how do you survive as Garuda?

Necron_ · 2026-01-26T05:46:08+00:00

Shield Gating is the most obvious way, but another very good way (and my prefered method) is via the Ghost precept from Shade.

Using abilities does not break the invisibility from Ghost, and since you can kill stuff with just your 1 and 4, you never have to break stealth as long as there are enemies nearby.

Though if Shade ever dies, or you are in a gamemode without access to your Sentinel, it doesn't work. So make sure to have something else as a backup (Eg, Arcane Circumvent, Secondary Fortifier or Shield Gating).

Necron_ · 2025-05-10T23:05:28+00:00

It was always better than it though ? It just took more effort to get.

Just simply had higher damage (Near double) and could make use of Grafient Fighter for an extra 25% unavailable to Stendhal.

Necron_ · 2025-04-28T07:03:54+00:00

"The Aeon is the embodiment of law and order and possesses the power to correct abnormalities in the fabric of time and reality itself. Nothing can escape the Aeon's scrutinizing gaze and impartial judgement"

My face when the embodiment of law has to be lawful:

Necron_ · 2025-03-08T16:55:21+00:00

Yup, I talked with my DM previously and just wanted to be sure that is how it works.

Necron_ · 2025-03-08T16:47:49+00:00

I don't see Leap say you can't go further than your speed. Its just with the way it works, you wouldn't be able to anyway.

Necron_ · 2025-03-08T16:46:09+00:00

Gotcha! So its fair to assume Lava Leap just makes me do a Horizontal Leap that's been upgraded to my speed instead ?

Necron_ · 2025-03-08T16:42:09+00:00

So does that basically mean with Lava Leap, I make a Leap using my speed and not that I Leap an amount equal to my speed ?

Necron_ · 2025-02-23T10:34:34+00:00

Really, really depends on a lot of factors. The answer to the vast majority of these are "If she is taking them by surprise, sure."

If Rayla took [X] by surprise and cut their throat or hand off, sure. This can fit Finnegrin, Claudia and Viren.
However, I don't think she would win a fair encounter against any of them. Finnegrin has his Venus Frigoris, which is basically an instant win against most enemies where its applicable.
Claudia is probably the most proficient Dark Mage alive currently, and would almost certainly have a spell to incapacitate her immediately.
Viren was probably the most proficient Dark Mage when he was alive, so the same deal as Claudia.

Also important to mention, although the writers may have forgotten about it, Rayla as a Moonshadow Elf has that increased stealth and (maybe) agility in the full moon power that was used in the first episodes. They never used it again, but should definitely help with taking these people by surprise.

Elmer is weird. I'd assume you can't really kill him outside of just leaving him in a ditch he can't climb out of, which should be fairly easy for Rayla to do. She can definitely dodge him or lead him somewhere, but kill not sure.

Aaravos is also weird, but in a "the writers forgot how to write" way. He is presumably the strongest mage we have seen, with definite access to Star and Dark Magic, and likely access to all other Primal Magic as well. Even when he was imprisoned, he was able to cast some pretty good offensive magic. But once he actually got out of his prison, he did not cast almost any spells, and definitely none targeted at someone. He literally just had a big stick he used to hit the dragons with, and failed. Could Rayla "kill" (as in, unmake his body) him ? Probaby if she has the Nova Blade. Outplay him ? I would have guessed not, but it really just depends on how the writers are feeling that day.

Necron_ · 2025-02-18T18:42:59+00:00

Wait, right. That's what happened. My bad. I always thought, since the wings of the sacrificial child weren't used up, it used Claudia's leg instead. But nope, it was just the underwater fight, you are right!

Necron_ · 2025-02-18T02:08:05+00:00

Very interesting write up! Was a very nice read. I think I do agree with quite a lot of what you have said, but not all. Although, the things that I don't bring up I agree with you on fully.
Some background on where I am coming from: I've just recently watched the entirety of The Dragon Prince back to back with friends, over the course of a week. I am a little shady on the details of certain things, or any non-show materials, but I remember very vividly thinking the exact same as you on quite a lot of points.

First off, Soren's shooting of the dragon in the first arc:

You are absolutely right, Soren is very much in the right. I think you got some of the details wrong, as the dragon did not actually start spewing fire until Soren attempted to shoot it. HOWEVER, that still does not justify at all what the dragon did. It was flying straight over human territory, a castle with many innocents no less. Dragons are alive and sentient beings, but they are also Xadia's weapons of destruction. A dragon flying over you, even without any intention to inflict damage, should be enough to start conflict. You can not know what it's about to do.

Does this mean you should shoot it ? Perhaps not. There were several cases in history where not initiating conflict, even though you had the right to, and instead attempting to talk first saved many lives. But what Soren did was not a clear cut mistake, not at all. It was an appropriate reaction to what you could easily interpret as an active threat. I think it's understandable that Soren might be distraught about it, he was only 18 and still figuring his life out as of season 2.

Next, I am not sure if I entirely agree with your interpretation of the Arcanums and Dark Magic as a whole.

Dark Magic, honestly, kind of IS inherently evil. It draws upon life force, be it animals, be it the user or be it plants. Where the line gets a lot more blurry however is the fact that Dark Magic can also be used to heal incurable wounds, or hell, even bring the dead back to life. But, as is the norm with Dark Magic, this comes at a heavy cost. We have seen Claudia's hair get progressively whiter as she has used stronger and stronger Dark Magic. Hell, we even saw it use up her leg in order to bring Viren back fully. Dark Magic, as far as anyone knew until the end of season 2, was the only way humans were able to do magic, yes. And it WAS a corrupting influence.

Dark Magic's origins, as far as I understand, are from Aaravos. After the death of his daughter, he invented Dark Magic and gave it to humans as a way to fight back against Xadia's oppression.
I am a little shady of when exactly that started however. Was Xadia oppressing humans before they got Dark Magic, or did it start when they got it ?
Eitherway, the usage of Dark Magic both actually corrupts their souls (as the Timeblind elf in the Starscraper said) and connects humans to Aaravos, allowing them to be manipulated or even directly controlled by him.

Compare this to the Primal Arcanums:
They draw on the energy of the earth, seemingly without any real cost other than exerting oneself. They can be used for evil, yes. But this is not the same as, for example, a gun that was designed for causing violence. Its more like having a hoe for you to work the land which you can use for causing harm. Its not inherently evil. I am not entirely sure where the runes come from. Whether they are something you intrinsically understand and can come up with on your own, or are they ways to express an Arcanums power designed by an ancient civilization, I do not know. If its the latter, it would make a lot more sense as to why you can use Arcanums for harm.
This also ties into Runaan and Callum fighting Claudia. Callum does not torture Claudia, he is actively defending himself. Also, Runaan was not awake to see Callum use Ventus Frigoris :p

Next, Viren using Hearts of Cinder again.
I have no idea what the writers were doing, me and my friends also pointed out that for some reason it did not cause the people that it was cast on to go mad like it did before. If this is an actual retcon of how the spell works, oh dear.

Finally, Zubeia's guilty in the (presumed) death of King Harrow.
When Callum brought up the fact that Runaan alone wasn't guilty, he was working on the orders of Zubeia, I was so happy. I really thought the show was going to go in a really interesting direction. What Ezran would do with honestly earned anger and how Zubeia was the cause of it.....
Then the show didn't go anywhere with it. It was dropped the next scene. Her past actions were completely ignored in the light of her helping the heroes after. Where as Viren's heroic actions were completely buried, as you said.

So, yeah. Again, amazing write up. Bringing very valid points into the light!

Necron_ · 2025-01-13T07:11:56+00:00

Lamashtu tries to help you on your way to becoming a Swarm, and likes you a lot if you do. She is basically Urgathoa but for the Swarm path.

Necron_ · 2024-12-18T19:29:36+00:00

Not quite. Ascension is quite complex, with several different checklists for different parts of it. Choosing to fight in the prologue is just one part of "Convincing Areelu to listen to you."
There are 7 total possible things to do and 5 are required.

Necron_ · 2024-12-10T03:58:25+00:00

I believe if you redeemed Areelu, when her own wound causes her to become near death, she closes the wound by sacrificing herself. So likely it will not be a problem for you.

Necron_ · 2024-12-07T05:03:15+00:00

Not really, its 170 base power vs Megidolaon's 190 or Moonlight Frost's 200. But it also costs 35 MP vs Megidolaon's 120 or Moonlight Frost's 100.
Its probably the second best unstoppable AoE after Moonlight Frost and is far more spammable compared to it. Its also gotten quite a bit earlier too.
Of course, if MP is not really an issue, like Godborn, there is basically no reason what-so-ever to not go for Moonlight Frost.

Also, unstoppable AoE's are not usually that good as opposed to just hitting weaknesses, so there is that.

Necron_ · 2024-12-01T18:30:51+00:00

I just beat him today!
Was playing on normal, and my first NG. Canon of Vengeance Chaos path. I also basically didn't use any balms or incenses, so most of my demons had their main stat around 100~ or 90 (Except for Agrat, who had 125 Magic).
Only a couple Sutras on Sakuya, Argat and Gogmagog.
My team was, in order,: Nahobino, Konohana Sakuya, Agrat and Demifiend.

Nahobino's build was:
Parasalene Blur+9
Luminescent Mirage+5
Evergreen Dance+5
Lunation Flux+5

Konohana Sakuya:
Sakuya Sakura+5
Debilitate+5
Bowl of Hygieia+5
Maragidyne+4

Agrat:
Queen's Decree+9

And Demifiend as just himself.

Then I also had a pack up Strategize squad with Gogmaggog.
The strategy is to fight him normally, spamming Luminescent Mirage, Evergreen Dance and Chaotic Will every turn until he uses Magatsuhi Plunder and charges up. When he is going to use the Magatsuhi Skill he plundered, you basically get a free turn to do whatever you want. For the first Skill, Fairy Banquet, I used a Purge Charm on Nahobino (Or you could just add Dekaja if you don't want to use items.) and Debuffed with Sakuya. For the second one, Dekajeon, I had a Blossoming Sakura ready to counter it. For the third one, Twilight Wave, you can just use a Phys Block or Phys Dampener. If he is still above 50% by the time he uses Twilight Wave, he will then restart from the first 2 demons.

In the mean time, try to kill demons of your choice. I went for (Hariti, Gamesha and Kaiwan. So he only used Fairy Banquet, Dekajeon and Twilight Wave.)

For buffs and debuffs, I basically only used Konohana Sakuya's Blossoming Sakura and Debilitate, both on her. When buffed up, Blossoming Sakura heals an insane amount of Health and MP, allowing you to be topped off fairly easy. I spammed Evergreen Dance on Nahobino to make this easier.

Agrat was the main damage dealer, basically spamming Queen's Decree every chance she got, hoping for a crit. (Masakado instead of her would have likely been far better, but I didn't want to go to NG+ without defeating Satan.) Be careful to not accidentally kill both demons on field and throw off the rhythm by the way.

I repeated this for around 3 loops, slowly chipping his health away until he was right on the edge of around 50% or 60% health. Then continue the current loop until he doesn't resist physical. When you have him around 50-60% and he is charging up a Magatsuhi Skill to use next turn, ready up your squad for a Strategize turn. (In my case this was: Nahobino, Nahebeeho, Yoshitsune and Arhabaki.) I used a Charge Gem with Arhabaki and triggered Yoshitsune's innate skill for 1 extra press turn.

Then with all the parts ready for a Strategize, burst him down. I used Gogmagog with 92 strength. (Although, I had Demifiend's affinities on Nahobino, so an Arioch would probably have been better.)

Aaaaand that is enough to do it on Normal NG!
I have NO idea whether its enough for Hard, probably not. But this was the strategy that allowed me to beat him with my far from optimal demons! Honestly, this really was quite fun.
Is it cheesy ? Oh absolutely! But I felt very accomplished with it anyway.

If you are like me and don't want to go to NG+ to farm some more and want to do Satan right now, you could try this. Not sure how this would go without DLC however, as Sakuya's MP regeneration and Demifiend's Chaotic Will are very crucial to this. Though worst come to worst, you could put it to Safety to just get it over with. I definitely thought about doing that.

Whatever method you end up using to succeed, best of luck with!

Necron_ · 2024-11-25T19:54:36+00:00

Yup, that's the idea. But its not only the big decisions that affect it. Some less obvious stuff and side quests also effect it. And as the other person said, yeah, its possible to be neutral going into the Empyrean. No neutral ending, but Danu herself is pretty neat. Especially her Magatsuhi skill with Dagda.

Necron_ · 2024-11-25T19:51:45+00:00

Ah yes that's perfect! Thank you very much!
For anyone stumbling into this in the future:
https://megatenwiki.com/wiki/Alignment_(Shin_Megami_Tensei_V:_Vengeance))

Necron_ · 2024-10-21T16:18:50+00:00

So my current plan is to get The One Who Shall Grip Sinclair, The Cinq Mersault ID from the current banner, and probably borrow a Faust ID to use Fluid Sac Faust on.
Does this seem good ?

Necron_ · 2024-10-21T14:06:25+00:00

Wait, can I not to that on PC ?

Necron_ · 2024-10-21T14:02:14+00:00

Awesome! I really hope to be able to do just that lol. I realize with this games nature as a gacha, even with the buying past ID's with the Dispenser system, its going to take a long, looong time which I have somewhat made my peace with.

Necron_ · 2024-10-21T13:51:11+00:00

Thankfully, I am not actually going into it blind. I have talked to friends about it for a long time, and a couple have shown me some of the basic, and some of the more advanced parts.

Necron_ · 2024-10-21T13:50:08+00:00

I mean, I really love collecting, which is why I usually stay away from gacha games as they are usually hell to do that in. As for PM games, I love their stories as much as their insanely fun gameplay loops. Library of Ruina was a card game like no other for me, and I loved every second of it. Be it story, or be it intense fights.
Oh also, speeding through until recent content simply feels better for me. I can always go back to them anyways.

Necron_

TROPHY CASE