For example the damfoie from a Vanda Orga's mouth is a ground attack, but the foie that Vanda Orga throw is a fire attack.

The way you can tell the difference is if you can block the attack. If you can block it, it's a physical attack and is linked to the creature's element. If it cannot be blocked, it's a magical attack.

Examples of magical attacks from creatures:

Bel Pannon Barta and Damdiga
Kakwane Damdiga
Vanda Mehra Diga
Vanda Mehra Barta
Vanda Orga Foie
Jarba Megid
Jarba Dambarta
Komazli Barta
Bysha type-Otsu32 Foie
Gaozoran Foie
Gaozoran Gibarta
Olgohmon Megiverse

Examples of physical attacks:
Vanda Mehra Damfoie
Vanda Orga Damfoie
Bysha type-Otsu32 Gizonde (or whatever you want to call that attack)

This can be easily tested by wearing the appropriate type of armor and checking the difference in damage. Of course do the run on a level where you can take the attack damage without dying even with opposite element armor on.

I haven't tested this issue with humanoid NPC characters however.

For example, I know Magashi's foie is definitely fire, but I haven't checked if the damage from his Crimson's are fire element or dark element.

I also haven't checked Tylor's blackheart in the story mission where you fight him. It's definitely lightning when you have him as an NPC, the story mission could have different properties.

Other examples of humanoid NPC that cast elemental magic are:
Armed Servant (Taguba) barta
Armed Servant (Ozuna) foie

[Juza]

Freeze / Resist, Stun / Resist == <3 No idea on the current price of either; if they're unaffordable it probably isn't worth hunting for them with StD going on. (Instead, just get into a freakin' party instead of soloing. >.>)

Burn / Resist is very useful for the last block and the boss, and they should be relatively cheap since they drop like freaking candy. :p

Jarbas can easily, if inefficiently, be dealt with via ranged weaponry. All the Jarbas are in areas where you can get enough distance that they just mindlessly mill about, though you'll have to easily dodge the occasional megid. May be slow, but it's better than being frozen/megided to death constantly.

You can also deal with the second block via ranged combat as well, though it's far more annoying due to limited space to dodge attacks, and Svaltuses having that irritating shield thingy. Zooming in is bad; the Svaltus ranged attack is decently fast. Failing that, get light armor and prepare to dimate/trimate spam. (Stun / Resist *REALLY* helps here. :p) Keep a good supply of Sol Atomizers to deal with getting zapped by the Rytugasses (sp?)

Third block... It's a huge open area, so you can always maneuver away from an angry group to heal/etc. The huge fat things I can never remember the name of are annoying to melee; I always somehow get stuck in their belly and drug all over the block. <.< Be aware of your surroundings, the Vahras love spewing fire, and a group of them can be rather dangerous as a result. I tend to go with melee on them, using PAs that will knock them on their butts. If you go ranged, there could be too much foie spam to dodge.

[thechosenone]

falcon are you on the 360? if so if you want someone to go through runs with me and my friend are usually on at nightsit varies the run we do as we have three different characters and it depends on who has luck.

my gamertag is zombieflamingo.

[Shadow Slayer]

Hey Azure Falcon i wouldn't mind helping you ,next time you get on just send a friend request or just a message. My gamertag is MGC REVENGE

[Konjiki-Kitsune]

If you're going to solo a mission I highly suggest you just run Big Push on B or C with at least two Slicers (preferably shura-hikens because they are fairly cheep the last time I checked) and use Choutou Kantsu-jin as it uses a wide sweep which is good for the second and third blocks.

If you want to run RoF I suggest you don't. The hallway with the Savaltus is a pain enough. Just make a party and change the title to "Join" or something along those lines. But if you want any additional help just send a friend request to my GT and then send a message saying you saw my post on PSO-W. I'd be glad to help anytime. :D

GT: Konjiki Kitsune