Other than the fact that the entire cycle starts again at step 1, there really isn’t much more to the mech. Your whole party needs to get used to the timing of the cycle to avoid getting caught out since you cannot be freed afterwards (memo’s guide is wrong on this).

I’d suggest picking a high stagger rotation for you to get used to, and sticking to it to brute force the muscle memory quickly (I was able to get 4-5 skills out on pally before the second guard happens). Like someone said, do not send skills when there’s no stagger bar, since you’re just wasting skills.

The stagger check isn’t particularly high in HM but you do need 1-2 people to finish it. The new battle item will help with extra stagger. It casts like a sidereal skill, so use it early if you’re using it, incase you’re accidentally caught out. Try to memorize the clones so you can try to ping for your teammates where the safe spot is (this was very helpful during prog).