One problem arises thou, what should be then be striving for in the end game? Since 2x-Cut and Slash all seem to be the endgame phy materia, adding them early makes STR builds even more deprived of good endgame materia. The thing that people seem to forget, is that Physical attacks are free and magic is not. I do agree that magic becomes the go-to for many situations, but a simple increase in both MP cost and MP drain from Osmose should fix it quite nicely.
Edit: What i mean with that is that casters should waste turns both casting spells and draining MP, while phy attackers do it for free with no downtime. What could be done is giving an extra mastered Steal materia for Mug + Added Cut. Then you have the 2x-Cut some might need early.
2x-Cut will never be early-game. Slash-All I'm looking at on the condition that I can make split-damage happen for it.
Thank you SC, however, I've ran into a bit a problem. I got the gi cave key from Bugenhagen but its not letting me open the cave door so I checked my inventory and its not showing up. I checked the "where is the thing" file that comes with the mod and it says Red XIII 4th limit break can be found in the gi cave
Are you on Disc 3 and have you visited the bottom of the North Crater? I've maybe set up the flags to check for that too by mistake.
Is there a trick to beating pearl weapon feel like a noob for asking but man feels like i taken 100K damage off it blasted through so much magic constant healing and barriers that it seems like it dont die (he opened his chest 3 times and took 4/5 4000 damage each turn from tifa and 3/4 4500 lightining 3 and a dive from cid for 4000 every chest opening) and on the third blast the then went on to attack 4 times in a row straight after his attack and ruined 40 mins of grinding him down
i have no idea if he has a weakness cause scan wont work really frustrating (done the battle 4/5 times with same result FeelsBadMan )
All of the Weapon monsters are aspected to the Holy element and will take 2x damage from the Hidden element; you can get this with the following combinations (tested by Skirmish):
The following linked with Elemental WILL grant the Hidden Element:
Planet
Shield
Contain
Destruct
Time
Comet
Barrier
Mystify
Seal
Enemy Skill
Manipulate
Deathblow
Morph
Throw
Sense
Steal
Double Cut
Slash-All
HP<->MP
Underwater
Counter Attack
Mega-All
Hidden element spells might be tough to come by, but you can also deal 2x damage with Earth against Pearl Weapon because of it's size so Quake, Titan, and Kjata should be useful (avoid using Wind though as this will be halved). For defence, you'll want to cover the Slow-Numb/Petrify status and when the chest opens ensure that every character's HP is over 50% to survive Weapon Flash, with some more defensive buffs ready to replace the ones lost to the Dispel effect.
For stats, Pearl has 182,000HP and decent defences. You'll want to get Slow on him ASAP and pace out your attacks as he has a chance to counter your Magic attacks when his chest is closed with Pearl Raze, or to counter physical attacks when his chest is open with Revenge Stamp (so don't throw in a weak spell/physical if it isn't worth the possible counter; let your focused damage dealers do the work instead to get the best trade-off). When hitting Pearl with physical attacks during the chest phase, be careful if a character's HP dips below 50% to a random counter-attack as Weapon Flash will kill them.
Whenever the chest opens, it means he has lost 25% of his HP so you'll only see the chest open 3 times max (unless his AI sets him to start the battle by opening his chest, which means you'll see it four times). If you saw it open 3 times in your last attempt then you were very close to killing him, I'm afraid to say. One thing to watch though is that as he falls below 75%, 50%, and 25% HP he becomes more likely to use Pearl Shot twice (or was it Pearl Blast) instead of once. For that reason, it might be worth saving your Summons like Kjata for when he hits 25% HP to make this more dangerous phase shorter, or to be a bit more cautious about attacking in case you get a counter-attack + a double Shot altogether.
Summary
-) Use Earth and Hidden, avoid Holy and Wind
-) Protect against Petrify
-) Chest opens at 75%, 50%, and 25% HP; becomes more aggressive at lower HP.
-) Save summons/nukes for 25% HP phase (after Weapon Flash is used)
-) Watch for random counter-attacks against magic attacks (chest closed) and physical attacks (chest open).
-) Keep HP above 50% for Weapon Flash & be ready to restore defensive buffs (MBarrier is the more important).
Is there a trick to the Robot Dragon? I can't kill it before Reactor Meltdown and I'm not sure if you can prevent that attack.
Have you been to the bottom of the crater? I believe you can get the key before doing so but you need to go down to the bottom (where your party re-unite after taking the multiple paths) and get the phone call from Highwind. After that, put Red into your party and the gate should be open.
Pearl Weapon is weak to Earth and Hidden elements. Elemental + Earth for your physical attackers and Quake 3 on a mage is recommended. And I believe Steal works for the Hidden Element, but mages can't cast it at that point of the game (or can you get Shadow Flare on disc 2?) A good strategy is to cast Titan early in the battle since it'll ignore Pearl's high defences. Save your limits (if possible) for when he opens his chest and when he does unleash your strongest attacks. Just keep your Barriers up and HP near max when his chest is open so you survive.
Ah, so it is the crater trigger that's locking the cave of the gi? I'll remove that check for the next patch so that it's just the key (which doesn't show in the inventory, it's actually just a script flag).
The robot dragon can be prevented from going into Meltdown by inflicting Slow on it.
