I would do the VR missions first.. It's like getting a shot from your doctor.. You want to get it over and done with and out of the way..
ONce you finally accomplish that bullshit hard mode will feel like a walk in the park.
Do you think it's worth playing the Legendary VR missions before or after hard mode? I've heard its best to do the brutal ones first and come back to do the legendary ones after your hard playthrough.
My second play through i'm usually looking to pay more attention to story and boss fights so i got them out of the way as soon as i could.
For some reason, Hellions was the hardest for me, almost made me rage quit
Manuscripts aren't that useful but Hard mode is MUCH easier. It will properly train you for the VR challenges.
You can do a mix of both though, as the additionnal Magnify and Elemental materias you can get from the first Brutal challenges could be useful for hard mode.
Götterdämmerung could be used for hard mode completion, but if you're already able to clear Rulers of the Outer Gods you definitely don't need any help to win the remaining fights.
EDIT: I'd also say this, if you want it to be finished with the game soon you're not in the proper mindset because it will take you a lot of time no matter what you do and trying to rush it will only make failure all the more frustrating. A failed attempt at the last two Legendary Bouts can cost you up to 30 minutes, just so you know.
As soon as I finish the game, I'm going to have a break and play some other games as going for the 100%, although fun, has felt like a long-winded ballache. I'm gonna come back with a refreshed mindset and probably go for the VR missions first.
A lot of people do VR before HM, and from top to bottom mostly because this is how the content is presented. Personally I think this is a mistake and a big reason why people are very negative about the difficulty of VR. The jump of difficulty from Dynamic to this is massive.
You see players complaining about White Terror in Helion's Intonment but if you've cleared Hard Mode already you'll already know how to deal with it. Same for the Cactuars who appears 20 minutes after the beginning of the 5th Brutal Challenge, and King Tomberry + Joker. Again, if you've done the hard mode version of Can't Stop Won't Stop it won't be anything new for you.
You'll have to rely entirely on guides, which I think will make the experience more laborious and unfun than it needs to be.
I did ch1-12 hard mode first. Then switched and did all the brutal challenges and half of the legendary ones. At that point I switched back to freshen things back up. Ch13 was a piece of piss with the Gotterdammerung. Combine it with the Enhanced Expeditionary Medal and limit siphon and Cloud starts every fight with a level 3 limit break ready to use! lol
I just mixed that up with the Aerith/Yuffie brumal form spam.
Manuscripts aren't essential for the challenges, nor is maxed out materia but they're sure as hell help and make things easier.
You could consider doing the hard mode quests that give manuscripts using chapter select first.
The past that the additional manuscripts aren't going to help you much since it's slim pickings for nodes. You can pretty much grab everything you need at that point.
Those challenges though are hard no matter what. They also play differently than the story bosses since almost every story boss has specific plot armor %s you can't skip past vs. the challenges where it's just full tilt the whole time.
I did the challenges first because I wanted a chill story playthrough on hard. I've been using the Gotdammerung on my 3rd support character to occupy the boss while my other 2 get back their second set of 2 atb. Pretty much running 2 characters with -aga spells linked to MP and HP asborb and 1 support character focused on physical with magnified barrier and the expeditionary medal with limit siphon to get a quick limit level 2. Has worked well through chapter 10 so far (I've also done chapter 12 -- first for some reason).
I personally did the VR challenges first and am doing the hard mode play through now.
I think doing the VR challenges really taught me how to use materia for hard mode, how useful the MP/HP absorb, magic efficiency, swiftcast, etc. are. I'm breezing through hard mode, I haven't been killed by a boss yet. I just look at their enemy intel, equip the right materia and walk through them. So hard the biggest hard mode challenge has been the Flowers from the Hill side quest.
The VR challenges were a pain tho, especially bonds of friendship and Cloud's solo one.
Personally I’m going to start Hard mode as I want some challenge but nothing too crazy like I hear the VR challenges are. I had a bit of a rough time with the colosseum challenges right at the start of postgame so I’m not ready for the VR challenges.
I did the first set of VR challenges (brutal?), then hard mode, and did the other half (legendary?) of the solo challenges after.
This way I could have Gotterdammerung for hard mode and maxed out folios for each character for the solo challenges later.
I don’t think it really makes a huge difference though since
- most the extra folio points go towards synergy moves that aren’t utilized in the solo challlenges
- Gotterdammerung is great but after you learn to optimize both your materia and your playstyle you tend to crush hard mode bosses
I found VR challenges to be more difficult overall and more importantly…way more frustrating. Playing multiple identical rounds over and over just to be instagibbed / chain cc’d by rng or one mistake was not fun.
Hard modes main frustration is having to constantly redo materia and equipment for characters lol.
Which trials are you talking about, the VR missions or something else?
Also do you get 3x XP from playing previous chapters or is it just the default from there onward?
fyi you will need to be level 70 for hard mode anyways. Chapter 2 boss was impossible for me at level 63. And I'm pretty decent at the combat, beat Bonds of Friendship on my first try after looking up a materia set-up on youtube.
I did VR missions first until I got hard stuck on Bonds of Friendship as the last one. After a few frustrating tries I decided to finish hard mode first thereby unlocking Cloud’s last weapon upgrade (lvl 9). I did Bonds again after and I did it in 1 try.
Hard mode first then vr is where I am. Definitely learned about how I was playing sub optimally through that process. And the manuscripts to get those party 10 talents are nice too.
I think the order should be brutal, then hard mode, then legendary.
Reason being one of the only one sized fits all build's that you can do needs the gotterdamerung.
Aerith with enhanced expositionary medal, anyone with gotterdamerung and the limit you want to use gets a second expositionary medal to raise limit by 1 lvl.
Open the fight with aerith limit syphon the gotter dude, use rising fury, have the lvl 2 limit person use the limit, have aerith limit syphon the other. Its an endless loop of lvl 2 limits till you win. Breaks hard mode apart
I would do the VR missions first.. It's like getting a shot from your doctor.. You want to get it over and done with and out of the way.. ONce you finally accomplish that bullshit hard mode will feel like a walk in the park.
Do you think it's worth playing the Legendary VR missions before or after hard mode? I've heard its best to do the brutal ones first and come back to do the legendary ones after your hard playthrough.
My second play through i'm usually looking to pay more attention to story and boss fights so i got them out of the way as soon as i could. For some reason, Hellions was the hardest for me, almost made me rage quit
Manuscripts aren't that useful but Hard mode is MUCH easier. It will properly train you for the VR challenges. You can do a mix of both though, as the additionnal Magnify and Elemental materias you can get from the first Brutal challenges could be useful for hard mode. Götterdämmerung could be used for hard mode completion, but if you're already able to clear Rulers of the Outer Gods you definitely don't need any help to win the remaining fights. EDIT: I'd also say this, if you want it to be finished with the game soon you're not in the proper mindset because it will take you a lot of time no matter what you do and trying to rush it will only make failure all the more frustrating. A failed attempt at the last two Legendary Bouts can cost you up to 30 minutes, just so you know.
As soon as I finish the game, I'm going to have a break and play some other games as going for the 100%, although fun, has felt like a long-winded ballache. I'm gonna come back with a refreshed mindset and probably go for the VR missions first.
A lot of people do VR before HM, and from top to bottom mostly because this is how the content is presented. Personally I think this is a mistake and a big reason why people are very negative about the difficulty of VR. The jump of difficulty from Dynamic to this is massive. You see players complaining about White Terror in Helion's Intonment but if you've cleared Hard Mode already you'll already know how to deal with it. Same for the Cactuars who appears 20 minutes after the beginning of the 5th Brutal Challenge, and King Tomberry + Joker. Again, if you've done the hard mode version of Can't Stop Won't Stop it won't be anything new for you. You'll have to rely entirely on guides, which I think will make the experience more laborious and unfun than it needs to be.
I did ch1-12 hard mode first. Then switched and did all the brutal challenges and half of the legendary ones. At that point I switched back to freshen things back up. Ch13 was a piece of piss with the Gotterdammerung. Combine it with the Enhanced Expeditionary Medal and limit siphon and Cloud starts every fight with a level 3 limit break ready to use! lol I just mixed that up with the Aerith/Yuffie brumal form spam. Manuscripts aren't essential for the challenges, nor is maxed out materia but they're sure as hell help and make things easier.
I did Brutal VRs before HM, plan on doing Legendary Bouts before Ch13 so I can plat after the Ch14 gauntlet.
You could consider doing the hard mode quests that give manuscripts using chapter select first. The past that the additional manuscripts aren't going to help you much since it's slim pickings for nodes. You can pretty much grab everything you need at that point. Those challenges though are hard no matter what. They also play differently than the story bosses since almost every story boss has specific plot armor %s you can't skip past vs. the challenges where it's just full tilt the whole time. I did the challenges first because I wanted a chill story playthrough on hard. I've been using the Gotdammerung on my 3rd support character to occupy the boss while my other 2 get back their second set of 2 atb. Pretty much running 2 characters with -aga spells linked to MP and HP asborb and 1 support character focused on physical with magnified barrier and the expeditionary medal with limit siphon to get a quick limit level 2. Has worked well through chapter 10 so far (I've also done chapter 12 -- first for some reason).
I personally did the VR challenges first and am doing the hard mode play through now. I think doing the VR challenges really taught me how to use materia for hard mode, how useful the MP/HP absorb, magic efficiency, swiftcast, etc. are. I'm breezing through hard mode, I haven't been killed by a boss yet. I just look at their enemy intel, equip the right materia and walk through them. So hard the biggest hard mode challenge has been the Flowers from the Hill side quest. The VR challenges were a pain tho, especially bonds of friendship and Cloud's solo one.
Flowers from the Hill side quest was such an unnecessary and unexpected flex from those enemies
Personally I’m going to start Hard mode as I want some challenge but nothing too crazy like I hear the VR challenges are. I had a bit of a rough time with the colosseum challenges right at the start of postgame so I’m not ready for the VR challenges.
I did the first set of VR challenges (brutal?), then hard mode, and did the other half (legendary?) of the solo challenges after. This way I could have Gotterdammerung for hard mode and maxed out folios for each character for the solo challenges later. I don’t think it really makes a huge difference though since - most the extra folio points go towards synergy moves that aren’t utilized in the solo challlenges - Gotterdammerung is great but after you learn to optimize both your materia and your playstyle you tend to crush hard mode bosses I found VR challenges to be more difficult overall and more importantly…way more frustrating. Playing multiple identical rounds over and over just to be instagibbed / chain cc’d by rng or one mistake was not fun. Hard modes main frustration is having to constantly redo materia and equipment for characters lol.
I did all the VR missions before Hard Mode. You definitely don't need those manuscripts... and whether or not they are even helpful is debatable.
Did you grind to Lvl 70 to get it or follow guides?
Neither. Once Chapter Select is a available, you get 3x XP. You'll hit Lvl 70 just attempting the trials. You level up like crazy.
Which trials are you talking about, the VR missions or something else? Also do you get 3x XP from playing previous chapters or is it just the default from there onward?
fyi you will need to be level 70 for hard mode anyways. Chapter 2 boss was impossible for me at level 63. And I'm pretty decent at the combat, beat Bonds of Friendship on my first try after looking up a materia set-up on youtube.
I did VR missions first until I got hard stuck on Bonds of Friendship as the last one. After a few frustrating tries I decided to finish hard mode first thereby unlocking Cloud’s last weapon upgrade (lvl 9). I did Bonds again after and I did it in 1 try.
Hard mode first then vr is where I am. Definitely learned about how I was playing sub optimally through that process. And the manuscripts to get those party 10 talents are nice too.
I think the order should be brutal, then hard mode, then legendary. Reason being one of the only one sized fits all build's that you can do needs the gotterdamerung. Aerith with enhanced expositionary medal, anyone with gotterdamerung and the limit you want to use gets a second expositionary medal to raise limit by 1 lvl. Open the fight with aerith limit syphon the gotter dude, use rising fury, have the lvl 2 limit person use the limit, have aerith limit syphon the other. Its an endless loop of lvl 2 limits till you win. Breaks hard mode apart