#Blue ocean strategy
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Nintendo Wii was released in all major regions between November 19 and December 8, 2006.
#nintendo wii#nintendo#nintendo aesthetic#retro gaming#video games#wii#wiimote#2006#motion controls#blue ocean strategy#tech#hardware
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"Capitalism and the Production of Specialty Goods: An Exploration of Meeting Niche Market Demand"
When it comes to meeting the needs of niche markets, capitalism is often seen as a system that may not be well-suited to accommodate specialized or unusual consumer interests. This is because capitalism is driven by the pursuit of profit, which means that companies may be less likely to invest in producing products for small or specialized markets. However, the concept of the "blue ocean strategy" suggests that it is possible for companies to create new market spaces and capture untapped demand by focusing on innovation and differentiation. This approach involves identifying unserved or underserved market segments and developing new products or services to meet their needs. In the case of individuals with unusual compulsions, such as a strong desire to lick boots, a company that is able to successfully identify and target this market segment could potentially create a "blue ocean" of untapped demand and capture a significant share of this niche market. While it may be challenging for a company to successfully execute a blue ocean strategy and meet the needs of this specialized market, it is possible that capitalism, with its focus on innovation and competition, could provide the best conditions for creating products for individuals with unusual compulsions.
In addition to the blue ocean strategy, there are other factors that contribute to creating conditions that allow for greater differentiation of products within the marketplace. Lowering the barriers of entry into a market, voluntary association, and voluntary exchanges all play a role in promoting competition and innovation. When barriers to entry are low, it is easier for new companies to enter the market and offer new and innovative products, which can increase competition and lead to a greater variety of options for consumers. Voluntary association, or the ability of individuals and businesses to freely associate and engage in economic activity, also promotes competition and innovation by allowing companies to form partnerships and collaborate to bring new products and ideas to the market. Finally, voluntary exchanges, or the ability of individuals and businesses to freely enter into economic transactions, give consumers the power to choose which products they wish to purchase, which can incentivize companies to create new and differentiated products in order to appeal to consumer demand. All of these factors work together to create the conditions that allow for greater differentiation of products within the marketplace.
In conclusion, it is important to recognize that capitalism, while driven by the pursuit of profit, can provide the conditions that allow for companies to successfully meet the needs of niche markets. By identifying and targeting specialized market segments and utilizing strategies such as the blue ocean strategy and by taking advantage of factors that promote competition and innovation, such as lowering barriers to entry, voluntary association, and voluntary exchanges, companies may be able to capture a significant share of these markets and meet the needs of consumers with unusual interests. While it may be challenging for companies to successfully execute a blue ocean strategy and meet the needs of niche markets, it is possible for companies to do so within a capitalist system. Overall, capitalism can create the conditions that allow for the successful production of specialty goods for niche markets, even if it is not explicitly designed to accommodate or support these markets.
#Capitalism#Market demand#Niche markets#Specialty goods#Innovation#Differentiation#Blue ocean strategy#Competition#Consumer behavior#Profit motive#Barriers to entry#Voluntary exchange#Voluntary association
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Experiment #2.1: Google Gemini API Competition: My Pivot to a Blue Ocean App Strategy
Hey everyone! 👋 I’m back with an update on my journey in the Google Gemini API Developer Competition. As you may know, I’ve been documenting my progress here, and today, I’m at a crossroads that requires some strategic thinking. Initial Idea: Facing the Red Ocean My original app concept aimed to revolutionize the way we approach long-term goals by breaking them down into manageable daily…
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Unveiling the Power of Blue Ocean Strategy: A Path to Uncontested Market Space
In the competitive landscape of modern business, standing out from the crowd is crucial for sustained success and growth. The Blue Ocean Strategy offers a revolutionary approach to strategic planning, enabling organizations to break free from the constraints of traditional competition and carve out uncontested market space. In this comprehensive guide, we delve into the principles, strategies, and real-world examples of the Blue Ocean Strategy, exploring how businesses can chart their course to success in uncharted waters.
Understanding the Blue Ocean Strategy:
The Blue Ocean Strategy, conceived by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, represents a departure from conventional business paradigms. It urges organizations to break away from the competitive battlegrounds of existing markets, often termed as “red oceans,” characterized by cutthroat competition and diminishing profit margins. Instead, the strategy encourages the pursuit of untapped market spaces, referred to as “blue oceans,” where competition is irrelevant and opportunities abound.
Key Components of the Blue Ocean Strategy:
1. Innovation
Central to the Blue Ocean Strategy is innovation – not merely incremental improvements, but transformative breakthroughs that redefine industry boundaries and create new demand.
2. Value Creation
Organizations must focus on creating exceptional value for customers, addressing their unmet needs, and delivering solutions that resonate deeply with their preferences and aspirations.
3. Differentiation
By offering products or services that stand out from the crowd, organizations can differentiate themselves from competitors and establish a unique position in the marketplace.
4. Strategic Positioning
Successful implementation of the Blue Ocean Strategy requires careful strategic positioning, ensuring alignment between the organization’s strengths, market opportunities, and customer preferences.
5. Execution Excellence
Execution is paramount in realizing the potential of the Blue Ocean Strategy. It involves translating strategic insights into actionable plans, mobilizing resources effectively, and driving organizational alignment and commitment.
In essence, the Blue Ocean Strategy represents a shift in mindset – from competing in overcrowded markets to creating new market spaces where competition is irrelevant and value innovation reigns supreme. It empowers organizations to chart their own course, discover untapped opportunities, and chart a path to sustainable growth and profitability.
Key Principles of the Blue Ocean Strategy:
1. Value Innovation
The Blue Ocean Strategy emphasizes the importance of value innovation, which involves simultaneously pursuing differentiation and low cost. By creating products or services that offer unique value to customers at a lower cost, organizations can break away from the trade-off between value and price commonly seen in red ocean markets.
2. Focus on Non-customers
Traditional market strategies often revolve around targeting existing customers within a specific industry or demographic. In contrast, the Blue Ocean Strategy encourages organizations to expand their market reach by focusing on non-customers – those who are currently underserved or excluded by existing market offerings.
3. Eliminate, Reduce, Raise, Create (ERRC) Grid
The ERRC grid is a key tool in the Blue Ocean Strategy framework, helping organizations identify strategic options for value innovation. By evaluating factors that can be eliminated, reduced, raised, or created across different industry attributes, organizations can uncover opportunities to redefine market boundaries and create blue oceans.
4. Pursue Differentiation and Relevance
Blue ocean markets are characterized by innovation and relevance, offering products or services that address unmet needs or provide unique value propositions. Organizations must focus on differentiation and relevance to stand out in the marketplace and attract customers away from existing alternatives.
Real-World Examples of the Blue Ocean Strategy:
1. Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil revolutionized the entertainment industry by combining elements of traditional circus acts with high-quality theatrical performances. By targeting adults rather than children and families, Cirque du Soleil created a new market space that transcended the limitations of traditional circuses.
2. Yellow Tail Wine
Yellow Tail Wine disrupted the wine industry by offering approachable, fruit-forward wines at an affordable price point. By simplifying wine selection and packaging, Yellow Tail appealed to a broader audience of casual wine drinkers, expanding the market and challenging established competitors.
3. Nintendo Wii
Nintendo Wii redefined the gaming industry with its innovative motion-controlled gaming console. By targeting non-gamers, such as families and seniors, Nintendo Wii expanded the gaming market and introduced a new way to play video games, positioning itself in a blue ocean of uncontested market space.
Challenges and Opportunities:
While the Blue Ocean Strategy offers a compelling framework for business success, implementing it effectively requires careful planning, execution, and adaptation. Organizations may face challenges such as resistance to change, uncertainty about market acceptance, and the need for continuous innovation. However, by embracing the principles of value innovation, customer-centricity, and strategic agility, organizations can overcome these challenges and unlock new opportunities for growth and differentiation.
Implementing the Blue Ocean Strategy presents both challenges and opportunities for organizations seeking to redefine their competitive landscape and carve out new market spaces.
Challenges:
Resistance to ChangeOne of the primary challenges organizations encounter is internal resistance to change. Employees and stakeholders accustomed to traditional business models may be reluctant to embrace innovative strategies and may fear the unknown.
Market Uncertainty: Venturing into uncharted waters entails inherent risks and uncertainties. Organizations may face challenges in accurately gauging market demand, understanding customer preferences, and predicting competitor reactions.
Continuous Innovation: Sustaining competitive advantage in blue oceans requires a relentless commitment to innovation. Organizations must continually adapt and evolve their offerings to meet evolving customer needs and market dynamics.
Resource Allocation: Pursuing blue ocean opportunities often requires significant investments in research, development, and marketing. Allocating resources effectively while balancing short-term demands and long-term objectives can be a daunting task.
Opportunities:
Market Leadership: Successfully implementing the Blue Ocean Strategy can position organizations as market leaders in untapped market spaces, offering opportunities for growth and dominance.
Differentiation: By focusing on value innovation and differentiation, organizations can create unique value propositions that set them apart from competitors and attract new customers.
Increased Profitability: Blue oceans typically offer higher profit margins compared to crowded red ocean markets, providing opportunities for increased profitability and revenue growth.
Customer Engagement: Creating innovative products or services tailored to unmet customer needs can foster deeper engagement and loyalty among customers, driving long-term relationships and brand advocacy.
Strategic Flexibility: Embracing the Blue Ocean Strategy fosters strategic agility and adaptability, enabling organizations to respond effectively to changing market conditions and emerging opportunities.
While challenges may arise in the pursuit of blue ocean opportunities, organizations that embrace the principles of value innovation, customer-centricity, and strategic agility can overcome obstacles and unlock new avenues for growth, differentiation, and success. By navigating these challenges thoughtfully and seizing opportunities strategically, organizations can chart a course to sustained prosperity in uncharted waters.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, the Blue Ocean Strategy provides a transformative approach to strategic thinking, enabling organizations to break free from the constraints of traditional competition and create uncontested market space. By focusing on value innovation, targeting non-customers, and pursuing differentiation and relevance, organizations can chart their course to success in blue oceans of opportunity. As businesses navigate the ever-changing landscape of the global marketplace, the Blue Ocean Strategy offers a compass for navigating uncharted waters and unlocking new avenues for growth, profitability, and sustainable success.
Also Read: Exploring the Pros and Cons of Veneers: A Comprehensive Guide
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How "Blue Ocean Strategy" Transformed My Approach to Business Strategy
Great book on reshaping business models to create value in new markets! I hope you find this exploration of "Blue Ocean Strategy" as enlightening as I did. Let me know your key takeaways from the book and how it has shaped your strategic thinking!
During my MBA program, I discovered a book that completely changed how I think about strategy: “Blue Ocean Strategy” by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne. This approach wasn’t just another framework to add to my toolkit. It fundamentally reshaped my perspective on markets, competition, and value creation. The Core Concept The central premise of “Blue Ocean Strategy” is a compelling dichotomy…
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#Asset Selection#Blue Ocean Strategy#business strategy#Financial Metrics#Investment Philosophy#Market Disruption#Portfolio Diversification#Risk Management#Sustainable Investing#Value Innovation
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12 großartige Blue-Ocean-Strategie-Templates (Excel-Vorlagen)
Blue-Ocean-Strategie Blue-Ocean-Strategie, engl. Blue Ocean Strategy, ist eine Methode des strategischen Managements zur Entwicklung dauerhaft profitabler Geschäftsmodelle. Die Blue-Ocean-Strategie wurde von W. Chan Kim und Renée Mauborgne an der INSEAD Business School entwickelt und dort zunächst als Value Innovation (Nutzeninnovation) bezeichnet (Quelle Wikipedia). Die Blue-Ocean-Strategie…
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#Blue Ocean#Blue Ocean Strategie#Blue Ocean Strategy#Chart#Controlling#Diagramm#Excel#Renée Mauborgne#Strategisches Controlling#W. Chan Kim
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Star Ocean: Blue Sphere Beginner’s Guide
Introduction: I've been on a bit of a Star Ocean kick lately, and thought I'd take my hand at writing a Blue Sphere "Tips for Beginners!" type guide (based on the English ROM translation)... With Second Story R coming out soon, I figure that more people will be interested in Blue Sphere, too.
I hope my experience and the tips here help you on your adventure!
I played the game once before, but the save data was on an old computer... I want to add it to a list of titles I've completed!
Read more advice/tips under the cut! I’ll provide general tips on how to learn things, what characters to use, Private Actions, and other things! :)
Which characters to use? To start, you can pick your roster out of a few characters. Generally, Dias and Chisato are the best fighters. Precis excels at Item Creation. You'll want Celine if you plan to play late/post-game content.
However, for the first section I recommend taking Ashton. He is also a good fighter and I hear he's easy to combo with. If you've read interviews with the devs, they recommend Ashton and Precis as the game was originally made around them and one other character (they forgot) but eventually added everyone due to popularity. :)
Anyway, I recommend Ashton because he learns Cooking the fastest of anyone, according to seiju-info, a website I will have to reference often due to the lack of English resources. I'll also reference GameFAQs. You'll want cooking early on and you can buy a frying pan in the first town. Fol is very difficult to get in this game as you only earn SP from battles, no cash. I'll explain this more in depth later.
For a dungeon walkthrough, I found this GameFAQs guide useful
If you can, also use the maps on GameFAQs or purchase your own copy of the Star Ocean: Blue Sphere Final Guide. It has full-color maps, but is fully in Japanese. Still, I found it useful, especially in the dungeons. According to the devs, the dungeons got a lot of 'feedback' from fans... and for good reason. They're kind of long and annoying lol but if you're a Star Ocean fan, especially of 2, I think you should give this title a shot. It was made to bridge the wait for Star Ocean 3, but I'm using it as a bridge between my playthrough of Second Story I recently finished again and the remake... :)
I’m not learning new moves / spells?
If you're wondering why certain characters aren't gaining new moves, it's probably one of the following: you aren't making combos, you're levelling the wrong Skill section, for mages you aren't using a variety of spells, or you haven't created their moves through Machinery. These are specific to each character. For my party of Dias, Precis, and Celine... (Dias: combos, Precis: machinery, Celine: the right skill tree / learning the lost magic skill).
I can say at the beginning of this, I don't understand how the skill trees work at all. Just level the 2 the character is good at (Dias is Sense and Battle for example). This is important because if you leveled Dias in Knowledge, it would block off Battle if you raise Sense too high.
Technology VS Sense and Battle VS Knowledge
So, for Dias, we would level Sense (so you get Psychometry to get his ultimate skills with combos), Battle, then put any points into one of the others.
Celine needs to have certain stats met and use a spell x number of times to "spark" the next spell. For her ultimate spells, she needs to level Knowledge for Lost Magic. However, if you want her to have the highest INT and forego her final spell (which isn’t worth the increase from Boost) look at Technical instead.
Mages won't learn new magic using spells on their own, you must control them / spam specific spells, so it's good to use low level enemies to learn new spells.
Item Creation tips
That's why it's good to have some reserve characters for Item Creation, such as Ashton for Cooking. Why Ashton? Well, he learns it the quickest. There really aren't any charts availible for this, but each character unlocks different skills as you level them; it is not like the original game where you get to choose. He learns the 3 skills required the fastest by unlocking them the earliest.
Think of it this way: pick 3-4 of the characters to use in battle and use the rest for only Item Creation! Because of the teleport function, it’s easy to switch them out.
Each Item Creation skill has a mini-game involved. It only uses the directional buttons and you can master the quickest/best way to do them easily. Cooking, with the Frying Pan for example, is right (short time), left (short time), right (long time) as you “flip” the ingredients. You don’t want them to burn or spill. I’ll go more in-depth with these as I unlock them myself.
Celine is one of the best characters to learn Alchemy. We will need it towards the end to make the elusive Blue Sphere for ultimate weapons.
Private Actions - How To?
Private Actions are few in this game and require very specific character conditions! If a PA says “OUT” that character must NOT be in the active party. If it says IN, they must be in the active party.
They also can happen pretty much anywhere: in towns, dungeons, ect.
How to play? General strategy?
To switch characters in battle, use Select.
To use items in battle, press Start.
To defend in battle, press the down arrow.
Break objects (tables, chairs, some plants) to sometimes find items.
If an enemy is too tough or blocking a path (that isn't a boss) you can attempt to run by moving to the far right of the screen. If you fail, your character runs out of their hidden stamina stat for awhile. If you win, the enemy disappears and you can snag any treasure / move on with ease.
PA's don't have any indicator. It's like talking to your comrades around a town and everything, but it feels more like an NPC interaction than a traditional Star Ocean PA. Because of the character IN/OUT (of active party) requirements, they can be easy to miss.
Forest / Crash Site
Bowman is also useful until you get to the Scout Village (Herb Gathering on the candy cane striped plants). To gather some herbs and to view Bowman's PA, exit Scout village and cut down the bush to the left. There will be a path where you can see the long-leaf stripey plants that Bowman can harvest. If he's not in the party, talk to him and initiate the PA.
Private Action - Forest / Crash Site - Bowman (OUT) - Bowman gives you herbs.
Bowman references the Metox, saying it's a very powerful herb :p
Scout Village
Private Action - Scout Village - Precis (OUT) - Precis is looking for parts to repair the ship.
Sometime during the Mile Ruins (maybe before?), if you have an herb, one will randomly be selected if you talk to the boy near the entrance of Scout Village. You will get a Kitchen Knife (used for Cooking) in exchange.
Fuck this NPC in particular. Get the Hell out of the way, bro!!
Mile Ruins
Finish the Mile Ruins. Don't forget to use the bomb on the crack in the wall to turn the elevators back on, especially to visit the 6th floor for some good items like earrings for Celine. There are other areas that require the Pull Field Skill and Precis' Hover, so you'll have to come back later on for the other items.
Vending Machine 1st Floor - Give it a lighter touch to get a useless but one-of-a-kind ??? Jam you can’t get anywhere else.
Check drawers for items and fol!
When you get out, go to the shops in the back of town. The left shop should have a discount, so buy some blueberries and a Frying Pan. Also buy Meat. Level up Ashton in Knowledge, Sense, and Tech until he learns the 3 skills for Cooking (Good Eye, Recipe, and he should start with Kitchen Knife) (If you're having trouble selling items, remember to scroll right to sell from other item categories; took me a little time to figure out. For the mini-game, gently move left to right and try to aim for the flipping food, because if you drop it it takes time which lowers your overall score. Try to aim for over 100.) If you can't afford meat to make steak, I highly recommend using the vegetables (which she usually has one sale, too!) to make Twice Cooked Pork and Amazing Vegetable Stir Fry, which also sells for a lot of Fol.
The shop on the left has Bombs if you need them (you'll need at least 1 to clear the path on the lower right of town). He will also give you the Bunny Comm.
There's a PA we can do. Ashton IN, Dias OUT. Kick out Dias and grab Precis and we can use her Pull ability to get some of the items we missed.
Private Action - Mile Ruins - Ashton (IN) / Dias (OUT) - The two reflect on their swordsmanship. Particularly, that weakness comes with aging. This also opens up another PA later in the game.
If you also teach Precis Machinery, you can learn Hover by making a Nuclear Jet. I think Machinery needs to be at level 5 to learn it. Don't bother learning it now, though, as we can't buy any soldering irons...
Rupart Jungle
Before you descend into the jungle you can trigger a fight with a Baboon. He's a little difficult but he gives a whopping 20 SP per fight and is a good spot to grind up characters if you need to. Just heal for free at the ship or the old man with the kid's house and save before fighting it each time. I did this 3-4 times just to have some extra SP handy (and it should be enough to teach Precis Machinery Lv 5, but again, no soldering iron yet...) You may want to invest it in Dias Sense skills instead. I've been leveling Celine's Knowledge, since that's what she needs to max out first. In one fight Dias and Precis were dead and I used Firebolt, which sparked Celine's Starlight spell! She also has Bless and I don't think she started with it, but I'm not sure when I learned it.
Spell - Starlight - Celine - Requires: Monstrology Learned, Use Firebolt in battle
A lot of enemies in Rupart Jungle are difficult, but save often and you'll manage. Once you talk to the guys about the permit for the two ruins, continue to Ava City. We can finally buy a soldering iron here, so you can have Precis learn Machinery lv 5 and then score around 200 points and create the item (save scumming is recommended...). Make sure to restock any items you need. Do some cooking and upgrade your equipment, too.
Garp Ruins
In the Garp ruins I used Dias, Ashton *required for his Fire Breath field action, and Noel. Some of the enemies are tough. You'll also want to bring a few bombs, mostly for the room behind the boss.
After the ruins I leveled Precis' Machinery to 6... It makes the soldering iron faster in the mini-game, the higher the level... but after two hours I still can't manage to get Hover (I barely score 110 points most of the time, because the iron is so wobbly...) On the bright side I made some money and got a lot of Opera's KMs, so that will be nice when I get her.
Note: I did give it one last shot, and wouldn't you know, I got the Hover ability... I didn't even score that high of points, so I'm confused? I did learn that the farther away a node is / more diagonal it is, the more points you earn, so perhaps it's advantageous to wait for further/diagonal nodes? I wish you luck obtaining the Nuclear Jet for Hover! I'll make a short trip back to the Mile Ruins and Garp Ruins and get items I missed, then go return to Ava City and talk to the Jabba the Hut Man again lol
We finally see a little plot in this game...!
Leviabor Ruins (First Trip)
The Leviabor Ruins sucked. I think everyone knows that lol I used Dias, Precis, and Celine but I highly recommend bringing Noel instead. Celine learned Energy Arrows, though, which helped a bit! I only did the required floors for the time being and I've been focusing on maxing out each characters main skill branch for now.
I sold a bunch of Gold ingots for like 8k Fol... IDK if I'll need any later (I'm sure they can be made with Alchemy) but I didn't feel like putting athritis-hands through the riggamaroll of Cooking.
Spell - Wind Blade - Celine - Requires: INT 12, Use Firebolt in battle Spell - Energy Arrows - Celine - Requires: MP 160+ / Resistance learned, Use Starlight in battle
Speaking of, I haven't learned any new KMs for Dias. I can't combo at all. I couldn't even combo with Ashton, who is supposedly the easiest... so yeah, late game is gonna be rough.
Ava City (After free from prison)
Remember the girl you saved and got sent to Leviabor prison for? If you talk to her boyfriend, he gives you an item based o what console you are playing on (Gameboy gives a Might Chain... Gameboy Color gives a ???. I'm using Gameboy Advance emulator, so I got a Lunar Talisman)
Yay, Ernest! I guess... I probably won't use him...
I kind of forgot about PAs, so here's some I did to take a break before the Gravis Forest. I remember my last playthrough I did this forest on the Super Gameboy and yeah... you thought it was bad in color. It's ten times worse when its limited to like, 2 colors... a monotone mess. If I didn't have the strategy guides I'd never get through it.
Private Action - Ava City - Bowman (IN) / Celine (OUT) - Bowman has a daughter! And her name is Erys! :o Notes: If done before recruiting Opera, you get this PA. If after, an Opera PA occurs instead. You can't get both according to the guide I'm looking at. Apparently this PA leads to more rare items late game as it unlocks a PA later.
Private Action - Ava City - Chisato (IN) / Celine (OUT) - Chisato helps the girl on the west side of town find a job to support the girl’s brothers. Unlocks a hidden shop. The secret weapon shop (below) has decent upgrades!
Go through Gravis Forest until you find the hideout, then talk to the soldier on the west side and show him the permit you got in Ava.
Gravis Forest Part 1
Follow the beetles
Look for the old man
Use a map
If you can combo, this place might be pretty easy. I can't get past 2 hits, so I focused on my mages and spamming Dias' basic attack to keep the apes in the second section from decimating my party...
Celine learned Curse during my time in the forest. Spell - Curse - Celine - Requires Fairyology - Spark with Firebolt
Spell - Bless - Celine- Start (I had her spark this, I swear... but the guide says she starts with it...)
Also, I don't really use Noel, but he learned a ton of spells including Dispel, which is very handy when you get confused by the beetles.
Spell - Dispel - Noel - Start (Oh, I didn’t notice...) Spell - Silence - Noel - Start (Really? I guess I was looking under Magic and not Technique...)
Apparently he starts with Bless, too? IDK
Hideout
In the hideout, it will be registered to your teleporter, so if you want to switch some characters around, go for it. There's an inn and a shop in the hideout as well, so restock and move on through part 2.
Gravis Forest Part 2
For the gorilla boss, Dias had HP around 450+ and I let him take hits because I can't combo to stop the arm spin. Try to use the Up+B combo to "kill" the arms first, if you can. When you're back at the hideout again, talk to the guy out front to heal and then save. The boss, Atlas, died with one shot of Celine's Thunderbolt... sure is nice to see anything do damage in this game. You'll be healed and sent to he Slave Village. Save again and prepare for another boss... Three of Celine's Thunderbolts took it out. :)
Slave Village
Private Action - Slave Village - Precis (OUT) That PA in Slave City with Precis should be open. Noel asks Precis what's the matter and offers her one of Chisato's snacks to cheer her up :) When that doesn't work, Noel starts calling a doctor (Bowman) for her. Precis finally spills her worries, about a friend named Latry (Razzly maybe?) who might forget... to record Precis' soap opera... Noel is not amused.
After the events on your second trip to Slave Village, you open a new path to Nusa Beach. On the far left you can flip some switches to make a shortcut back to the ship... for some reason, I guess.
We have some optional dungeons to do for now, so return to the ship/restock/ect.
Remember those soldiers outside Ava City blocking that dungeon? We can go now.
Ralph Ruins - Optional
Be careful where you step, it's similar to Gravis and that you can fall easily.
The wires on the lower levels seem impassable; all you need is someone with the Jump field action.
I recommend bringing Precis with Hover so you can reach some treasure and also not fall as often. This is especially useful for the conveyor belts just like in Leviabor. All I can say is just gather as many batteries as you can and on the basement level, look for a generator near a red snake in the bottom left of the overall map that says something like "activates elevator movement". Head as high as you can on the elevators and then all the way left you'll see the crab boss. You have to live long enough, but 3 Thunderbolts takes him out easily. *update note about Precis in conveyors in Leviabor.
Behind the boss is a treasure with the first of 10 Rings we need for the Cave of Trials. Although I'm not planning to do them... but we did miss one in Garvis forest. If you want, go back and get it now (look for unusual, square hole right of the entrance to the forest). If I have time, I’ll add a guide at the end for the rings and how to open the last dungeon (as well as Celine’s Telelport).
Crane Ruins - Optional
BRING A FULL STOCK OF BOMBS, you'll need them!
I highly recommend anytime you need to restock go to Scout village, because they often have sales on Blueberries and food ingredients. Plus, the bomb shop is right next to the item shop.
Crane Ruins are located south of Ava City (if you hit Slave Village you went too far, you need to go south, slightly east, south, and east again). Unfortunetly you need Precis (and a guide I saw recommended Ashton) for this dungeon, so you'll probably go with Dias, Ashton, and Precis... You could manage with Dias, Precis, and Noel, too. Celine is helpful for the machines and crabs, so if you don't need a healer, take her instead.
If you did that PA back in Mile Ruins, there's another with Ashton and Dias on the generator floor of the Crane Ruins. It's a shame you need Dias out, because you'll likely have to complete the dungeon and then return without him to see it. Luckily, it isn't too much of a feat.
Most of the enemies are easy here, except for the big rats. Try to avoid them and if you can't, use KMs if you have them or run.
The upper floors have blocks you have to move onto buttons. Make < style arrows with them in the direction of doors you want open on that floor. When you get Floor 2 and 3, you can combine them to move say, > right and ^ up, but there's just some treasure here. Your goal is B1. You'll need Swim/Dive and Hover makes it easier. Collect the treasure by hovering to all the platforms and then take it section by section and dive for treasure. If you activate the generators on the bottom floor, you can also open up stairs to a boss. I tried a few times but Dias wasn't even scratching him, so I gave up for now. I'll come back to that ugly green bastard later.
Ocean Cave (Nusa Beach) - Optional
The final optional dungeon (Ocean Cave) is in Nusa Beach (go South as far as you can, if you got to Vanis city you didn't go far enough; look for the barnacles) and you need Swim/Dive to complete that, so chances are you'll be taking Precis then. I did check and other characters can learn it, but not as easy (well, Dias at least) but I'll just drag Precis along... I'm gonna gripe about it in my review, but it really sucks how you're forced to carry around Precis as an HM slave, since she sucks so much in battle. 99% of the time she's just dead in fights because it isn't worth the 5 blueberries to heal her. I think if they ever remake this game, there should be some sort of machine to carry around the abilities instead, so you don't waste a slot. Or, even better, a way to switch characters from the ship to your active party in dungeons... It would increase your options and this game is all about not giving you any options. For example, combos being the only way to give fighters more KMs is bad design. Not that they would have MP to use them anyway, because the ideal way to level them gives no MP increases... Just... bad design.
This is how an average fight is going for me. Fun! :(
I'm ranting a lot at this point because this Ocean Cave was my third dungeon that day and I was just burnt out and exhausted of enemies that take 5 minutes to kill, keep respawning, ect. Even with a map, knowing what to do is confusing. I went and found a lever I couldn't flip and a door that needs the lever to open? But then I read in the guide you need a keycard.... So this morning, that's where I'm at. Bored, tired, and I just want the game to give me a break.
The Ocean Cave is added into the teleporter, so feel free to leave/return for supplies if you need to. I decided to go back, use some SP, and experiment with Smithing. Longsword + Meteorite (50 Point Score) should make a stronger sword, but we don't have Meteorite. *sigh* So my thought process was, well, I'm taking damage, so maybe I'll make better armor.
Enchantment Use the chart on this site to determine the Armor latent value.
How it works: Armor + Source = Better Armor. Each Armor has a set amount of points needed to make it based on the formula below. I'll use the example the guide provided me. Formula: Armor Latent Points + Score Divided by 2 = Total Score (The Total Score determines what you get) Magic Resist Armor (35 latent points) + Score of 27 or higher Divided by 2 = 31 Total Score = Resist Armor possible.
I want to make a Duel Suit, as it's one of the best armors... So I used: Resist Armor (25) + Score of 125 or more = 150 Divided by 2 = 75 Total Score in theory should get a Duel Suit... (Note: I couldn’t get the score high enough, so no... I think I need Titania Source and max level for Enchantment...)
I'm not entirely clear how Sources play into the calculation, but they seem to provide some sort of bonus when scoring points? So, save scum and use rare Sources to easily create high level armor. (High level sources: Elf, Dark Elf, Titania)
I tried for a little while, but the two just kept swapping between Resist/Magic armor. I think I need Celine's Enchantment level higher (it's only 4) to make the mini-game easier, so we may as well get back to the dungeon and get some SP for that.
Back at the Ocean Cave... The keycard we need is on the third floor. Try to hang left for most of the time and you should reach it across a tiny water section. I went to where the guide said the card was and was back at the lever, which I could magically pull now. I have no idea what's going on (perhaps you have to examine the door on the lower level first, which is bullshit) but we should be able to move forward now. At the statue room, pull all the levers except the reset, go down the stairs, hop down, pull the green blocks, and drop down. You can unlock the door for later (you have to return with Teleport to get the treasure... ughhhh) and go fight the boss who is easier than almost every enemy in the damn cave. Grab the chest behind it and leave so we can go do the story again.
I will say, it is nice we get to see an Edifian as a reward for this bonus dungeon... So there's that.
Vanis City
Don't waste money on the Elf Sources; you'll be able to buy the good ones soon.
I've been wondering where Opera is too. :( She's my favorite character, so imagine how sad I was that you can't use her for half of this game. Speaking of, this is almost the half way point. Not including resets and deaths, I've logged about fifteen hours playtime, so seems about right. The shops don't offer any better weapons, but there is some better armor for your mages. Get that when you can.
Private Action - Ashton OUT Noel IN - Ashton's feeling a little hopeless and Noel tries to cheer him up.
Private Action - Leon OR Opera IN, Ernest OUT - (I used Leon) They discuss how strange the planet feels (as if man-made) and how Edifice compares to Expel.
Private Action - Chisato OUT - Chisato has one line that just says Vanice City is kinda peaceful.Talk to the guy in the bar and we learn Opera is researching with another scientist in the City of Knott. Head South of town once you're ready.
Road to Knott
Bring a few bombs. Most of the enemies are easy.
Don’t walk forward on the beautiful screen above... you take damage lol
Ah, the infamous
Ruddle sidequest
begins. If you explore thoroughly, you'll find him on the way.
Please use CTR F to find my updated guide later (See: Scream), because I made an error here.
Spell - Noel - Cure Light - Requirements: INT 40+ stats, spark with Heal Spell - Noel - Fairy Heal - Requirements; INT 70+ stats, spark with Cure Light
Noel knows this game is gonna ramp up, huh?
Knott
The Blue Sphere, huh? I’ll be back for you, sir.
Oh my god we finally get new boots and a new weapon for Dias. There's also Rune Bucklers, if you haven't gathered enough from dungeons for your mages. You can also buy the Dark Elf Sources now, so level up someone in Enchantment (Celine is difficult because you need to max her Tech first... so you can't level it to max, but you can get it high level) and try to craft some better armor.
Speaking of, Dias and Celine have 2-3 of their skills maxed in their primary category. I have been avoiding battles on the Road to Knott, so I may go back and train. The plants are fairly easy and they give around 35 SP each.
Enchantment, attempt 2
It took me about 10 resets to get a Magic Armor and a Dark Elf Source to become a Magic Resist Armor. I had to score 50 to get it. The trick is finding the 3rd checkpoint (when the cane glows white) before the timer runs out. When I tried again with the Magic Resist and a Dark Elf Source, after only 1 checkpoint I somehow got the Nexus Armor... I don't get it, either, you guys... Ideally I want another Nexus Armor and something stronger for Celine. I created a Mithril Coat for Celine and it seems if you get checkpoints in the center, it scores higher. Part of this may just be luck. I wish I understood it better...
I’m on my way! Woosh~
Knott Secret Ruins
Once you're ready head into the laboratory of Knott (top right of city) through the 2nd room on the right, at the back. I can't help much with the dungeon, so please follow a guide.
Opera and Dias are my favorite characters... I feel re energized, even if I can’t use her in battle right now... (You CAN use her, but there isn’t any reason to over Dias, sadly.)
After you run into Opera, go down another floor, move the switch to the left in the first room (I used Noel with Pull because I wasn’t taking Precis again if I didn’t have to) and then head down a few times and you'll be at the boss. When you get to the room with the two big long-nosed blue guys (Carlas???) use Celine's Thunderbolt to take them out and save before going through the bottom right door.
In a random battle I accidentily used Bless instead of Thunderbolt. Celine got Anti.
Spell - Anti - Celine - Requires: RES 50+ stats, spark with Bless
Spell - Magnum Tornado - Noel - Requires INT 45+ - Spark with Wind Blade
I love how Rival casually is like "let's look for the LOTR stone!" and we just go with it.
I think I have trauma from the “join event” text from Star Ocean: the Second Story Ending 86 Guide I made... ;__;
The boss isn't too bad. Celine's Thunderbolt takes out a few parts. Finish him off with Dias forward stab regular attack and you should be good. I did have to heal a few times with Noel. After the fight, grab the Palantir and teleport back to the ship, restock, and then go find Rival in Knott.
Knott (again) lol Meet with Rival. She explains that she met Opera while looking for new discoveries. Rival is trying to find some ancient spaceship and asks everyone to go explore ruins. (For real, we should have just taken parts from Knott and fixed our ship and GTFO lol we have to help her because Opera helped her... oh, wait, no, we said Rival helped Opera after she crash landed... sure lol Opera only saved Rival from some rando rolly polly. Whatever. We have to go meet a guy at the bar in Vanis City.
Vanis City (return) Leave Knott and teleport to the ship and then to Vanis. Go to the bar and talk to the green guy, Simon, to learn about some ruins. The Ocean Cave, to be exact... which we already did. Upon leaving the bar someone shows up and says go to Knott! So back we go.
Knott (AGAIN) You'll be forced to fight red beetles, like the ones in Gravis. They should be cake now if you've levelled Dias a bit. They took a few forward slash basic attacks each. Same strategy with the 3 grey beetles. Once you save Rival, you find out that they unleashed some awful monsters from Gravis forest's underground. When you're ready, go to the door at the back of Rival's room that you couldn't go to before.
Gravis' Forest Path
I took Dias, Celine, Noel. Make sure you're fully stocked, this area isn't on the ship teleporter.
Bring a bomb if you're playing on a Gameboy/Super Gameboy 1 (Note: must be original, not a Color or Advance) and when you come upon a tower, you can use a hidden door on the right to enter or blow up the crack with a bomb (Mobile port only). I'm really kinda ticked because if you choose the item on the right you get a Blue Sphere just handed to you. This plus that Might Chain from earlier makes playing on a Gameboy or Super Gameboy 1 almost worth it... So, sadly I didn't get this item. I remember in my old playthrough this was around where I put the game down because the angel inside looks like Lenneth. Her sprite gets reused a lot in this game... I really thought it was Lenneth, though! :p Apparently her name is Maria--maybe an allusion to Star Ocean Til the End of Time (this title was a holdover until 3 released, so...)
Continue forward along the path until you reach the cave. Along the way are more of the red beetles. For the boss fight ahead, if you're using Celine, you may want to aquire Ray or Southern Cross. Here's how: Use Starlight (have MP 100+, INT 40+) to gain Ray and then use Ray (260 MP+, 80+ INT, know Herbology) to spark it. It's highly likely you won't have her Tech maxed out yet to learn Herbology for Southern Cross, but Ray should work in a pinch. It only took me four battles to spark Ray.
Gravis Forest II / Gravis Forest Cave
The red beetles seem to go down quicker with Starlight, but also Dias should be taking them out in 1-3 hits on average. I also had a red beetle drop a Mithril Mesh once I reached the forest, which is an upgrade to the Nexus Armor.
There are many hidden paths that lead to treasure, ect. so make sure you have a map handy. Go right and just keep going right and you'll stumble upon the Brown Card. After this, explore as thoroughly as possible to get everything. Most of the enemies are really easy, especially if you get initiative.
There is one room on the center/right side that has a large enemy called the Dragon Warrior. Luckily, you'll need Teleport so you'll have to come back later for this. If you beat him 5 times you get one of the rings for the bonus dungeon. If you have Ashton, you'll also get some cool dialogue between Gyoro and Ururun.
When you come across the room with two levers in the center, move the left one and continue exploring a bit. You'll need to get to Floor 2 to finish the puzzle. Along the way you'll probably see two chests, one in the top left and one lower/right from that. Once again, you'll need Teleport for them. I don't know what dev expects me to backtrack for this crap, because I don't plan to. Go across the bridge you lowered to Floor 2, flip the switch. Falling here does nothing, so don't worry about it. Go back across and you'll see some yellowish stairs. Use Jump to get back to the double lever room and swap the order from before, which lowers the stairs completely. Save before going to the boss room.
Apsaras (hey, I recognize you from Megaten!)... not how I expected you to look. Anyway, I tried the Japanese website guide of using Ray, but... it did fucking nothing. The Official guide only recommends raising STR as high as possible and says even specials do very little here. Basically, this battle is gonna be a slog. Use items to your advantage.
Seriously, this boss sucks. I almost put the game down.
My strategy was to control Dias and do a sort of attack a bit, back off/heal as needed, attack some more. Be careful, if you take out it's legs, it just insta-kills everyone after a few attacks... I'm seriously debating using cheats for this fight, because it's that hard. I KNOW the game wants me to combo to prevent it from attacking, but when you suck at stupid fighting game ass skills, it's useless. There really needs to be any kind of work around...
Okay, so I was reading up and the JP website says Dias just needs MP and to attack based on range for some of the lower level killer moves. Go figure, he only just now started getting an MP boost. I still can't combo for shit (got a 6 somehow in the boss fight) but I did put some points into Awakening. However, I don't think that's what helped... So I equipped this random ass ring I had because I think it gives you Strong Blow? Anyway, this boss went down in like 20 seconds once I had it on Dias! I DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS GAME IS ANYMORE. For information on where I got the ring, it was on B1 Floor of the Ocean Cave! It's called the Eclipse Ring and the Official guide translates the ability added as "Strike". I don't know what this ability is exactly but it seems to have saved my ass here. I got flashback to the Protection Rings / Barker fight in Star Ocean the Second Story... Ironically, that boss fight was what kind of gave me the idea to look at accessories. Nice to see something stayed from 2 that was actually worthwhile.
Return to the ship, restock, return to Knott and go to the lab and talk to Rival. She explains that the Edifians were destroyed by a flood/tidal wave and that someone may have caused it. To learn more, she asks us to take her to Scream (and Lung). These names, bro... Anyway, we gotta go back to the road to Knott and find a new pathway.
Road to Knott 2 If you remember where we saw Ruddle, with those plant octopus guys, go back there. Rival opens the previously locked door and we're at Scream.
Scream You will need Precis' Hover if you want all the items, but they should be gemstones and armor you saw like four dungeons ago. What you really want are the Sharp Edge and Sorceress Knuckles, if SO2 taught me anything. I was pretty boggled considering those are potentially strong / really strong weapons for Claude and Rena in SO2... You just need Push for those, so Noel should be fine. (Note: I later learned Rena uses knives, so... I guess the knuckles are good for Noel.)
Star Ocean has this thing where it really ramps up it’s environments late game and I’m feeling it! Scream has great graphics and atmosphere. (I forgot to get a picture, though...)
Once you get the weapon upgrades, go through the right door in that same area where Rival is waiting. There's a teleport pad but you can set it to specific places. Going to Nusa Beach or Mile Shop don't have a way back, so don't bother. Select Scream Floor 2 and keep trudging along. Don't go through the upper door. There's a PA with Rena later and if you go now, you lose the chance to complete it.
Your goal is to get the entire tower to line up. Once you get to 4th Floor, save, because the boss is on Floor 5 and he's a bastard. First, I controlled Dias and charged the Minotaur to get some distance between it and the mages. Anything this dude uses KO's mages on impact. I mostly used Celine (with a fire boost and a ring that decreases cast time) with Ray. I wish I had Southern Cross, as it would do more damage... :( It was a big fucking struggle. I used like 4 revives, quite a few MP items, and a all party heal item. Somehow I won. If you get one part of him destroyed he should go down pretty quick after, even if it doesn't look that way. I also had to use a save state about halfway through the battle to save time. It's like 30% luck and 50% cursing, but you'll whittle him down somehow. Just don't let your mages anywhere near him whatsoever and revive immediately. If you wait too long to revive and they're behind the Minotaur, they are good as perma-dead, because he'll attack before you get to even move them out of the way. This entire boss was BS, almost as much as the last one. It's a trend in this game that needs to die.
City of Lung
Ruddle Sidequest Okay, in my last section I wasn't sure about the Ruddle quest. Unfortunetly, I chose the wrong direction and it lead to a dead end (the guide I was following was incorrect, so when I checked the Official Guide... yeah...), so this quest is over for me now that I've reached Lung. For the correct path, use the slapped together, Google translated pics I posted above. (I wanted to add the photo here, but Tumblr would NOT save it for some reason)
So much for my Fairy Ring :( I'm pretty peeved as it's so far back and I'm not doing those boss fights again. However, to make a Fairy Ring (halves MP cost, just like SO2), you can use Rune Metal and score between 270-319 with Jewelry Making (this is how the ROM translates it). I didn't have any Rune Metal, so I might try later.
Private Action *This PA has a small window, do it immediately - IN: Precis - Ship - Rival admires the ship and gives you a Tri-Emblem (increase all stats). I'm unsure if it breaks or something, so I'll save it for the end... This won't be availible if you talk to the Priest in Lung, so do this PA immediately.
Proceed down the path in Lung and you'll be escorted to the Priest, who is promptly killed by Rival. She also forces Claude and Rena to crash on Edifice, just like she did you.
She is the planet's "devil". She leaves and a remaining priest takes you to the top floor to meet an Edifian named Rose.
Rose explains Rival killed the Priest to get access to the Grand Knott, a weapon. Rose sacrifices a literal lung (I guess that's why the city is named that? lol) so you can breathe underwater when you go investigate the Comsat / Komsa Ruins.
Comsat Ruins - Bring a few bombs. - Equip Stone Checks
With the Aqualung, Dias can now use Swim/Dive, so we don't necessarily need to bring Precis. The dungeon is fairly straightforward. If a room doesn't loop back, look for a Microchip; this unlocks more floors on the elevator. There is also an item here we'll need to get Claude (yeah, he has a shitty sidequest; luckily this is the only item you’ll need for it), so make sure you nab the Minsidia by going 80% the way left on the continental shelf, then down to get the chest near the bottom. You'll have to backtrack, so be prepared. Once you backtrack once, teleport to the ship. This way you can just quickly return to the shelf by going to the ship/beginning of the dungeon. Anytime I got back to the starting floor, I went to heal/restock since it makes life easier. I avoided a lot of the enemies here as well, like the rhino-dino looking guys, because they just OKO'd my party all the time.
After getting the Minsidia, go back to the beginning of the continental shelf and retrace your steps across, but go all the way left and all the way down. You may want to grab Precis first because the two treasures here require Hover (a weapon for her and for Ernest--not worth trading out your healer, IMO). You'll now be in the seabed. You might be able to hover if you go left for a shortcut, IDK, but the path around is clockwise. If you want some treasure, go to the first door you see, but if you want to move onto the boss, just keep going clockwise towards the center.
I've had to do a lot of resets just because enemies KO Celine instantly :/ I've been using her Magic Shot field action to get the jump on some enemies and start battle controlling her. A Thunderbolt takes out the Saber Fins in one shot. The Nautilus' take a lot of damage from Thunderbolt too, but to preserve MP, try to finish them off with Dias. They cause poison, so have Noel w/Dispel or cure poisons handy.
If you can get Celine's MP 200+ and INT 60+, you may have a good chance of sparking Thunderstorm, which may be an option we can use going further since Southern Cross isn't obtainable yet...
The red shark is a sub-boss and if you got Thunderstorm, he goes out in 1-3 casts of that. When it attacks again, you wake up in Aqua City and are greeted by an Edifian. Is that what we're doing here? Talking to them? It's so strange we go through this dungeon instead of searching for Claude/Rena immediately... just sayin'. Go around and talk to the Edifians for the first plot in awhile. You'll learn they fought Rival 200 years ago and failed when she flooded the planet. We also learn Claude and Rena crashed near Nusa Beach.
When you go to talk to the leader, they go on some typical Tri-Ace writing about the Aqualung being able to carry Rose's thoughts and that's how they know who you are and that the Priest wanted you to fight Rival. The leader goes onto say we need two more Edifian's help and must go to Ax and Azul and pass their trials. It's pretty similar to SO2 and the Four Fields. Head right from the leader's room and there are two warps.
Return to the ship and restock as needed. It's time to finally get Rena and Claude. Go to Nusa Beach (Use the shortcut in the Crash Forest or go through Slave Village passage [I also realized the upper left exit of Aqua City is a shortcut, later on... oops]) and get Rena, because you can't get Claude without her. One thing the website guide notes is they are completely optional. There is some text where Claude laments if you fail to recruit them, but since Rena is useful and we want the team reunited... let's go get them and level Rena up!
Nusa Beach Revisisted (Rena) Go to the location shown above (near one of the cities, I think? Before the Sea Cave) and you'll find Rena!
I hope you've been saving Knife weapons... apparently Rena uses them in this one. It feels like a reference to her og PS1 art, where she had a short sword / dagger. She also uses mage armors, so you may need to go purchase some of the better stuff in Knott/Lung. We have to "level" her anyway, so use any spare SP on her and go train somewhere if need be. Go to Lung to upgrade first, then go to Knott since that's our destination. Claude has a disease that a scientist named Rush there can cure.
Also, while you're at Lung, you may want to invest in some Titania Sources and upgrade some things, especially since Rena probably won't have an Isis Tiara, we may want to make her one or something better.
Raising Rena
*Note, she will not learn Gravity Press with this method, BUT Celestial Arrow is better anyway.
Sense - Physical Sensation, Danger Sense, Radio Waves(Transmission)
Battle - Parry, Quigong (I didn't learn these, because I didn't see them come up quickly...)
The above are optional but learn one set before the other.
After learning Sense skills, learn all TECH skills through Lezard Techno.
After learning all the above, raise INT until you get Lost Magic.
I levelled her at the base of the seabed. Use Celine's Thunderbolt to take out the Balloon Fish in a few hits. Enter the cave door and go back out to respawn. He gives 60 SP a go. I just refilled MP with Blackberries until I ran out, rinse/repeat. The cost of the Blackberries can suck, but don't forget that Scout often has them on sale. Also, depending on your playstyle, you may find an easier enemy that gives high SP, just do what works for you. In one "trip" I got Rena to a 67 Skill Level. Everyone else is around 100~ so I figured, close enough. I also raised Taijitsu a little for Celine and Rena so their HP was around 100 each.
Knott Revisisted (Claude) Go to the first door on the left of the science building where all those dungeons were to find Rush. He needs the Minsidia, which we already have. He makes the medicine and so we go to Vanis City.
Vanis City Revisited (Claude) You'll see a big guy right when you teleport there. Talk to him. Claude will be waiting at the ship if you want to use him.
Now we can return to Aqua City. We'll take on Ax first, since it's a bit easier.
Ax - Right
Go the upper left door of the area and climb the shell. You'll face the Lord of the Sea who gives you hints on how to progress. These change each new playthrough, but for my own notes, here's what they were in my playthrough: Go through the door of bubbles. He also gives us something, but I have no clue what it was. (Okay, I'm dumb. Realized this on door 2... grab the item bag that appears behind the guy you fought! There's an item in it.)
Next aim for the door right, right again, and down. There's a door where you repeat steps. There's the King of the Sea who says (in my playthrough) go through the bubble door two times.
Next go up and right through the door and repeat the process a final time. Now is the Master of the Sea. His clue for my playthrough was: You have to go through the doors four times in total.
Lovely. At this point I was running low on blackberries, so I left to restock. I also wanted to see if I could get Rena and spells since we've amassed some SP. To learn Fairy Heal, we need Fairyology. I think because INT is NOT opposite TECH, it's alright to raise and we won't lose points, since we will level it after INT anyway. So I went and spammed Cure Light to learn Fairy Heal. In about 3 fights on the road to Knott, I got Fairy Heal AND Fairy Light in the same battle by spamming Cure Light and using Fairy Heal for the first time... We FINALLY have a full party cure! If we spam Fairy Heal, we have a chance to learn Raise Dead, too...
Item Creation: Jewelry Making
I really kind of want a Fairy Ring for Rena, but I can't get the points higher than 130-150, when I need 200+... I did get an extra Star Necklace (reduces cast time) using 1 of my Rune Metals, though. You'll need to buy the Magical Rasp from Lung and try to make a Circle or Cross shape for the highest points. The highest I got was 180 making circles... :( I think I need the level higher, but it conflicts with Celine's learning path...
I screwed around with Compounding, since Rena had it at level 6 after I trained her up earlier. If you mix Thyme and Rosemary, they make the basic Resurrect item if you score 150ish. Nice to get revives. I know Athelas makes resurrection items and some MP items in SO2, but I don't think they exist here. The best item, the Metox, is obtained through connect battles, so that's out.
Item Creation: Compounding
Thyme and Thyme with a low score can make Mixed or Fruit Syrup (HP/MP small and medium restore) and seem like an easy/good combo to make for the dungeon treks. To get Thyme, you can hunt Hippos in Garp. There's 3 right at the entrance and they go down super fast now that we're so late in the game. Bonus, it can be an easy but grindy way to amass some SP (19 SP each I think), so it's a win-win if you got a TV show to binge and wanna grind a bit. Just remember you can only carry 15 of an item, but doesn't hurt to have a full stack and extra so you don't have to leave dungeons as often. Another alternative is to grab Bowman and go to Scout Village, exit, go left and explore the first two screens for herbs, walk back to the village real quick, and repeat. You should have a plethora of herbs at your disposal after.
Another good herb combo:
Lavendar and Lavendar (Score: Auto / 150+) = Resurrection Mist (Revives one 100% HP.) If you score around 80, you can get a Mixed Syrup, too.
Lavendar and Rosemary (150+) make a Cure Stone.
Lavendar and Thyme (150+) can make Cure Paralysis.
Rosemary and Rosemary (170+) can make a Mental Pot (increases Symbology in fights)
Now, to get back to the game for a bit... I returned to the bottom/center door near the crab because apparently there's one more guy to fight. He is the Demon of the Abyss, just a giant crab. His hint for my file was: There's a tricky room in the center of the tower, you won't be able to leave it just walking normally. After the door of bubbles, you must go through the door of waves.
Once done, go back to the second door we went through (the one that was right, right, down, next to 2 crabs); this will lead to the central tower that just seemed to loop endlessly if you visited before. On either side there are two doors. The left is the wave door and the right is the bubble door. There are two gaps that must be hovered/jumped over. Based on our clues, we need to: Go through the door of bubbles two times. We have to go through the doors four times altogether. After the door of bubbles, we have to go through the door of waves. My first guess wasn't right, so I'm not sure I understand the riddle... You'll know if you failed because you auto-fall into one of the gaps. My solution was: Bubble, Wave, Bubble. I have no idea why. Go up the central tower, Raum, one of the Edifians, is waiting at the top right.
After speaking with Raum, we see a scene of Rival raising the Grand Knott (tower/weapon thing, kinda reminds me of Vane from Lunar). You'll be teleported back to the teleporters, where we can now take on Azul.
If there's any PA's you want to do in Ava City, do them now. I'm not sure if they become unavailible after the events of the second tower / talking to the leader after completing both towers...
Azul - Left Start by heading left and down through a hidden path. Step into the pool/teleporter. Grab the treasure and go up. This is where the official guide said to go first, but we need an orb first to open the door. Go back to the entrance, go down and right, right, down and you'll get a Devil Egg in the treasure box. Go back to the entrance and go all the way left and down to get the Devil Fruit. Go back to the entrance a third time, go right through the pool and up, up, then right. You'll see a hole. Put the Devil Fruit there. Do the same thing in the next room with the Devil Egg, then move the two blocks to the lit up areas in their rooms to unlock a pool teleport back near the red shark.
Love the Tria reference lol These guys were so immersion breaking / over the top I loved it
Go through, grab the Blue Orb, and go back. If you go down, left, up there is another block to move (it doesnt change anything yet). Return to the entrance and go all the way left and get on the teleporter. Defeat the two fish to open the doors. Make your way upward until you see another block to move. This time it changes something. Go down and right through the pool teleporter. Grab the item and go back, go up to another pool teleporter. You can skip the first one, but the second teleporter has a Star Cloak you'll really want for a mage. Go back to where you moved the block on the same floor (left, up) and go left through the hidden passage. Go back to the entrance after grabbing the Green Orb. You may want to leave/restock and come back because the boss is soon. There's one orb left. From the entrance go left, down, through the teleporter, then up through the door we can now open. Toss the cap on one of the mages and get the Red Orb. Now we can open the boss door, so prepare/save and head up to put the orbs into the door with the red hinges (similar to the Green orb door we just busted up). You gotta defeat all the enemies. A few Thunderbolts take out the crab. I just ran from the dragon guys since they waste so much MP. A few Thunderstorms took out the boss really quick!
Yeah, this is a lot like Vane’s destruction but in reverse lol
After you go back to Aqua and watch Rival and Ava City duke it out. We learn Rival powered Grand Knott with the Palantir Stone. The Edifians confirm Ava City is destroyed.
Remember those damn elevator ruins from early game? Yeah... :/ Rival has nestled Grand Knott into it and is waiting for us to stop her. They explain the Leviabor Ruins have powers of the ancient race and it's needed to power Grand Knott, which is docked and free to enter. Except for a barrier, which they can get rid of, so who cares. Anyway, I'd prep by trying to make better weapons, armor, and items. Make food, curatives, ect. Then when you're ready, go to Ava City and the Leviabor Ruins. This isn't the final dungeon, by the way. For some reason the game is gonna continue quite awhile. Luckily there is a final city soon that has a ton of good stuff, so you can probably trudge through the 10 Seals and Leviabor fairly easily. We'll see...
Let’s take a detour with...
Private Action Palooza! (aka A lot of PAs...)
There aren't many PAs in this game, but I wanted to go see any still left. There's a few more late game that get you some ultimate weapons, apparently, so I don't want to miss them and I'll include them in this guide. I'll note if there's any that were missed based on time (since some may have closed after the events at Ax/Azul)
Okay, it’s wierd controlling Claude again... :p
Opera, is this necessary??
Spaceship - Chisato OUT - Speak to Chisato to gain her ultimate weapon, the Mirage. (A SO2 reference maybe?)
Ultimate Weapons
You'll notice they have 0 stats. It's because you need a Blue Sphere (Alchemy) and to take them to the guy in... Knott, I think? I'll have to double check.
Road to Knott (Go to Vanis City south exit, down, right, right, down) - Chisato IN, Dias OUT - DiasxChisato shippers will love this PA--Chisato tells Dias it's dangerous to be out in the wild alone and that first impressons are important. She basically says his aloof and succinct words make it hard for the party to understand where he's coming from and everyone worries.)
Ava City - Opera IN, Celine OUT - After completing Ax/Azul / Before Ava is destroyed / Bowman daughter PA can't have been seen (?) - Obviously I couldn't do this one for multiple reasons...
Slave Village (upper right house) - Opera, Dias IN, Leon, Bowman OUT - Leon and Bowman are playing a card game. Bowman lectures Leon on thinking too much about the game, which is causing Leon's losing streak. Dias lectures them for being nonchalant when the world needs saving, but agrees breaks are good, so Bowman offers to play. Opera taught them the game (from Earth - Hanafuda).
Vanice City (go right twice from entrance) - Bowman IN, Opera, Ernest OUT - Bowman sees Opera buying a ton of alcohol. Opera offers Bowman some (apparently the alcohol is better than Earth) and I agreed to let Bowman live it up. They go back to the inn to drink. Eventually, Bowman passes out and Opera keeps drinking. It wouldn't be Star Ocean without someone getting shitfaced, you know? Opera leaves to buy more when she runs out and Ernest brings Bowman back to the ship, telling him not to attempt to keep up with Opera again... lol
Road to Knott (Exit Knott) - Precis IN, Opera OUT - Opera's gun is veering left, so Opera asks if Precis can fix it. Opera's good with machines, but not computer parts... I agreed for Precis to look at it. Opera declines though, scared Precis will return it over-designed. I asked Opera after the PA, too, and Precis gets all mad because Opera won't let her within 10 feet of the gun in fear Precis will make it into an automaton...
Knott (second floor item shop) - Opera IN, Precis OUT - Precis comments on Knott's dark atmosphere, compared to her school. Opera mentions El was a scholar... I think this is a mistranslation as she probably said "Ern", meaning Ernest.
Spaceship - Ashton OUT - Ashton gives you his ultimate weapon 83 Inn's Claw (ROM) / Gine's Claw (Japanese website translation--I think this might be XINE?! Did XINE hand over a talon?!). Ashton says that Gyoro and Ururun want him to use the weapon, but Ashton says it was a gift from (Rasugas)? Does he mean Lasguss (mountains)? Perhaps from his home town that was scrapped in SO2? He says it has the spirit of a djinn inside. I swear I read in an interview Ashton's hometown had something to do with a djinn...
Note before these two PAs, bring Ashton and Claude with you. Dias should be able to handle any enemies. Do NOT bring Precis or Opera.
Gravis Forest (Summit, where the boss was) - Ashton IN, Precis OUT - Ashton asks Precis if she can repair the ship soon. Precis says that means she'll go back to Earth and Ashton to Expel. Since they're supposed to be canonical in a way, I stated 'We'll be seperated again'. Precis tells Ashton he hasn't changed in two years, because he's sad about being seperated again. Precis says it's a good thing he hasn't changed, giggles, and runs off.
Ah, if I'd known about this... I'd brought Claude, too... If you do take my advice, try going down one screen and returning to see if the PA triggers, otherwise you may have to backtrack like I did. If you're lost, just keep heading up from the Hideout as best you can. It doesn't take too long as the enemies that remain go down really quick.
Gravis Forest (Summit) - Claude IN, Opera OUT - Claude snaps Opera out of reading a book. She's exploring the wreckage of her ship and gathering things she might want to keep. I was curious so I asked 'What were you reading?' The Armoured Death and the Knight of Fire are what Claude notices. He says they're very military, even noting Opera's jacket. However, Opera hates war, she just likes good stories that are fiction and finds her jacket comfortable. When Opera mentions a far off planet, Claude reminds Opera that he's part of the Pangalactic Federation (she forgot!)
Nusa Beach (use the Crash Forest entrance) - Rena IN, Chisato OUT - Chisato is worried about the universe constantly at war, saying the Nedians were a peaceful people. I told her 'There's hope in the future' basically. If you talk to Chisato after, she says because of the events two years ago, she became a Battle Reporter, specifically. :)
Road to Gravis (Had to look up where this was... It's the area with the tower where Maria was, so go to Knott and use the back door where Rival used to hang out. Travel down the ladder, through the little tunnel, and you'll see Celine when you exit.) - Rena IN, Celine OUT - Rena finds Celine looking pale. I said 'I'm more worried'. Celine says a bug fell on her (reminds me of the trope they used in the EX anime) If you talk to Celine after, Rena says bugs don't bother her much.
Scream (2F of Serpent Ruins, teleport to Serpent Ruins, leave, head right, then head for the top right of the dungeon) - Rena IN - Defeat the bird. The lady with the bento will die. Use Rena's Rebirth to revive them. This ability seems to be finicky? I guess use it in front of the "block" of floor where the lady died, and it should revive her. If you go to the back there's now a jam shop. Let me tell you, I was so mad lol I was hoping it would have the Aloe Jam that was so useful in SO2... NONE of the jams restore MP... FML. Buy the Blueberry Jam (20% HP restore) at least for dungeon crawling, otherwise this was pointless for the effort involved...
Lung (item shop) - Requires Bowman's daughter PA to have been done - Celine IN, Bowman OUT - Bowman needs help deciding what to get, a dress for Nineh or a toy for Erys. Yeah, the toy seems the better choice, but it's trash compared to the Marvel Dress you get otherwise. (Marvel from SO1? Interesting lol) Move the Star Cloak to Rena and give Celine the massive boost from the Marvel Cloak.
That's all for now! :o We've only got a few PAs left for later... Where were we? Right, Leviabor Ruins...
Due to issues with Tumblr, please be patient. I’m tired of editing/saving 3x just to make updates to this post. It is very exhausting. Fix your shit Tumblr.
FINAL PART OF GUIDE, CLICK HERE
#star ocean blue sphere#tips and tricks#strategy guide#SOBS#beginner's guide#star ocean series#fan translated#video game review
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https://onspire.ch/blaue-ozean-strategie/
Der Blaue Ozean als Strategie von W. Chan Kim und Renée Mauborgne
In diesem Artikel präsentiere ich meine Erkenntnisse aus dem einflussreichen Buch “Blue Ocean Strategy” von W. Chan Kim und Renée Mauborgne. Durch die sorgfältige Zusammenfassung der Schlüsselideen zeige ich auf, wie Unternehmen durch das Schaffen neuer Märkte, fernab vom blutigen Wettbewerb der roten Ozeane, nachhaltiges Wachstum und Erfolg erzielen können. Diese Zusammenfassung soll Sie dabei unterstützen mutig zu handeln und neue Wege zu gehen.
Hier weiterlesen
#blaueozean#strategie#blue ocean#Neue Märkte#Kundensegmente#Innovative Wertangebote#Blauen Ozean-Strategie
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#marketing#buisness#digital marketing#strategies#marketing strategy#blue ocean marketing#benefits of blue ocean marketing
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My Chemical Romance - Helena [Official Music Video]
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#passive income for physicians#passive income for doctors#physician real estate investing#passive income ideas for doctors#passive investing for doctors#blue ocean capital#benefits of investing in apartments#passive income physician blog#physicians passive income#passive income strategies for doctors
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A Date (Benny Cross x Shy!Reader Pt 3)
Thank you so much for all your kind words, likes and reblogs on my last two posts! You guys are keeping me so entertained with the comments!
Ugh I rewrote this like 3 times :( I just couldn't get it right and I'm still not sure how I feel about it OH WELL
Benny x Bunny Masterlist
Word Count- 2.2K
Summary- You were sure you'd never see Benny Cross again. . . you were wrong.
******
“Benny’s been asking for ya.”
Your heart skipped a beat and you nearly dropped the receiver into the bowl of cake batter. Kathy’s statement came out of left field, the two of you having been discussing the latest news on the block – what kind of lipstick Sheryl Dickie uses that somehow always lasts an entire night of bar hopping. “What?”
“Yeah, says he’s real desperate to ask you somethin’,” Kathy’s tone was flippant, but you’ve known her long enough to hear the excitement she’s hiding in her voice.
“What could he possibly have to talk to me about?” You asked as you set the whisk down and moved around the kitchen counter to peak down the hallway towards the living room where you knew your father sat in his large recliner, watching a rerun of Bonanza.
“I dunno, maybe you should come to another meetin’ so you can find out.”
“No, I’m not going to anymore of those.” you declared firmly, yanking the cord so that the phone was up to your other ear. “I don’t know how you can stand being around those guys.”
Kathy laughed, the static spiking. “C’mon, they’re fun, and you know it. Did you tell your parents how you got to ride on the back of a Vandal’s bike, and not just any Vandal!”
“No!” you squeaked. “And they’re never going to know. It was a one-time thing.”
“It doesn’t have to be. They’re having another meetin’ tonight. I’m sure Benny could pick you up–”
“Well, I can’t tonight,” you cut her off. “I have plans.”
“What plans?”
“My date.”
“Date?” Kathy asked, voice lowering dubiously. “With who?”
“Pete,” you said quietly.
“Who?” she asked again.
You sighed. “Pete? The guy from Mama’s church?”
Pete was introduced to you last week by your mother who was introduced to him by his mother. It was a train of people who wanted to matchmake, to see young love blossom before their eyes, even if it was forced. Pete was nice enough and he had kind eyes that sat behind wide-rimmed glasses. You’d been on one other date with him. He was an engineering student in his first year and he talked a lot about his school. He liked school. And he liked to golf nearly every weekend (his family belonged to the country club on the upper side of town). And mostly – he talked a lot about himself. He seemed to really like himself too.
“Oh, okay.” Kathy sounded unimpressed.
“My family really likes him. My dad likes him.”
“Yeah?”
At her unenthusiastic response, you added quickly, “And I’m excited!”
“Is that why you’re stress-baking?” Kathy inquired as if she could sense it.
You glance down at the bowl of cake batter. No, it wasn’t, actually. You weren’t nervous to go on your second date with Pete; he didn’t make her nervous, didn’t fill your belly with those pesky butterflies. Pete was . . . just Pete. No, you were stress-baking because of a certain blonde Bikerider whose ocean blue eyes wouldn’t leave your thoughts all night. You were up, tossing and turning, replaying every moment with him like a broken record. It was one ride, the logical side of your mind had to say, and you’ll never see him again. You allowed yourself the rest of the night to think about him, and then you wouldn’t set aside any more time.
In theory, it was a nice strategy. But when you woke up today, your thoughts were absolutely clouded with him and his incredibly direct eye-contact and his deeply rich voice and his hand touching your thigh and his lips encasing the cigarette—
You were doing it again! It had been one ride! One ride and a few hours. One ride where your arms wrapped so tightly to his solid form. One ride where he showed you places you’d never seen before, from a point of view you’d never been before. One ride where you felt as though you were seeing the world in a whole new light. One ride that you couldn’t get out of your head.
“Yes, because of Pete,” you replied evenly. “And I’m going to have a good time with him tonight.”
There’s a smile in her voice when she says, “Okay, sure. Say, what restaurant did ya say he was takin’ you?”
********
Thanking the driver, you stepped out of the cab, your heels connecting softly with the concrete of the sidewalk. Taking a moment to smooth any wrinkles on your pink dress, your gaze fluttered across the street to the restaurant Pete told you to meet him at.
Ricardo’s was one of the most expensive restaurants in town, somewhere you never found yourself frequenting, but Pete absolutely gushed about their food. Coming from old money, Pete had no hesitation picking here for your second date. Pete’s family was well off, that’s what your mother liked to point out. He was a good boy with good money. He would provide for you, buy you a nice house with a picket fence in the front yard. A safe bet for the same routine life that nearly all the women of your family had spanning back several generations.
You made your way across the street, eyes taking in the lineup of expensive cars parked out front: Mercedes, Rolls Royce, Cadillac . . . Harley-Davidson motorcycle. You did a double-take at the shiny metal glinting underneath the streetlamp, eyes traveling upwards to the figure leaning casually against it. He was looking at the restaurant, head turned to give a generous view of his profile, and he hadn’t noticed you yet. For a split second, you considered taking advantage of that and booking it into the front door before he had a chance to stop you. But some deeply intrinsic part of you yearned to memorize every detail of him and you simply couldn’t look away. As a moth drawn to flame, you were drawn to him, to the golden streaks of his hair, down to the strong slope of his nose, the curve where his top lip sat so perfectly against the bottom – even with the cigarette tucked between. He wore long sleeves under his club jacket and the same distressed jeans from your last encounter. Half shrouded in the darkness of night, with the orange glow of the streetlight nearest to him, he looked like a beacon of mystery. Abandoning your previous course, you turned and approached him.
“What are you doing here?” You asked once you were close enough for him to hear you.
Benny turned and a smile broke out over his features, eyes sweeping down your figure. “Do you dress like that all the time or only when you’re gonna see me?” He asked, nodding to your dress and heels.
You stopped about 6 feet away from him (a reasonable distance), hopping up onto the sidewalk. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“What a chance encounter,” he proclaimed with a secretive wink that sent your stomach on a roller coaster ride.
“Chance encounter, or Kathy’s loose lips?” you quipped and he rubbed a hand over his mouth to keep from smiling, fingers grazing through the blonde, recently-trimmed facial hair.
“Why are you here?” You asked again, this time a touch quieter.
“Well, I have a coupon,” he replied simply.
You couldn’t stop the smile from tugging at your lips, your brows raising incredulously. “A coupon? To Ricardo’s?”
“Mm-hm,” he nodded, straight-faced.
You rolled your eyes at his antics. He had a coupon, your ass. A well-dressed elderly couple walked past you both on the sidewalk, each shooting a look of disapproval toward the dirty young man leaning against his death machine. Benny seemed not to notice them, his gaze still on you.
“Why are you here?” he questioned.
“I–I have a date,” you replied and desperately tried to ignore the heat rising to your face at the admission. “But something tells me you already know that.”
“Hmm,” he hummed, looking down to the ground for all of five seconds before his gaze flashed back up to you. “Wanna go for a ride, Little Bunny?”
“What? No.” You narrowed your eyes at him.
“Why not?”
“Well, I just told you I'm here for a date,” you replied with a tilt of your head.
Benny shrugged. “So?”
You shook your head but he continued, “Why are you wastin’ your time with dates when we’re gonna be married anyway?”
Your mouth fell open in surprise. The nerve on this guy! Part of you was surprised that he still had it in his head of marrying you. You thought maybe he had a few too many beers last night or was just smooth-talking you so that you’d let him sleep with you. But here he was, showing up on the sidewalk, giving you those puppy eyes. You’d already denied him once. Could he not take a hint?
“I don’t recall you ever asking.” you pointed out, feeling emboldened by his casual attitude.
He perked up at that, tossing the remainder of his cigarette to the ground. “You want me to ask?”
You fought to remain neutral-faced at his playfulness. “No, thank you. Now, if you’ll excuse me . . . I have a date.” One that you were excited about before you caught sight of Benny and your train of thoughts completely derailed.
Benny held his hands up in a conciliatory way and you turned on your heel, leaving him out on the streets as you made your way inside.
******
The clock on the far wall seemed to be mocking you, minutes ticking by mercilessly. You resisted looking at it, instead planting your chin in the palm of your hand as you watched the door, waiting for Pete’s familiar face to appear. It had been over an hour. He was over an hour late for your date.
Each time the waitress returned to fill your glass of water, you told yourself a new lie. He was just stuck at work, he’ll be here soon. He was running behind getting ready, he’ll be here soon. There must have been an emergency, he’ll be here soon. He wouldn’t stand you up, he’ll be here soon.
But as the seconds passed, you sunk further and further into your seat, humiliation forming a ball in your stomach. Surely, he had gotten his days mixed up? He really seemed to enjoy your first date, so why was he nowhere to be seen. Every time someone walked through the front door, the little bell chiming above, you glanced up, certain it would be him. But it never was. At first, you were angry. How could he have the audacity to leave you hanging without so much as calling you before he left if he knew he wouldn’t be able to make it. Then a bitter thought came to mind: what if he stood you up because he didn’t want to go out with you again. What if you weren't good enough for him. You had spent your whole life on the never ending hamster wheel of trying to be good enough for everyone else. Was your hard work even noticed?
Recognizing the sting of unshed tears, you looked down at the napkin folded neatly in your lap, blinking rapidly in an attempt to get control of yourself. The bell chimed over the front door, but you couldn’t bring yourself to look over at it, not wanting to feel the crushing disappointment of another wealthy customer walking inside and not your date.
Then a flash of dark clothing popped across from you and you looked up just as Benny Cross slid into the empty seat. You opened your mouth, but no words came out. He leaned forward, elbows of his leather jacket propped over the tablecloth.
“Pete not show?” he asked, expression solemn.
Your ears burned and you shook your head. Too preoccupied by your embarrassment, it didn’t even occur to you that you had never told him Pete’s name.
He frowned and he genuinely appeared upset. Unable to maintain his direct gaze, you glanced away and caught the eyes of everyone else in the restaurant staring wide-eyed at the two of you. You realized that it was Benny who they were gawking at. And you didn’t seem to notice until now that he looked totally out of place with his worn clothes and dirty hands. As if sensing their not-so-subtle staring, Benny turned and looked about the room.
“What’s with all the stiff shirts in here?” he asked, sending you a conspiratorial glance. “I think they might be intimidated by you.”
“Me?” You furrowed your brow. It definitely wasn’t you they were looking at. In fact, the only person who was staring at you was Benny.
“Yeah, I bet they’ve never seen anyone as pretty as you. Most people haven’t and they don't know how to act when they do.” He grinned and you had to look down at your lap as heat rose to your face.
“I guess Pete wouldn’t agree,” you muttered quietly, feeling the anger in your heart fizzle out to meer disappointment.
“Fuck Pete,” Benny said passionately, causing an elderly woman behind you to gasp and you giggled, shocked at his language. Benny was bad, he was trouble . . . but he was also fun, and you couldn’t hide your eagerness as he leaned his arms across the table, moving closer to address you privately.
“You wanna get out of here, Bunny?” His question sent a gust of anticipation through your veins.
“Yeah,” you admitted, smiling shyly.
He stood quickly and you followed in suit. Then he did something that caused a wave of butterflies to roll through your stomach; he reached out and clasped his hand with you, interlocking fingers tightly. You grinned, excitement making you feel light and airy as he pulled you through the restaurant, past all the staring faces and harsh whispers and out the door into the night which felt alive with a whole new feeling of possibilities.
*Tag List*
@imusicaddict @elizabeth916 @jaiuneamesolitaiire @dudii4love @ironmooncat @beebeechaos @astrogrande @pearlparty @themorriganisamonster @sillylittlethrowaway @ughdontbeboring @penwieldingdreamer @charmingballoon @eugene-emt-roe @sunnbib @semperamans @groovyangelkisses @killerqueenfan
#i need a biker boyfriend#benny cross#benny x bunny#benny cross x reader#the bikeriders#benny the bikeriders#fluff#imagine#austin butler x reader#austin butler#benny x reader#motorcycle#austin butler fandom#austin bulter x you
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BLOODSUCKER - SATORU GOJO
✴︎ summary: you had avoided your ex for so long, only to run into him at a halloween party, and he's the same as ever but has his teeth always been that sharp? ✴︎ contents: 18+ only, nsfw, dub/con, blood kink, gojo has fangs, biting, marking, bloodsucking, fingering (f!receiving), swearing, semi-public sex, sex against a car, unprotected sex, creampie, pet names (sweetheart, pretty, baby), ✴︎ wc: 2,704
“Can I have a bite?” He whispers, lips against your ear, his breath hot against your skin, sending a warm flush down your body — and why did he smell so intoxicating?
The night had gone on normally enough — yet another Halloween party you had been dragged to (after you had lost a bet and ended up being the designated driver for the evening) in another coordinated themed costume — this time for the Barbie movie. Yet another throng of costumed drunks and weirdos you had to wade through while your friends had their fun. And you thought the night would be boring.
Oh, you were so wrong.
He saw you first. You were only sure of that, after, because you remembered the prickling of your skin when his ice blue irises had found you lounging in the loft area upstairs — where most people had begun to clear out of after the keg had arrived downstairs. You had let your hair out of your wig, your head aching from the weight of the hair on your head and the cheap elastic band trying to work its way into your forehead.
You unlocked your phone, looking at yourself in your camera, pouting at the state of your hair — unkempt and unruly from the wig, but you only could do what you could.
“Great, now I can be a scary Barbie,” you murmur, locking your phone, as you pocket it.
“Oh, you’re not scary,” and your head snaps up, eyes finding those pools of still blue that looked like you could drown in them — and you very well would. His lips were curled in a small smile, his skin looked pale in the harsh fluorescent lights of the kitchen, “but I wouldn’t mind seeing you be a little scary,”
“Satoru,” your lips twist, fuck, you thought he’d never show up to this party — you had avoided him flawlessly since your breakup — if you could even call it that. You never official — you were never anything, just a situation that was more than a booty call, but less than a relationship. Every invitation was only accepted with assurance and recon that Satoru would not attend, every exit strategy was planned, and every move was carefully made.
Except this one.
“Oh, you recognize me?” he gasps in mock surprise, lips in that shit eating grin you had loved to kiss off of him, but now, all it did was make you want to slap him, “surprised you did after you’ve avoided me for so long, sweetheart,”
“And apparently you’re the one with brain damage because we broke up — don’t call me that,” you sigh, eyes glancing down at his outfit — a black and white suit with a high collar, as his mouth moved as he spoke, you caught sight of fangs on his teeth, and his eyes glinted with a crimson tint dipped in an ocean of blue, “your costume is fitting — you definitely did suck the life out of our relationship,”
“Bitter doesn’t suit you, baby,” your eye twitches, as he dares closer, eyes glinting in the low light of the kitchen, “plus y’know, you always did the best sucking,”
Your traitorous cheeks flush, and he doesn’t miss the way your eyes betray you by flickering downwards, “fuck off—“
“Oh, I know you want me to fuck something — don’t think it’s off though,” he looms closer, licking his lips, as he smiles — and your heart forgets to beat — did he always smell this good? He smelt of musk, wood, and everything warm and honeyed — the scent melted over you, plying your resistance with sweetness in contrast to his vulgarity, “look at you, haven’t even touched you and you’re so pliant, where’s that mouth now?” And his thumbs drag down your lips, pulling at the bottom one — “looks better wrapped around my cock, doesn’t it?”
And his words snap you from your trance, slapping his hand away, “didn’t expect an apology from you, but I thought you’d do better than this shit,”
“Can you blame me for missing you, pretty?” He pouts, “thought you loved me more than that,”
“And I thought you loved me enough to commit but looks like we both are wrong,” you roll your eyes, “go find someone else to fuck with, Gojo,”
He raises an eyebrow, “Aw, baby, don’t act so unfamiliar, you had my dick in you after all, you can still call me Satoru,” and then there’s a cheer in the living room that cuts off your retort, as he turns to look.
And that’s your cue to leave, you slip away from him, grabbing your jacket, making an Irish exit, slipping through the throng of people partying. You manage to get down the street, the streets quiet now, the sounds of the party growing more distant by the second. A sense of dread settled over you the more you walked, forming a lump in your throat and a pit in your stomach. The streetlights flickered above you, the wind cutting through your jacket as you pulled it closer around you. Your car was close, right past this wooded backyard, trees lining what seemed to be an abandoned home. There was only a few more yards — and then you heard a twig snap — your head snapped around to look behind you.
And that was your mistake.
A hand clamped over your mouth, as you gasped against it, another tight around your middle, your scream was muffled against the palm. And then a familiar voice whispered in your ear, “Boo,” before he lets you go, and you whirl around, smacking Satoru against his chest, hard.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Your heart was pumping, hard, nearly banging against your ribs, body still shaking with adrenaline, “what the fuck - that’s not fucking funny,”
“It wasn’t supposed to be funny — it was supposed to be spooky,” he grins, unaffected by your anger, as your fingers clench into fists, “you didn’t give me a treat so I had to play a trick. It’s the rules of Halloween, pretty,”
“It wasn’t spooky, it was fucking scary—“ you move to hit him again, and he catches your hand by the wrist, and he’s pulling you close, “let me go, Gojo—“
“Satoru,” he corrects, his fingers caressing your cheek, and you feel your knees knocking together, the world shifting beneath your feet, “I’m sorry for frightening you, sweetheart,” and he’s helping you walk over to your car, “just wanted to make sure you get to your car safely,”
Why were you letting him help you? Why was your body leaning against his? Why were you letting his arm slink around your waist, fingers squeezing your hip? But those same questions sunk away into the inky abyss of your mind, as thoughts blurred over each other, and all you can think about was him.
“Satoru,” you murmur, as you stumble against him, and he catches you by your waist, steadying you, “I don’t know what’s wrong,” your head rests against his chest, but you felt so comfortable, so…content.
“It’s okay, baby, I got you,” he purred, his words only intoxicated you further, drizzled like melted molasses down your throat, “that spook I gave you earlier really took it out of you, but,” his fingers tilt your chin up, his eyes finding yours — and they glowed, a shiny blue that unnerved you, “should I show you something really scary?”
“Satoru, what—“ and he’s kissing you, lips sliding against yours — he tastes familiar, hint of candy corn that he was always a fiend for, but he tastes even sweeter than that, headier too — before he parts, “what are you doing?”
“Showing you just how much I missed you,” he hums, thumb gliding over the length of your cheek, “y’know how hard it was for me without you? Wouldn’t be able to sleep. I could only think about how I had screwed thing up. Would take these long walks at night when I couldn’t sleep,” and his fingers trace down your jawline, before reaching your neck, his thumb resting against your pulse, “turns out those walks were good for one thing,”
“And what’s that?” You murmur, still utterly distracted by his touch.
And he brushes his lips against your neck, teeth grazing against your pulse, “Finding a way to keep you — forever,” and his lips find yours again, more insistent this time, as his arms press your body to his, your hands sliding up his chest, caged in by his form, “can I have a bite?” he whispers, lips against your ear now, sending a flush across your cheeks, “just wanna mark you again, like i used to, make you mine,”
For a moment, the curtain snaps back, mask slipping, as your eyes flutter open without the rosy glasses he had slipped over your eyes, “I’m not yours,” and you only see him — the true him — for a moment.
His muscles tighten, fingers digging into your sides harshly, gripping your flesh hard enough to bruise, his gaze is dark, navy instead of the usual cerulean with a ring of red that pierces through your skin, but his teeth — his teeth scare you the most — his fangs aren’t fake, his tongue sliding against them both, as he flashed an unnerving smile at you that sends your blood running cold.
But not colder than his.
“Satoru — what—“ and his lips find yours again, sending a headiness throughout your body, from your head to the tips of your toes, “I-“
“Just let me have this, just this one night,” he murmurs, words as smooth as glass and as needy as need itself, “please,”
And you’re the one pulling him to you, back against the cool metal of your car, and your fingers cup his face, pulling him against your lips. He tastes like want, his tongue parts your lips, as his fingers slide up your dress, sending goosebumps up your thighs, “Fuck, all it takes for you, huh?” He murmurs, and his fangs nibble at your bottom lip making you gasp, pressing wet kisses down your jaw, until he reaches your neck.
“Been thinking about this for far too long, sweetheart,”
two fingers drag down your neck first, as he tilts your head for easy access, and you shiver at his touch — was he colder than before? “I’m going to be doing a lot more than marking you like I did before,” his lips press a delicate kiss to your neck, “need to taste it,”
And his fangs drag over your soft flesh, before he finally bites you. Your mouth hangs open in a sharp gasp as his fangs pierce your skin, and your head lolls back, as pleasure floods your body. You feel your warm blood dripping from your neck, slipping down your skin, as he sucks from you.
He pulls away for a moment to look at you, your scarlet blood dripping from his mouth, painting his pale pink lips burgundy, as his tongue darts out to catch the blood slipping down your chin.
“You taste like everything to me,” he murmurs, pressing his nose against the nape of your neck, “sweetest thing I’ve ever tasted, aren’t you?”
You whimper, “Satoru, feels so good,” and he’s kissing you again, letting you taste your own blood on his lips, it only makes you want him even more. But this isn’t right, something wasn’t right—
“Just give in, sweetheart,” he’s dragging your hands down your sides, squeezing your hips, as his palms rest under your thighs, “let me make you feel good,”
And he lifts you, guiding your legs to wrap around your waist, as his large palm slides up your thigh, hiking your dress up. He grins, looking at your soaked panties, thumb pressing against your puffy clit, making you gasp and squirm, “wonder if you taste even sweeter down here, baby?”
You whine louder, as his fingers slide into the waistband of your underwear and snaps it against your skin, “Your blood is pumping harder than ever, bet it tastes even better like that — full of your fear, full of your pleasure,” his fingers are sliding your drenched panties down, “fuck, you’re a little freak, bet you got wet when I grabbed you, can’t all be from the last few minutes,”
And his lithe finger sinking into you, as your lips part in a gasp as he bullies your walls, “So tight for me,” he groans, as his finger curls against you, making you moan, and his teeth graze against your neck, before sinking in. You both moan in tandem, as he drinks more of your blood, as a second finger parts into your folds, your release dripping down his palm. He’s stretching you out — fingers pistoning in and out, Pleasure courses up and down your body, toes curling, as all you can hear is the sucking of his fangs and the squelch of his fingers in your cunt.
And then he hits that spot, and you’re cumming, slick dripping down your thighs as you moan, as your hips move against his fingers, riding out your orgasm. He pulls your fangs from your neck, letting your blood drip down your neck.
He tilts your head back, letting him look at your fluttering eyelashes and fucked out expression, lips parted, as your blood paints your skin a beautiful maroon.
“So fuckin’ pretty, sweetheart,” he’s pulling his fingers from you, as you gasp from the emptiness. He places them in his mouth, cleaning them of your release, “think I may get addicted baby, gotta have more of you — doesn’t matter if it’s your blood or your cum,”
And you hear the clink of your belt buckle and sound of his zipper, as he frees his cock, rubbing against your dripping pussy, “Gonna let your ex fuck you against your car? Gotta have you baby, but if I take you now, I don’t know if I’ll ever let you go,” he’s teasing the head of his cock against your pussy lips, “do you still want me to do it?”
You whine, back arching against the hard surface of the car, “please, I need you,” your fingers wrap around his neck, his lips against yours, “Satoru—“
And he’s sinking his cock into you, as he’s lifting your legs to your ears, ankles by his ears as his hips flush against your ass, “Fuck, can you feel me kissing the deepest part of you?” His hips roll into you now, slowly at first, again and again, as your walls throb around him, the car groans and your ankles ache against his slow thrusts, “best cunt I’ve ever had, and all fucking mine now,”
“Toru, please, more—“
And he barks a laugh, sweat slipping down your forehead, his balls slapping against your ass, “so needy f’me, you’re mine aren’t you? Say you’re mine,” he’s grunting as your walls flutter around him, and he knows you’re close—
Your orgasm washes over you, toes curling, and he leans forward, fangs sinking into you, as he fucks you through it. The blood he drinks makes your head dizzy with pleasure, until he pulls away, letting your blood drip from his lips. And he’s grunting, hips stuttering as he bottoms out — making you gasp and whine again. Until he’s cumming inside you, painting your walls white, emptying his load into you. He’s fucking his cum inside your cunt.
And he’s easing your legs down as the two of you come down, his face buried in the nape of your neck, licking at the blood dripping from his bites — your neck beginning to ache and sting now.
“So pretty, so perfect,” he coos, his lips curling still red from your blood, as he’s curling his arms around your waist, “gotta take you home so I can taste you all over again.”
“No, I can’t. This was a one time thing—“
And he’s tilting your chin up, eyes flashing dangerously, as his lips curl, “I told you, I’m not going to let you go, besides,” he turns your head towards your rear view mirror, your eyes beginning to glint red, “I have to let you have a bite of me later,” and you can feel your blood run cold, “it’s only fair, isn’t it, sweetheart?”
✴︎ a/n: was possessed to write this by the halloween spirits -- also i have a thing for bloodsucking now unfortunately. have a spooky season :)
✴︎ tag list: @d1rtv, @crazynocturnalkiki, @ichikanu, @dazailover1900, @sinnerstardoll, @bisexualpanicwentoutforasmoke, @dumbabie, @aureatekintsugi, @mooly-artistic, @happymangospot, @hiimarandin, @bunsunee, @5-xiaoo,
#sab [mlist]#satoru gojo x reader#satoru gojo fanfiction#satoru gojo smut#jjk smut#satoru gojo#gojo satoru smut#gojo satoru x reader#gojo x reader#gojo x you#satoru gojo x you#gojo satoru fanfiction#jjk x reader#jjk x you#jujutsu kaisen smut#jujutsu kaisen x reader#jujutsu kaisen fanfiction
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So yeah, how to train your dragon is a big deal to me. I'm not going to watch the live action movie grrghhhhg
Here’s some design stuff? Headcanons?
I my head toothless is literally just that weird anchovie as a dragon. He buzzes around like a bug, and his species intentionally mimics common or gardens as a part of their life cycle on land. The only things that mark him out from the bazillion actual common garden subspecies are the blue wings and webbed feet. He looks all big headed and has no teeth because relative to that 1000 year life span, he’s just a fish fry.
Speaking of common or garden browns, I think it’d be funny if Horrorcow actually *was* herbivorous or mostly-herbivorous because that’s just what subspecies she was and the humans just can’t tell the difference because ’it’s a dragon it must eat meat duh’ and they lump all them together. Honestly it’s prolly for the best she peaces out to the caves for a bit, girl is not built for being in that close proximity to a Main Character.
Fireworm is just a bully, Rottweiler sized and classically dragonish. I tried not to think about making them all super realistic or thinking about how all their species could be related because the books don’t really do that super in depth and that’s part of the fun, so she just looks like a dragon (tm) even though the term dragon also covers things that have fur, or feathers, or produce milk, and look vastly different, Her claws are retractable and her leg spurs help fight off other monstrous nightmares. It’s so funny to me that she just immediately defects to the rebellion, it’s so in character even though she seems to have at least sorta vibed with snot.
I really liked drawing Stormfly as a kid, and the fact that she’s dragon meowth/ can just speak Norse because she can is also fun. She’s not feathery, those are like. Skin flaps or something that can move and change color. Very squirmy.
Windwalker is also one of my faves, I’m sad we didn’t get to see the metamorphosis but the mystery of it is also fun. It was also nice to see him start talking again after meeting hiccup. His ability to out-altitude other dragons is his species’ general hunting strategy and eventually his wings will straighten out (but his are in particularly bad shape because of his time working in the enclosed tunnels of the mines.) (Btw it's still crazy to me that dragon and human slavery is just a thing in the books and we just have to deal with it)
Wodensfang is that classic shriveled Old Man. I think that over time, they molt off their size (through literally freezing up, shrinking a little in a shell of their skin, melting bones and muscle and then coming out smaller, like the reverse of shedding skin to get bigger. Just don't think about it too hard, magic is basically canon here ) over time and leave the ocean to leave more room for the whippersnappers who are just coming in from the land. He’s missing most of his teeth, but the envenomed fangs still work.
I also have the book of dragons, it’d be fun to one day go through and draw all of them (I’ve already done that but those were on notebook paper and lost to time)
#annual singular post unrelated to the wreckhounds brainrot#stormfly and windwalker are my favorites to draw obviously#as you can see im not immune to the hookfang color scheme bias when it comes to monstrous nightmares but fireworm was red in the books too#how to train your dragon#httyd#httyd books#drawing
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Mit der Excel-Vorlage "Blue-Ocean-Ideen-Index" die Blue-Ocean-Ideen bewerten
Mit der Excel-Vorlage “Blue-Ocean-Ideen-Index” die Blue-Ocean-Ideen bewerten
Blue-Ocean-Strategie Blue-Ocean-Strategie, engl. Blue Ocean Strategy, ist eine Methode des strategischen Managements zur Entwicklung dauerhaft profitabler Geschäftsmodelle. Die Blue-Ocean-Strategie wurde von W. Chan Kim und Renée Mauborgne an der INSEAD Business School entwickelt und dort zunächst als Value Innovation (Nutzeninnovation) bezeichnet (Quelle Wikipedia). Die Blue-Ocean-Strategie…
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Star Ocean: Blue Sphere Mini Guide and Tips - Final Section
First half you can view by clicking here.
Leviabor Ruins (Part 2)
Private Action - Leviabor Ruins (Floor 320 / Right Side; Before clearing Leviabor Ruins) - Rena IN - Use Rena's Rebirth to revive some guy killed by a monster. He gives you an item based on the GB model you're playing on. GB/Super Gameboy 1 has the best prize. Note: I didn't do this, because the guide I used gave me the wrong requirements and I passed it. GBA gets an Orichalcum, so it wasn't really worth it anyway.
We can now unlock all floors. Talk to the man on the right and he'll automatically unlock all the floors on both elevators. Don't forget to check both. Make sure you get the Guiding fragments before looking for the Seal.
Go to Ava City (or, if you don't wanna look around, just teleport right to the Leviabor Ruins). Some of the shops are still there, but the buildings aren't… Lord Ava is nowhere to be found (and you still can't take his treasure darn it). 3rd door from the top of Ava's palace is the way back to Leviabor. If you check the inn where you can sleep at the bed for free, you'll also see that is where Lord Ava has taken refuge.
We already have the Fire seal from early game, so that's 1 down, 9 to go…
Water Seal - Start at the 103rd Floor. Defeat the enemies in the rooms going right, right, and up. A treasure appears with a Guiding Water fragment. Return to the beginning of the 103 Floor and go to the left, upper left this time. Defeat the Froggy to get a Blue keycard, then go up. There's a treasure with the Water Seal. Go back to the upper right side and we have to fight Titan. (Huh, he didn't appear for me… maybe I fought him earlier, I can't remember…)
Wind Seal (Rena is required for this floor.) - 114th Floor. Break the box (right, right, up) on the lower right to get the Guiding Wind fragment. Hit the switch ahead. Head up to fight a Titan. Two of Rena's Ray spells took him out easily. Press on until you see a broken floor switch. Use Rena's Rebirth on it. Before hitting this switch, go up and hit the lower right breakable box and reveal another switch. Hit that. Go left and defeat the two titans to get the Wind Seal. Go back using the teleporter on the right.
Earth Seal (Rena is required for this floor if you want the full set of Jeanne armor. Since I'm using Dias/Celine/Rena, it's useless. You should have someone with Push/Pull to avoid near soft-locking.) - 30th Floor. Match up the boxes to the spaces on the floor like you've done many times by now (you can just use Push, you don't need Pull) Go left and match up some more blocks in the upper and lower screens to open a door. Go left and break open the upper left box to get the Guiding Earth fragment. Return to the elevator room and go right this time. Keep going right, use Rena's Rebirth on the center to revive the block and finish the puzzle to get some Jeanne Armor (great for characters like Chisato). Go back to the room left of the boxes and down through the door the Guiding Earth opened up. Fight the Cooper and continue down. Go right and when you get to the room with two blocks, move them off of their spots on the floor to close the previous door and open the bottom one. Get the drive from the treasure chest (you'll need a lot of these, like 5 or 10 or something, you should have 1 so this should make 2).
So I soft-locked myself because I didn't have Pull :/ I had to Teleport out to the ship and go all the way back. To get Pull on Dias or Rena, they need Perseverance at 7. Safe to say, I could get it for Rena, but it just seemed easier to backtrack.
From the room where you moved the two blocks to make 4 match on the floor (lower/center), move them all OFF of the marks so you can go left instead. Grab the treasure for the Earth Seal.
Void Seal - Go to floor 227. First defeat the Carlas and hit the switch on the right. This is timed: Go left, go down, right, and down for a fight. Get the Gold Key and the Fairy Ring. (You don't know how happy I am for a Fairy Ring for Celine; I can spam her spells way more now!) Return to where you flipped the switch and go right. If you don't have hover, you'll have to fall into the pit and go back up. If you go right, there's some useless items. Go back to the elevator area. Go down and left, defeat the Carla, and hit the hidden switch in the block. Go down, hit both switches and return to the elevator again. Go left twice. Defeat the Carlas and get another Blue Key from a ? chest, then hit the switch and go down the lower right path. Go down and in the lower left corner in the Guiding Void. Go right, save, then go down for the boss. Go down and the Void Seal is in the chest. If you come back to large, open room where you got the Guiding Void, with Room Analysis FA, you can get Bunny Shoes. Just nab Ernest and come back.
Star Seal - Go to 216th Floor. Go left, down, left, left, down (use Gold Key you should have 227 Floor). Defeat all enemies in a room to get Blue Keycards. The Guiding Star is in a chest. Return to the elevator and go right and up to get the Star Seal.
Darkness Seal - Go to 115th Floor. Go left, get the treasure, then go back and hit the switch. Go right from here and hit another switch. Go back to the far left and up for the Guided Darkness fragment. Turn off the switch near the elevator and the one to the right, then go down for the Darkness Seal. Go right for a transport down.
Light Seal - Go to the 1st Floor. Go left for one of those Drives and then go back to the elevator area and go to the upper right for the Guided Light fragment. Take the teleporter down and return to the 1st floor. Go right, down, and right to find the switch puzzle room. It's confusing to explain, so I won't list the answer here. Took me about ten minutes to figure out. Go down, right, and fight the boss. Take the Light Seal and Fairy Source and go back down with the teleporter.
We're almost done… I stopped here to use the 2k SP I amassed on Celine and finally maxed out her TECH (I didn't get Lezard Techno, though, which sucked. Too many points in the opposite branch, I think.)
Bolt Seal - B12th Floor. Go down and move the block. Go right and get a Copper Key. Go left, left, up, right and open the door with the key. Go straight up and move the block. Go down and right a let the floodgates open. Swim down and get the chest you couldn't reach before for the Guided Bolt fragment. Go left and left and the fragment will open the door on the lower left of the map. Go through. The Bolt Seal is in the chest. Go to the elevator and switch floors then return to B12. Move the block thats downward near where the Seal was, then activate the water. Go grab the drive from the seal room. Finally, go and come back again, this time just let the water go first thing so it goes to B13.
Minus Seal - B13th Floor. Put all the blocks in the spaces and grab the drive from the center and all the stones in the other chests. Go down and swim to the two blue chests, one has a Platinum Key. Go back to the top side and right, you'll see the area in the screenshot, put the drives you've collected there.
This drains the water. Use the Platinum Key on the lower left door. Go to the far right and put the green block on the green glowing space, then swim back to where we started. If you go up and all the way right, there's a blue chest with the Guiding Minus fragment. Go back to the Platinum Key door and go down until you're in a submerged room with platforms. You can swim, but it doesn't lead anywhere. You can jump, but it is a major pain in the ass. I went and nabbed Precis (switched for Rena) to use Hover to get through this section. Hover to the far left for a boss fight. He went down with 2 Thunderbolts and a Thunderstorm for me. Grab the chest for the Minus Seal. Use a bomb on the back wall and you'll need Pull to move the block (you can then grab 2 stones, nothing great so dont worry if you miss this) and then return to the boss room and go through the transport.
The Final Floor! - 320th Floor -
Put all the Seals in place and face the Chimera boss that Rival sics on you. 6 Thunderbolts took him out. When Celine gets fatigued, switch to Rena to keep Dias alive. Once Chimera is dead, this opens Grand Knott (finally). Go up to enter it, save.
We'll be getting some really good armor soon, so don't waste too many resources just yet. Heal up/restock and let's tackle the lower level of Grand Knott…
Grand Knott (lower layer) Go up and Rival says she'll be waiting on the fourth floor. (The number 4 is associated with death in Japan, so we all know what she means by that…)
Make sure you've saved/healed (Grand Knott is added to the transporter) and go face the boss, El Dorado. Just use a few Thunderbolts and keep your distance. Bless on Dias helps as well. This annoying gold BlackDragonFiendWannabe will be a common enemy soon... :(
Now, to get the treasure we need someone with Room Analysis, so we may have to lose Rena for a bit and bring Ernest. To the right is a Mithril. The left room has a whip for Ernest and I think you can get through it with his Whip ability, but I grabbed Precis to see what the item was (you need both, because you need Room Analysis for the treasure). After this go grab Celine and Rena again (you'll need either Precis or Rena for some items coming up).
Go up from the entrance past the boss room and go left, up, and right to reach a room with some treasure (very useful curatives), then go left and left again (you may have to clear a room of enemies to open a door) to get back to the central area. Go right, up, and left for more treasure (a weapon for Precis.. fun). Now go right, down, right, down, up and you'll see stairs. Go to Floor 2.
Floor 2 - Ignore the panel, go up, left a bit, and up. Grab the treasure (the Mithril Dress isn't better than anything you currently should have so you can skip this step if you want) and then go back to the panel and click it. Go straight up to the 3rd Floor.
Floor 3 - Push the brick onto the circle and the top area will open. Go up, defeat the Golds (do not let them get initiative; Celine's Magic Shot is great for this) and grab the Purple Keycard. Go back to the entrance, move the block off the circle, and go right and up (left is a dead end). On the left side of blocks, break the top right block for the treasure (weapon for Ashton). There are more El Dorados in some of the blocks, so be careful.
Spell - Rena sparked Light Cross from using Ray. :)
Go down and right and down and use Rena's Rebirth on the bridge. Put the block on the space and grab the treasure (Leon weapon) from the right room.
NOTE: There's Seraphic armor in the top hall, so be sure to explore there too. You do not want to pass on this armor. If you've played SO2, you know how powerful it is. Put the Seraphic Guard and Garb on Dias, since he's our meat-shield.
Go back to the bridge and down. It's hard to tell but there's a room with a glowing panel on the upper right. Flip the switch (change the arrow). You'll arrive on the fourth floor. Remember, this is where Rival said she's waiting for us, but we need the Prism Key from the 5th Floor…
Welcome to dungeon maze Hell. Best part is, this is gonna show up in the top half of Grand Knott, too.
Spell - During a battle, using Starlight, Celine sparked Lost Mental (Mind Absorber). Using Ray, Celine sparked Southern Cross (finally~)
I wandered around for 3 hours trying to get elevators to where I needed them. Familiarize yourself with the layout before you do anything.
Fuck this room and everything it represents. What a horrible fucking place to just punish you for learning the game. These little jerks respawn constantly.
There's a series of rooms and the elevators move between the floors. Just follow this guide: Top - A, Right/Middle - B, Right/Bottom - C, Left - D <-- these are the elevators Ride D up. Ride B down. Ride A up. Ride D down. Go right and down for a green dragon enemy. He gives 99 SP per fight and can be one shot killed by Celine's Southern Cross. Go left and take the elevator to Floor 3, then save and go up.
You're truly on the 4th Floor now. Rival lays await in the room ahead. Get the Prism Key from the left side and a Robe of Ishtar for Rena on the left (and Elven Boots too, if you want them). You shouldn't need help with these puzzles, considering they put them on the back of cereal boxes and restaurant playmats… You may even consider grinding that green dragon for SP. When ready go save before going through the door.
Rival is gonna give a whopping 600 SP, so use an Extension Card at the start of the battle! For the fight itself, remember this isn't the final battle… So, don't go ham on using your best stuff yet. Besides, two blasts from Celine's Southern Cross decimated her. I even had time to prep with Anti and Bless, because I went in expecting the worst. :p In fact, using Bless, I sparked Angel Feather!! Even better!
Nice to have some easy levels/fights after that fucking slog that was Grand Knott's lower layer… Rival shows up for real and reveals we defeated a clone. She tries to kill us, but the Edifians intefere and teleport us out.
Aqua City Revisited The Edifian leaders say Rival went to the orbital elevator, Ex Trokia. It's some form of a structure that exists on the planet underwater and can communicate with space (where Rival piloted Grand Knott). The Edifians take you there.
Heal. Restock. Grind a bit in Grand Knott if you want. Make sure you save/have some Extension Cards for the boss battles ahead (make them with Art). When you're ready take the upper left door in Aqua City (the one that previously and can be changed back to Nusa Beach, if you want)
Looks straight out of Alien, huh?
Ex Trokia Trade Rena out for Precis. Floor 2 - You start on 2F. On the left, go left again for treasure. On the right, go right for treasure. Once done, go drop Precis for Rena (the best item was the Shield Earrings, put those on a mage if you need to take less damage) and come back, go back to the right and this time go up (you can jump the 2 gaps). You'll find a ladder to F1. Go down and right and blow up the lower right wall with a bomb. Toss the Mithril Helm on Dias and go back where you blew up the wall and head up.
Floor 1 - On the left, light up the 6 switches before the lights go out. Study duration and use Dias' Dash to get them all. On the right side press the blocks in this order or you'll get attacked: low right, upper left, upper right, lower left. In the center/up room, align the blocks in a cross/plus shape.
Floor 3 - Go up to Floor 3. Go left and flip the lever and go up and activate the console. Return to the beginning of the floor and go right and up for the stairs. If you hit the switches in the room, they open doors. The only item is a Mithril, so go up and right to the 6th Floor. Don't bother with the elevator path on the left; it's a dead end with no items.
Floor 6 - From the stairs go: up, up, up, left, save, and through the door. All the items are just common junk, so don't bother. There's a boss fight coming so heal up and launch the Linear Shuttle to the Metro.
Nu, one of Rival's flunkies, attacks. I used Angel Feather on Dias, then kept my distance as much/often as possible to give time to cast Southern Cross. His first form goes down in 4-5 casts. The second form will take double that. Your biggest issue for the second form is avoiding stamina fatigue and keeping everyone alive. Switch who you're controlling if you need to. Be patient and you'll win quickly. He gives 440 SP, so it's worth using an Extension Card (I forgot)…
Now we're in some kind of colony. They don't register to the teleporter… There's a tricky jump on the upper right. Save, then stand on the metal bar on the right and leap up. Go left, up, grab the ? treasure, and continue right and up. Go to the next shuttle and the next colony (Norn colony).
Go up and right. Defeat the dragon guys to open the doors again. Go up (right is nothing and the enemies do respawn). Go to the next shuttle / Metro colony. Go up for a place to heal for free. To the right of the beds is a wall to bomb. You get one of each Check (Stone ect) and some Talismans. Go back to the main area and go right.
There's a series of rooms here with blue crests on the floor. Kill the enemies WITHOUT destroying the boxes. When you put them over the crests the block in the center becomes a treasure (usually its the best weapon in the game outside Blue Sphere crafting or Cave of Trials, so they are well worth it!) I think if you mess up you can go back to your ship, but you can't go to the colonies, so you'd have to backtrack… Save carefully (I missed Precis' weapon) If you go up you'll find an elevator that takes you to the final city, Cosmo City, so there may be hope yet to complete the colony…
Of course, we have to go through a little road to the city. Go left to heal/save. Go up through the enemies to face a boss, Rival's other flunky, Diablo.
Use an Extension Card first thing in the fight. Use Celine's Southern Cross and Rena's Light Cross to take him out fairly quickly (he also doesn't have a second form and he isn't as aggressive as the other guy was).
Cosmo City Enter Cosmo City. There's a blue Froggy enemy, but he isn't hostile. All the little robots are talking about their Master away on a trip and are obscessed with cleaning. It's kinda sad :( Make sure you upgrade your main trios weapons (I guess the upgrades in the dungeon weren't as good? Or the same?) Anyway, they're pretty pricey. If you go to the Item Shop they have higher-grade food ingredients, so you could cook with those or use anything you have. Personally, I sold gold bars and all the Bunny statues and got just enough Fol for weapons, a Duel Helm for Dias, some accessories, and restocked my usual consumables.
Go back to the ship to heal for free and feel free to pick some herbs in Cosmo with Bowman if you want. Also, make sure to switch out Dias and talk to him for his ultimate weapon. (Private Action) Fun fact, he says he got it from Gamgee! Nice!
Speaking of… How do we get the Blue Spheres for the Ultimate Weapons?!
Item Creation - Alchemy / Blue Sphere Make sure skill is maxed Make sure you have the Lezard Flask This works for everyone except Dias, Chisato, and one other (I need to look this up again) who obtain through Psychometry and NOT Blue Sphere. Make Blue Sphere, have the ultimate weapon, and bring it to the man in Knott…
You need to make connections between the elements. Blue Sphere needs: Earth (4), Water (6), Fire (4), and Wind (4 Minimum, 6 Max). Connections are when the gems connect, like this: o-o-o = 2 connections o-o-o-o =3 connections
My wife and I tried for a long time… it's basically impossible. On the bright side, iron is cheap and using alchemy can be a great way to make money for late-game. The only other way to get Blue Spheres is to play the Connect feature, which isn't usable for English. :( My only idea is to load up my save in a GB and go grab that supposed free one, so let's try that…
Go to the door behind Rival's old base in Knott and find the tower with the breakable wall (remember, the wall is only breakable in Mobile version, which is lost media… So the GB version (Black and White) makes a hole you can pass through)
Thank. God. Using my emulator to change the settings worked (make sure it's set to Gameboy, Black and White) or the door won't appear. So, we have 1 free Blue Sphere. Let's take it to the man in Knott…
Okay, I can confirm there is none for Dias, Ashton, or Chisato, so don't bother. We may as well make Celine hers. So choose 'Rod' from the list. You'll get the Volcanic Mage Rod. Now, you may notice it's like the other ultimate weapons (which, btw, Dias, Ashton, and Chisato give through their Private Actions). All the stats are 0. That's not quite the case!
How do the Ultimate Weapons work?
Here is how they work: ATK = Stat Base + STR divided by 2, Stat Base + HIT = Dexterity divided by 4, Stat base + MAG = INT divided by 2
So, Celine's base INT right now in my file is 304, giving this weapon an +INT of 152, bringing the total MAG/INT to a powerful 456! You can see the stat change in the Status Menu.
In comparison, though, there are the Cave of Trials weapons. Celine's best CoT weapon is the Forbidden Maze (not sure of the ROM translation, this is from the guide) which only has an INT of 100… There is also that early dungeon weapon based on total playtime, but it seems a pain to calculate. If you wanna go grab that and give it a shot, go for it! (I mentioned it early on in the guide.)
Don't get confused by the 0 change to Dias' STR, his ATK power goes way up! :)
In conclusion, the Blue Sphere is worth it.
Skills - More Tips A character is maxed/can't learn anymore skills when the skill level reaches 350. You REALLY need to not level the opposite branch at all. I did this for Dias and he learned Awakening, but Celine had too many points in Battle and did not learn Lezard Techno or Lost Magic.
Item Creation - Psychometry From what I gather, if Dias learned Awakening, then he just needs Radio Waves (Sense Lv 1 Skill) and Religious Studies (Theology) (Int level 1 skill) also to unlock Psychometry.
I'm not going to touch on it too heavily, but the object of the game will let you use up the ultimate weapon to unlock the ultimate skill (SAVE before). I think if you succeed / luck you can keep the weapon AND learn the skill. Theology seems to be a late INT skill, and I haven't maxed Battle yet… I will update if I manage to train enough, as having another skill would be great, but not at the loss of the weapon…
Late-Game Levelling (before Cave of Trials) I want to make more Extend Cards and go fight those green dragons that give 99 SP each, since they would give 198 SP each fight and they go down in one hit of Celine's Thunderstorm…
Item Creation - Art (Extend Card) First, we need Extend Cards, so we need Art. Celine should have it near max. Buy Magical Canvas from Mile Ruins' Shop. Save. To get Extend Card, you need red paint in the center of the image (each different item requires different colors/placements). If you have trouble affording the Magical Canvas, sell any paintings or cards you don't want, food, or stones made with Alchemy.
If you don't get red paint, don't worry. Just stay nearest to the center as you can and you can still get an Extend Card. If you have another color but already have red in the center, you can hold the brush off of the canvas as well. My advice is to just keep all paint towards the center by lightly tapping opposite the direction the paint brush moves.
Once you have 15, go to Ex Trokia (3F) and fight the green dragon enemies. I know you can use Rena's Rebirth to revive monsters, too, but an easier way is to get to the 4F stairs and go back down to respawn the dragons in the rooms. Once you enter a room, wait a second and use Celine's Magic Shot FA for initiative. Get some distance in the fight, have Rena use the Extend Card, and then cast Southern Cross for easy one-hit wins.
Also, while leveling Dias, I learned the skill he needed for Pull, which is Mental at level 7 (it's a Battle Skill). Also, once he got the Level 4 Skill Combination the AI was doing 4 hit combos and taking down the dragons itself.
I am hoping to max Dias, but I don't wanna go forever training. I'm already at 40 hours playtime. Heal/stock/save, maybe try to make some more armor if you want, then let's go complete this game!
Grand Knott (upper layer) The transporters in the first area with the escalators all lead to the bottom. Bring a few bombs.
Go up the right escalator 4 times, then take the left path for a treasure. Keep going up from there.
There's a bomb wall on the right. I put the Mirage Robe on Celine for the extra evasion, since she's middle spot. Don't bother with the escalators for now (left ones are an enemy filled dead end, right leads up). Go left and then go through the door with the guard.
Here's the damn elevator puzzle again. Go up twice, take the elevator. Go right, down, down, left, down / out the door, down the escalator, left and through the door again. Go left and ride the elevator. Go right, down / out the door, up the escalator, and through the door. On the right there is a dead end with a weapon for Precis. From the entrance go left and up. If you want Sylvan armors (not useful for Dias/Cel/Rena), ride the elevator. Grab the treasure (be careful of the red dragon, we're back to OKO enemies boys… I just ran) and go back down the elevator. Go right, up, left, up, right, up, left. Solve the maze to get to the upper/right side, go up the stairs and get one of the God Rings for the CoT.
Go back down to the maze and solve to go up. Rival greets us and welcomes us to the Grand Knott Core.
Grand Knott (Core) Use Jump to grab the Philosopher's Stone from the chest, then teleport back to your ship real quick.
Private Action - OUT: Celine - Spaceship - Gain Field Action / FA Teleport by speaking with her outside the ship.
Prepare now. By the end of the dungeon, I did learn Psychometry (leveled Sense and Battle to full, then learned Knowledge until I got Theology!)
You'll need Teleport or Hover to get through easiest. The main enemy here is that red dragon, so it's not going to be a cakewalk… There's a little bit of dungeon to explore (best items are Wizard's Mesh on the far bottom right and the Oberon Knife (towards the top left, you'll need Teleport or Whip to reach it), but I'll provide the most direct path to Rival / Final Boss: Right, up, (Repair the bridge with Rena's FA Rebirth), up, left, up, up, up, right, right, right, across the gap with the poles (use Teleport or Ernest Whip), go all the way left, up, right, and you should see an opening going up. Save!!! The final boss is on the other side!!!
SAVE
I equipped Dias with the Tri-Emblem. Celine removed Star Necklace for a Resist Ring.
Final Boss Rival
She shifts between four forms. You must defeat a form in 30 seconds to kill it. If you only damage it and she shifts, the form fully heals.
The mecha goes down pretty quick between Dias' attacks and Celine's Southern Cross. The demon only takes three Southern Cross to kill. The wizard takes a long time casting, so using spells/attacks it should go down quickly. Make sure if you're controlling Dias to stay up on her, she likes to back up. Lenneth form is the worst one, mostly vunerable to physical attacks; if you can hit her. Use Angel Feather and any support items (Mental Pot on Celine, a Speed increase for Dias). After I did this Dias finally took her out fairly quickly. The normal form of Rival is cake and goes down super quick. You should see it briefly at the beginning of the fight and again at the end.
Rival, defeated, explains she is a human created by Edifice, a master computer from another world (Mother Brain?) It's goal is to never let humanity evolve too far and erase it every time it advances. Rival also explains that she wanted to defeat Edifice, but isn't able to, so she summoned the SO2 group to do so.
Rival gives her goodbyes and you go on to face Edifice. Don't worry about the fight; Dias took it out in like 3 hits.
Looks like a FNAF endoskeleton D:
Mother Brain explodes and you escape. Congrats to us all, for finally completing the main story of Blue Sphere! :)
ENDING - SPOILERS (Note: There are not multiple endings, but there is a post game.)
Okay, shitty new Tumblr only allows 30 images per post, so PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR THE ENDING / FINAL THOUGHTS POST. (This is ridiculous.)
#star ocean blue sphere#tips and tricks#strategy guide#SOBS#beginner's guide#star ocean series#fan translated#video game review
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