Various Thoughts

I’ve spoken about The Last Remnant in the past (though that post was lost along with most of everything else when the site died), but not really about any part of it in specific. Now in the process of re-playing it for the third time after an extended delay (last save was from May 2010) and I’ve just defeated the titular Enlightened Seven to mostly finish out this playthrough’s party. So, why post about it? Because while the existing strategies on the Wiki and various forums that pop-up via Google are useful, they leave out a few key points. So, for future reference, here is my own exploration of this particular battle.

Two things to be aware of here are that I’m playing the PC version (which has a number of improvements and other changes), and deliberately rushed through the main plot events and delayed a number of sidequests in order to avoid outgrowing the recruitable versions of the Seven.

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Abilities
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Abilities that will help:

• Lob Omen/Namul Niram
• Orphic Ward
• Cachexia
• Power/Shield Potion IV-V
• Anything that causes Silence (Silencer, Sound Dampener, etc.)
• Anything that raises/lowers Morale (Mixed Messages, Retreat Flare, etc.)

Abilities that may help:

• Stealth

Abilities that should be deactivated for the fight:

• Any buffing ability not mentioned above (Protection, Support, etc.)
• Anything that causes Poison/Paralysis/Curse/Blackout (Poison Gas, Confuse, Maledict, Stun Trap, etc.)
• Any AOE-effect ability (Caustic Blast, Snare Shot, etc.)
• Weaker versions of basic damaging/healing abilities (i.e. if you have Acid Bomb then deactivate Flash Bomb)

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Equipment
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Weapons for your main damage dealers should be at or near their final customization if at all possible while accessories should lean toward physical/magical evasion and increased AP/HP (though you won’t have much control over this unless you edit the .ini file).

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General Party Makeup
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Three 4-person Unions and two 3-person Unions will generally give you the best balance between damage potential and damage avoidance. A 5-person Union does not have the best odds where Galaxy and Twin Snowpetal are concerned, and 3-person Unions tend to find Milton’s and Young’s single strike knock outs more deadly.

You’ll want one healer and one reviver in each Union. Using one character for both roles will not be a good idea, as quite often you’ll want to revive a fallen union and heal yourself at the same time (not to mention the single-person KO’s mentioned above). You’ll also want the leader of each Union to have a Unique Art of some sort, preferably not an AOE one (i.e. not Gae Bolg, Zeal’s Virtue, etc.)… though that will do if no other options are available. The reason for this is the huge Evasion boost Unions get when a UA is triggered; the most troublesome enemy abilities in this fight can be dodged.

Having a Morale-affecter in each Union would also be a good idea, as would grouping the characters who use Item-based skills together with the leaders who have the most expensive Unique Arts (Duke of Ghor, Jager, etc.) while putting the Mystic-based ones in the less AP-intensive Unions (Torgal, Emmy, etc.).

As for Formations…. Well, that’s an entire subject all on its own. In this particular instance I used Hourglass (+Item Arts) for the 4-person Unions and Trident (+Combat Arts) for the 3-persons ones (having been unimpressed with Vampire, Mystic Henge, and Pendulum in some earlier attempts). Just stay away from Formations that bunch everyone together or reduce either your Physical/Mystic Defense or Speed and you should be fine. Defense for obvious reasons and Speed because it will help a great deal against Ludope.

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Enemies
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Snievan: Uses a basic attack, a physical Union-wide Unique Art that will kill you if it hits (Lugh’s Revenge), and a Union-wide non-damaging ability that causes Curse and turns the Morale bar red (Phantom Pain). Your Summon can tank him with few issues as it’s immune to Curse and the UA will only kill it if it’s not at full health.

Milton: Uses a basic attack with an instant death effect, Mixed Messages, and a UA that gives him five actions a round and increases all his stats (Iron Will). He will use Iron Will a lot, and any Union without high evasion (including the Summon) will likely be wiped out before it can do much of anything. So you need to send two Unions at a time at him and hope the first one is wiped-out so that the second one can get a free attack. If you’re (un)lucky he won’t manage to fully kill the first Union and you’ll end up with two mostly-dead unions instead of a single fully dead one, drawing things out.

Ludope: The first thing he does after appearing is cast a battlefield-wide UA that deals a lot of mystic damage (Galaxy). After that he switches between Maledict, Mystic Mine, Grenade Impact, basic attacks, and more Galaxy’s. If you’re lucky you should be able to get several turns in-between uses of Galaxy, if you’re unlucky he’ll use Galaxy multiple times in succession and that will be that. Hitting him with Silence tends to shut him down for a turn though, so a couple of fast characters with Silence-causing abilities will nudge the odds a bit in your favor.

Zuido: The second character your summon will be tanking. He has an array of standard two-handed Physical Arts and a physical-based AOE UA (Giant Press). The only time he’s ever dangerous is when he initially appears with Ludope, as it’s quite possible that he’ll Giant Press right on top of the only units to survive that first Galaxy. Afterward, the Summon will likely drag him off away from your party, making Giant Press a non-issue.

Young: Has a basic physical attack, a physical AOE UA (Brawl), and auto-uses an ability that turns the Morale bar red (Victory Cry) at the start of any turn it shows any blue. There are two things to keep in mind when facing him; his basic attacks can deal enough damage to insta-kill weaker characters while leaving the Union as a whole alive and if you kill him when the Morale bar is fully red the Twin Snowpetal on the following turn will probably wipe you out. Interestingly, those two things are related as having single characters KO’d in a fully-healed Union means a greater chance of surviving a battlefield-wide ability.

Hinnah/Hannah: They use basic attacks, an ability which lowers a Union’s Attack/Defense rating (Attack/Defense Crusher), a battlefield-wide physical UA (Twin Snowpetal) at the start of any turn they’re both alive and have enough AP, and an ability that gives them five actions a turn (Overdrive) if one of them is dead. In addition to that, Hannah will cast Second Chance on Hinnah if she’s notably wounded and Hinnah may use an ability that Enthralls a union (Total Domination) if Hannah has been killed. Twin Snowpetal is very deadly with a red Morale bar, but notably less so with a mostly blue one. As such you have two options here; keep your Morale high and whittle them both down evenly to reduce your exposure to Overdrive, or go all-in on Hannah and kill her as quickly as possible (she won’t heal herself) to stop the Snowpetals.

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Battle Structure
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The fight has four phases. The first is Snievan and Milton, the second Ludope and Zuido, the third Young, and the last being Hinnah and Hannah. The second and last of these are by far the trickiest, while Young requires a bit of finesse.

To start out you’ll want your Summon active on the very first turn. If it isn’t, reset/reload until it is. You can get by waiting until later to summon it, but it complicates things. The Summon’s job in this battle is to keep Snievan/Zuido/Young/Hinnah busy while potentially distracting Ludope. Every other Union on this first turn should Wait, Heal, or Stealth. Do not attack Snievan unless you get no other options, and if it does force you (this is how Stealth is semi-useful, it gives you more non-attacking options) then go for the lowest damaging choice; you do not want him to die before you’re ready for it.

Snievan will likely Raidlock someone (doesn’t matter what attack he uses), while the Summon will respond by Multi-Deadlocking him. Turn two will begin and Milton will make his entrance. Assuming you had everyone Wait he should be in range of most/all of your Unions (the one Snievan attacked may be too far away). Send two Unions at him (preferably a 3-person followed by a 4-person, but attack order is hard to judge), have two Unions Heal, and free up that Union Snievan Deadlocked any way you can. From now until Milton dies you’ll be having whichever strongest two Unions happen to be available attack Milton while the remainder heal/revive (make sure to keep the Summon healed as well). Don’t bother with Morale-altering abilities until he’s dead.

If you’re lucky with the above healing/reviving you’ll get some free Orphic Ward or Shield/Power Potion uses on the revived Unions. If not, there’s still hope for the next phase. Once Milton dies you should first have all five Unions sit back and completely fill their AP bars (while still healing the Summon), and then when everyone’s at or close to max attack him with everything so that you’ll hopefully get at least one flanking union, preferably more. The next turn have the two that Deadlocked him disengage while the flankers continue flanking to build up your morale bar. When he’s near death, if the bar is still mostly red (due to Phantom Pain), you’ll want to attack with as many Unions (who are not protected by Orphic Ward) as possible.

When Snievan and Milton are dead the second phase begins and both Ludope and Zuido appear in the middle of your party and immediately get to attack (with Galaxy and probably Giant Press). This is why having everyone attack when Snievan is near-death is important; Ludope and Zuido will only Deadlock a Union instead of Raidlocking them. That keeps your morale at a decent level and gives a better chance to have multiple Unions survive that first Galaxy. Assuming the Galaxy doesn’t kill all of your Unions (the Summon will survive just fine as long as you kept its health up in the first phase) you now have a window of opportunity. The Summon should engage Zuido and Ludope likes to Flank-attack any Union Zuido has engaged, that being the Summon in this case, and so if two unions survived the Galaxy you should be able to revive two more unimpeded and will be in a decent place. If only one survived then things don’t look good, as the Summon will likely only be able to hold off both Zuido and Ludope for two turns unless they only decide to use basic attacks.

Once you have four/five Unions alive you can start going on the offensive, and you’ll need to do so quickly because another Galaxy could hit at any time. Have one/two of them (particularly any with Orphic Ward or Power/Shield Potion IV+) revive any remaining dead Unions and the rest (particularly any physically-focused ones) attack Ludope. Try to favor attack options that contain Unique Arts, Cachexia, or Morale-boosting/Silence-causing abilities. With a little luck you should be able to take him down in two or three turns while the newly healed/revived Summon keeps Zuido busy. Once Ludope falls take the time to replenish your AP pools and then take out Zuido however you want (don’t bother with Morale-boosters after Ludope is killed).

With four of the Seven now dead the third phase begins. Once the fourth body hits the ground Young will appear, turn the Morale bar completely red with Victory Cry, and then attack the nearest Union with Brawl. As long as you’re not using the Orb formation on all your Unions or had a couple flanking Zuido when he died your party should be spread out enough to survive this. The next turn the Summon will start tanking him and you can treat him almost identically to how you treated Snievan. One difference is that his Morale-draining ability is ‘free’ (though it seems Cachexia at the end of the turn may stop it). The other is that his basic attacks tend to KO the character they hit even if the Union survives, which can actually be something of a blessing for the next phase if you’re lacking Morale-based abilities.

Once he falls Hinnah and Hannah appear the same way as the earlier three did; right on top of you with a free attack. This will likely just be a basic attack (which you’ll hopefully block) but could be an Attack/Defense Crusher. At the start of the next turn however they’ll get an auto-use of Twin Snowpetal, which can wipe you out just as fast as Galaxy if the Morale bar is mostly red (though the Summon won’t really care either way). At this point, assuming you have at least two Unions standing (not including the Summon) you should be able to rebuild the same way you did post-Galaxy. Otherwise it’s a coin toss as to whether the sisters will gang up on the Summon or if one will try to take you out instead (a high speed comes in handy here).

Once you’ve got at least three Unions revived you have two available paths. The first depends on Morale control. If you have enough Morale-affecting abilities to get yourself quickly back into a mostly blue Morale bar then you can take your time to whittle down Hinnah first. This will take longer than focusing on Hannah because Hannah will heal Hinnah but not herself. If you do not have many Morale-affecting abilities, or they’re simply not appearing in your available options, then it would be best to gang up on Hannah and take your chances dealing with Hinnah’s Total Domination ability (which she may or may not use). In any case, as long as you treat the remaining sister similar to Milton from the first phase you shouldn’t have much trouble finishing the fight once Twin Snowpetal is out of the equation.

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Example Party
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And now here below is the party I used on this most recent win. It was at BR 44 at the time (winning the battle bumped it up to 45) and far from optimal.

Hourglass – HP: 3029 AP: +40/282

1. Emmy (72 Str, 42 Int): Nightbloom, Superior Bluesteel; Physical Arts, Remedies, Rejuvinating Water, Hundred Flowers
2. Glenys (61 Str, 38 Int): Optimal Tataraichi; Physical Arts, Remedies, Swordflash
3. Caedemon (77 Str, 51 Int): Ose Dominus; Physical Arts, Herbs, Silencer
4. Rush (47 Str, 74 Int): Superlatative Hawkwind, Optimal Tataraichi, Idol Amulet, Ragna-rock; Herbs, Cachexia, Bewitch, Silent Gas, Orphic Ward

Hourglass – HP: 5312 AP: +50/357

1. Duke of Ghor (113 Str, 44 Int): Bilqis Artis; Physical Arts, Bel’kwinth’s Fury
2. Gaou (86 Str, 39 Int): Obsidian; Physical Arts, Lotions
3. Allan (67 Str, 33 Int): Oriax Dominus; Physical Arts, Sound Dampener, Retreat Flare
4. Gabriel (60 Str, 31 Int): Superior Bluesteel, Soulshield; Physical Arts, Herbs

Hourglass – HP: 4785 AP: +61/353

1. Jager (106 Str, 44 Int): Schiavona Artis; Physical Arts, Lob Omen, Schiavona, Beowulf
2. Roberto (78 Str, 28 Int): Frostblade Artis; Physical Arts
3. Darien (89 Str, 33 Int): Pitchfork; Physical Arts, Herbs, Lotions
4. Khrynia (58 Str, 64 Int): Serpent Star; Physical Arts, Moonlight, Silencer, Acid Bomb, Sound Dampener

Trident – HP: 3547 AP: +27/193

1. Torgal (59 Str, 54 Int): Gremory Dominus, Gremory; Physical Arts, Silencer, Lugh’s Revenge
2. Blocter (73 Str, 30 Int): Sagaris Heroicus; Physical Arts, Herbs, Silent Gas
3. Paris (57 Str, 74 Int): Commander’s Greatstaff; Remedies, Bluff, Addle, Stealth, Mixed Messages

Trident – HP: 2911 AP: +28/198

1. David (62 Str, 48 Int): Enchanted Bluesteel, Force Targe; Physical Arts, Herbs, Ex Machina
2. Wyngale (74 Str, 106 Int): Gaap x2; Physical Arts, Remedies, Bluff, Addle, Stealth, Retreat Flare, Silencer, Silent Gas
3. Nora (57 Str, 60 Int): Flame Blackjack; Physical Arts