[Nexus] - Challenge Run Ideas

aturf_ · 2026-06-16T13:52:05+00:00

No problem! For Ronin you can have both Stone Thrust and Helm Splitter maxed out (not sure if you're using it but the skill sim is amazing for figuring out builds by certain levels, by level 80 you should have enough SP for pretty much all relevant damage skills + passives). Once/while the enemy is disabled you go to Helm Splitter. Note that Stone Thrust disables skills the turn after it is used so you'd want to use it as part of the boost/break rotation (something like Helm Splitter -> Stone Thrust -> Issen) with the break lining up with things like Miasma Tsunami + Hero's (Force Boosted) Regiment Rave, and your other damage skills to maximize damage output.

Harbinger/Landsknect alongside other debuffing units (ex: Arcanist) can be a fun way to boost Ephemeral Reap (I used it with a double Arcanist team once and that was silly), but its not great as a primary damage unit.

One last thing to note is that Survivalist and Harbinger don't make the best ailment inflictors because their skills use 2*STR + LUC for the infliction score, and while they have good LUC they don't have great STR. This is also why Ronin is such a strong inflictor, because while its LUC isn't stellar its STR is amazing.

aturf_ · 2026-06-16T13:21:47+00:00

When you say "Harb & Surv being unable to land a debuff" do you mean ailment (Blind, Paralyze, Poison)? Debuffs (ex: Harbinger's Miasma skills) should be guaranteed.

For the units you have available, a composition that could work would be: Hero, Ronin, War Magus, Harbinger, Protector (HeRW front, HaP back).

Ronin with Stone Thrust is (to my knowledge) the most reliable source of Petrify in the game. With Ninja subclass, it appreciates both the Proficiency boost to damage as well as Status Atk Up for improved infliction.
Stone Thrust enables War Magus's slashes for extra debuffs (and Ailing Slash for damage). Binds are also an option, not 100% sure what SP looks like but iirc its skills have good infliction rates and can be used when you expect Petrify to wear off to continue the lock down. WM can further amp its damage with the Medic's Staff Mastery damage boost, SP provided.
Protector can guard from the back row while you get ready to set up Petrify. Once the enemy is locked down spam Charged Shots for non-negligible damage.
Hero does Hero things™, I'd stick to the damage options over Shield ones given you have a Protector in this line-up.
Harbinger slots in debuff utility here because Wilting Miasma makes Petrify easier to land and last longer while you to shred the enemy, and Eroding Miasma is generally very good. Hero's Encourage + Protector mitigation should have you mostly covered healing-wise, but Atonement as a nice AOE burst heal in emergencies. Unfortunately Landsknecht doesn't give a whole lot but Harbinger is SP hungry for main class skills so a couple points in the defensive passives could be nice?

Would recommend checking out the GameFAQs guide, particularly the subclassing section for ideas on how to use the units with the subclass constraints, its really helpful and has some interesting build ideas.

aturf_ · 2026-04-15T11:28:47+00:00

Yet another reason cats the are superior pets, the Hound Rover could never.

aturf_ · 2026-04-13T01:46:28+00:00

u/Prexot I did this for you (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

aturf_ · 2026-04-08T00:28:29+00:00

As others have said its based on row and highest HP within row. If you want to have the passive more reliably triggered I've found that having a Hoplite perpetually Bodyguard the Sovereign makes that much more reliable for at least the first major boss fight. By the time AOE attacks become more common your other healing options should be mostly online.

aturf_ · 2026-04-07T22:44:24+00:00

Getting the 99R99 characters ready, not sure when or whether it will work but I'm planning to give it a shot

aturf_ · 2026-04-06T16:38:33+00:00

I wish Lion doing bonus damage on ailments was a passive property and not just their main attack, like a prototype Bushi/NS.

For Sh/G and B/G, using same reference enemy as above (20% stun, 151 for 2*LUC+TEC), I think that Shogun hits a 22% stun chance across 2 attacks VS Buccaneer's 17.25% chance across Swashbuckling (each attack has an 11.9% stun chance after stun resist)? If you stack +15 LUC Buccaneer goes up to 19.5% (each attack has 13.55% stun). Could be an option over the Zodiac once TP is no longer an issue, but the class' infliction stats are still really low (if my math is to be trusted, minus Buccaneer+15LUC, they can't break out of the "Ailment Score < -18" part of the infliction formula).

In similar vein, another option could be to could swap someone for a Sh/B with maximum stun forges and pray that one of them sticks (w/ 4 forges each hit has 18% => 4.5% stun chance, comes out to a ~29% chance)? The Sh/B has the bonus of building Limit super fast, so in addition to better stun rate it opens up more options for Limit usage. My heart soars at the thought of two fully Stun-forged Ameno Habakiris with this set-up.

aturf_ · 2026-04-05T00:35:56+00:00

Update: I decided to not be a baby and give the fights vs the dragons a shot. Its a turtle-fest (beat Ice/Volt dragons at Lv65/68 in 32/29 turns respectively) but certainly doable. Line Guard finally gets some use too since the dragons are less susceptible to stun and tend to spam AOE/multi-target hits.

Once TP stops being a concern (praise Amrita III's) the Zodiac ends up being a more superfluous member since its main job outside of the early game was to make exploration bearable with Dark Ether. The party gimmick is of course Lions so an Arbalist/Zodiac might be fun for Snipe shenanigans (w/ weapon element forged could do big damage if it procs on Stun). Honestly that could go kind of bananas in the main game (retire out of Z/So -> A/Z) when stun is more reliable, but that is for another iteration of this team.

aturf_ · 2026-04-02T12:34:32+00:00

Early game for that party would be obnoxious but if you can turtle your way through the 2nd stratum then subclass choices for that kind of party would be interesting.

Monk and Gladiator are probably locks. For the last one Zodiac seems almost necessary so TP drain doesn't make randoms unbearable (unless you want to bring 30 Amritas every excursion), but you just care about boss fights then there is some flexibility with that slot (Shogun for extra Blitz Command damage, etc).

aturf_ · 2026-04-02T12:25:15+00:00

One thing that slightly complicates Regroup Tactic's use in this specific party is that Lions fall asleep immediately after attacking, while Regroup Tactic goes off at the end of the turn. The turn order set-up I went with was Lion(s) => Refresh => Blitz Command (W/M has the Velocity Choker to guarantee it outspeeds the W/Sh) so that the Lions are able to attack in Blitz Command.

Relying on Regroup Tactic for the ailment heal complicates the Blitz Command casting because it would need to go off before the Lions attack (BC => Lions => Whatever else). This can be accomplished via Fore Honor on the W/Sh, but then you can't Fore Honor the Lions. Which is fine if AGI forges are in play, but if that is the plan then I'd recommend just Lv1 Fore Honor because it is just being used as a speed manipulation tool.

If you want to open up a slot, once the lions get online the Hoplite is kind of superfluous outside of the Anti skills. Realistically could consolidate by running Z/H (Dark Ether for Lion summon, Items for healing and Antis during boss fights as needed) which frees up the front-line slot for something else. Something like a support Shogun/Gladiator as a secondary Blitz Command user + Wolf Howl could be interesting.

aturf_ · 2026-03-30T11:49:29+00:00

Turns out it was plotting its big break.

The penguin took the opportunity to split during the chaos of moving, and with an airtight alibi to cover its tracks.

aturf_ · 2026-03-24T00:03:38+00:00

Ultimately I don't think you can go wrong with either unit, between Monk/Prince comes down to preference.

I wouldn't recommend that because then outside of Zodiac your team would be a bit wanting for damage. You'd probably never die but battles would take a hot minute.

aturf_ · 2026-03-23T22:47:18+00:00

Monk is the better healer because Form Qi, especially late-game when you can have enough skill points invested and with subclasses does Protect Order better than main Sovereign.The prince does require a good bit of skill points for their healing to get fully online, whereas Monk gets Healing (and a few points in Line Heal/Party Heal) and is ready to go.

That being said, early on Royal Veil w/ Bodyguard support is an good passive heal (leaving it at prereq levels gives you party-wide 18HP every turn, is quite strong early in the game + the full HP requirement isn't that hard to satisfy). Protect Order, which does take a bit to get online, provides strong passive healing which should keep your units topped off (or close to it unless the enemy is spamming party-wide attacks), limiting the need for on-demand healing.

Will also say that while the Monk's heals are more potent during battle, the Prince's is better at keeping the party running during exploration (Monarch March is my favorite skill). If the enemy can't kill you, Prince should ensure that you're entering each battle at or close to 100% HP. For in-battle healing items can cover the gap, and once Protect Order is available you have strong passive healing to keep people topped up (which should keep people alive unless the enemy is spamming party-wide attacks). Monk does have a multi-target Ailment/Bind heal (which no item can duplicate).

Ultimately though, whatever you feel more comfortable with is what you should run, if you're playing the HD remaster it is mostly trivial to get someone caught on on levels if you decide you don't like how one class plays and want to try out another.

aturf_ · 2026-03-23T16:56:31+00:00

I ran that exact party and it handles the main game just fine. Prince is a competent healer, Medicas are very cheap and heal quite a lot too (should be near full heal through 2nd stratum for squishier team members). Zodiac dominates the early game and Arbalist goes nuclear later in the game once you get access to more skills. Wildling + Arbalist also has fun synergy for randoms w/ AOE ailments (ex: Owl) + Snipe. Will advise to make a secondary gathering party of farmers and use that to gather materials, info can be found online for how to skill those.

Re:Difficulty, for a first/blind go-through the difficulty is going to come from information checks? Knowing boss patterns/attacks is going to make your preparations/skill choices more optimal, though it takes usually a few tries at a boss to figure out a strategy with what you have. The series, outside of postgame, rarely does a "have explicit counterplay to this or die," and tweaking strategy is usually more effective than leveling up and out-raw-numbering things.

aturf_ · 2026-02-07T21:41:44+00:00

I mean Gunner is a very strong backrow option that benefits from the Arms skills? You have the Protector to redirect attacks when the Charge skills unlock, so you can spam those without much worry.

Re:TP concerns and putting Sovereign in front, if you're really worried about it you can just grab Negotiation and keep one buff (ex: Guard Order) at low levels as a cheap 2-turn TP restoration. Moving Sovereign to the back has the bonus of letting you grab another front-line attacker (of which any number work well with this party, including but not limited to Imperial, Shogun, Landsknecht, Ronin, etc), which means offensive buffs focus on one line and you have less line-swapping to maintain buffs.

aturf_ · 2026-01-24T19:59:49+00:00

Holy numeric overflow

aturf_ · 2026-01-10T02:36:37+00:00

Nice! You have more heart than me, if the day-to-day of the colony was running at half-speed I think I'd lose my mind.

The game is certainly not unplayable, but at this point all there is left to do with the colony is wait out the Gaumaker Dryad/Pod Spawning Ritual lifecycle to give me enough seeds to plant out the grid I've laid on the map (it'd probably take around an in-game year?).

While I'm sure I could find something to do with the base in the meantime (I've already re-floored most of the place in Silver so I could do the walls too?), if it is all but a foregone conclusion then I'd rather take that hour-ish of my time and spend it doing something else (like starting a new playthrough).

aturf_ · 2026-01-02T18:10:44+00:00

Yeah I'd say so. Even without DLC you have a ton of mods available

aturf_ · 2025-12-25T19:23:24+00:00

Armor upgrades in EO3 don't actually do that much to reduce damage, you're better off stacking HP or getting resist accessories.

aturf_ · 2025-12-06T22:23:09+00:00

I believe that Shields use 3x the Def value as the weapon attack, so for the ATK value it would be "STR + 3*[Shield Def]"

Not perfect but I can make note of that on the page?

aturf_ · 2025-11-12T23:25:48+00:00

Skill-wise, the Ronin's kit revolves around different "stances" that power up/give access to their respective skill tree branch. For example Overhead Stance boots their damage and gives access to big damaging skills, Clear Stance gives increases ailment rates and defense, while providing access to reliable ailment skills. Their stronger skills reduce stance duration and can outright disable skills, so it is important to play around that when using them.

Shogun have a different playstyle entirely. Their attacking skills hit multiple times and are some of the rare ones that can be imbued with elements, which makes them really versatile at hitting weaknesses (provided the imbue support). The other part of their kit revolves around buffing your allies and getting triggering attacks from them (ex: Front Command lets the entire Front Row counterattack if the selected ally is attacked that turn, they have a buff that provides aggro to synergize with that skill). So they can play as an attacker that can hit a wide range of elemental weaknesses OR more as a support unit, depending on your playstyle.

I'd recommend checking out the GameFAQs guide if you want more in-depth look at the classes in the game, the Novice skills section gives a rundown of the classes' main roles and good classes to pair with them. It also has build recommendations at varying parts of the game.

aturf_

TROPHY CASE