Labyrinth of Touhou 2 - 11F

[Milkyway64]

I used

Spoiler:

Utsuho

a while to clear random mobs on floor 15 and 16+. She wasn't really any good for boss fights, but she was beast at getting rid of those monsters you just can't seem to hurt with anyone else.

Are there really any truly bad characters in this game? I notice that a lot of characters I wrote off as useless, a lot of people think are really good (such as Kogasa) while some characters I find essential, others think are trash (such as Cirno, who I feel was MVP in more than a few battles throughout the game)

[Kuilfrayt]

Are there really any truly bad characters in this game? I notice that a lot of characters I wrote off as useless, a lot of people think are really good (such as Kogasa) while some characters I find essential, others think are trash (such as Cirno, who I feel was MVP in more than a few battles throughout the game)

I don't think they are any "bad" characters. Some of them fill a more specific role and won't be of any use in certain encounters, some have skills you want to keep in your party for a certain fight, but never use them afterward.
In the end, it really only depends on who you like to use and the style you want to play with (whether you want to control and slowly kill with  debuffs and ailments or just burst your way through with high buffs and heavy burst damage). Of course, depending on who you take, it can make your playthrough a lot harder (making a team without a single tank will be a lot more difficult than having someone very resistant to take the hits once in a while), but that's where the challenge lies for some people.

A lot of people swear on Suika, Byakuren and Flandre, and I've never taken them once in my party, and it didn't stop me from finishing the game .

[Milkyway64]

I never used Suika either, but I used Byakuren a little and Flandre a bit too (I but her in my party just to grind floor 20 mobs and to fight the final boss, and I haven't gone much further than that)

Suika just felt very underwhelming. Like she doesn't hit very hard and really only is good for hitting a wind weakness, Yuugi did anything I wanted suika too, but better.

[Serela]

Suika just felt very underwhelming. Like she doesn't hit very hard and really only is good for hitting a wind weakness, Yuugi did anything I wanted suika too, but better.

Suika has a bunch of silly-powerful passives, so it can take a bunch of points to get her to work.

[ViciousYukkuri]

Spoiler:

These damn cookies.

I'm trying to figure out the trick to it and beat it at recommended level, rather then overpowering it by being super overleveled. Their defense changes throughout the fight. I know this because Youmu will go from doing 1 damage to some, 140k to others with Slash Clearing the Six Senses, then later do 500k to the center one, 140k to the others with the same move without large buffs and without any debuffs (Upon further examination while posting this, the 500k was the double damage sub-equip procing, and their defense goes down permanently after they act). While vulnerable to debuffs, the sheer volume of their attacks is overwhelming, and the one-two punch of HP to 1+MND Ignoring

Spoiler:

cookie explosion

is devastating. They're weak to Nature and Physical, at least.

Seriously, this battle would be a piece of cake if it wasn't for the MND ignore...and the resurrecting if they aren't all killed at the same time.

[ditt93]

Spoiler:

These damn cookies.

I'm trying to figure out the trick to it and beat it at recommended level, rather then overpowering it by being super overleveled. Their defense changes throughout the fight. I know this because Youmu will go from doing 1 damage to some, 140k to others with Slash Clearing the Six Senses, then later do 500k to the center one, 140k to the others with the same move without large buffs and without any debuffs (Upon further examination while posting this, the 500k was the double damage sub-equip procing, and their defense goes down permanently after they act). While vulnerable to debuffs, the sheer volume of their attacks is overwhelming, and the one-two punch of HP to 1+MND Ignoring

Spoiler:

cookie explosion

is devastating. They're weak to Nature and Physical, at least.

Seriously, this battle would be a piece of cake if it wasn't for the MND ignore...and the resurrecting if they aren't all killed at the same time.

It's also weak to poison, if that's of any help to you. Also those 1 damage is not defense changes, but more of you are not suppose to kill it before it gets it's things done, something like invulnerable.

[Leerius]

I still use Mystia, mostly for a swift Poison/Paralysis.

Forgot Mystia has Instant Attack, sounds pretty cool.

but Reimu was my dedicated healer

My Reimu either dies too fast or heals 1/4~1/3 HPs so I use her as a sacrifice with Final Prayer if needed.

Spoiler:

Alice
Heavy status. That is all I have to say besides that she is generally an ok character and she has nice skills going for her.

Spoiler:

I like Eirin more because she also has Hourai Elixir and her HVY is stronger than Alice's, it doesn't DBF SPD though... That and her synergy skill with Kaguya, I admit ~~

Should've tried

Spoiler:

Yuyuko with full SPD for ATB control.

For tanks, I just love auto-healing characters as Healer/Enchanter because Reimu's the only -decent- party healer (unlike lot1 she was a godly support).

Suika just felt very underwhelming. Like she doesn't hit very hard and really only is good for hitting a wind weakness

I too feel this way, because physique is more useful and if the boss weakness is nature I'd better use Yuugi since it only costs 2 MP instead of 3 (makes a big difference when both are gambler).
But it's probably because I gave her 10 magic/fighting gem before I got Suika and didn't try them "fairly".

Spoiler:

Flandre is good but few bosses are weak to dark and I'd better not use her others spells so I use Yuugi/Eiki for ATK-based damages.

Seriously, this battle would be a piece of cake if it wasn't for the MND ignore...and the resurrecting if they aren't all killed at the same time.

And the 1 HP spell =/


Edit :

A lot of people swear on Suika, Byakuren and Flandre, and I've never taken them once in my party, and it didn't stop me from finishing the game .

Suika and Flandre, not so much some bosses won't take much from them (they got nerfed I think).
But Byakuren, is probably the best and most versatile tank usable in every boss fight, conventional bosses, damages races, prolonged battles and whatnot. I don't remember any boss fights done without since I got her. That even with her passive skills decreased from 20% to 14%.

[ViciousYukkuri]

It's also weak to poison, if that's of any help to you.

This bit of info is why I was able to beat it.

Got stupid close there at the end. It did the HP to 1 on Youmu, who was the last one alive; all five where kept poisoned by Wriggle. They started pelting her with spells. 0 damage, 0 damage, 0 damage, 0 damage, magic drain. Turn, heal, concentrate, 0 damage, 0 damage, 0 damage, HP to 1, magic drain, turn, heal, concentrate. Minor damage (mind buff coming down), minor damage, minor damage, HP to 1, Turn, Slash Clearing Six Senses, Last Moments Latent Energy in effect, win.

*Insert lame crumble pun or one-liner here*

Woulda broke something if they did their explosion at the end there...

[ditt93]

This bit of info is why I was able to beat it.

Glad that it helped, even though I didn't use poison to beat that boss since I was over leveled. :V

[CrazyManiacz]

Dumb question: When I download the THL2_1202patch from the main site, if I attempt to open THLabyrinth2, it closes after a short delay. Am I doing something wrong?

[Serela]

Dumb question: When I download the THL2_1202patch from the main site, if I attempt to open THLabyrinth2, it closes after a short delay. Am I doing something wrong?

You're not using the english exe, right? It probably won't work until they release an updated patch.

[CrazyManiacz]

Hmm? English.exe? I don't see that in the folder ._.
I mean I just downloaded the thing from the main site and tried to run THLabyrinth2 without adding anything to it...

[ViciousYukkuri]

Hmm? English.exe? I don't see that in the folder ._.
I mean I just downloaded the thing from the main site and tried to run THLabyrinth2 without adding anything to it...

This might all sound obvious and I am in no way meaning to imply or call you stupid, just eliminating some possibilities.

Did you put the files in the patch into your game folder, or are you simply trying to run the game from the exe in the patch folder?
If its the latter, there's your problem. Put the files from the patch folder into the game folder, overwrite whatever it asks you to and then run the exe.

If that doesn't work/isn't the problem, ahh...Locale problem, maybe? Change your locale to Japanese or get a locale emulator.

If neither one works, then I don't know what the problem is.

[CrazyManiacz]

Oh, I did that, but it gives me the "Debug Assertion failed" error.

[Kirin no Sora]

Okay. I'm going to flat out ask a few things about the "returning newcomers", if that's fine by everyone else...

Maribel Hearn

Spoiler:

MP Boost
TP Boost
MAG Boost
Motivated Heart
Hands-on Experience
Sealing Club:
If Mari and Renko are on the front line, skill holder's gets all stats increased by (SLv*12)%
When the skill holder's gets a turn she will recover (SLv*6)% HP and (SLv) MP
Can only takes effect if at least one ally or enemy performed an action in the battle.
Manipulation of Boundaries:
Like Yukari
Ability to See Boundaries:
When the skill holder is attacked or attacks an enemy, and the enemy has a buff on him,
the damage is calculated as if it was a debuff.
Ability to Slightly Fiddle with Boundaries:
Stats increasing effects decay slower on the skill holder.
Rapid Charge:
Like Minoriko
Grand Incantation:
Like Reimu

Spell animation
Liberated Abilities: (first Void Spell, oh my)
Cost 5 MP   Multi-target: Void Attribute   Magic Attack - Cannot Miss
Void spell that hits all enemies.
It has a high damage stability since it is not affected by the enemy's elemental resistances, and cannot miss.
Chaotic Quadruple Barrier:
Cost 4 MP   Single-target: DRK Attribute   Magic Attack - ACC +8
DRK spell that hits all enemies.
Can inflict a good amount of SHK, TRR and DTH.
Overflowing Unnatural Power:
Cost 8 MP   Self-target: DRK Attribute   Auxilliary Action
Self-targeted spell that highly increases the caster's overall stats.
Her HP is reduced as a drawback.
Merry's Homemade Novice Barrier:
Cost 6 MP   All Allies: MYS Attribute   Auxilliary Action
Adds the effect "Damage dealt on the next attack is increased" to all allies.
A special auxilliary action. The effect isn't very high.
Leveling up the spell will add an HP recovery effect.

Spoiler:

Okay, so about Maribel...

1. Um... You wrote that Chaotic Quadruple Barrier is a single target DRK spell that hits all enemies...   
Anyways, which is it? Single target, or all targets?

2. You wrote that Mari's Homemade Novice Barrier heals HP when it's leveled up. How much HP are we talking here? And is it affected by the Healer and Enchanter subclass skills?

3. Overflowing Unnatural Power's drawback sounds a bit severe, even with leveling up (8 MP and 45% HP for a 72% boost in all stats at max level), so I'll ask the obvious question: By "boosts all stats", does it mean the five stats that normally get boosted by buffs(ATT, DEF, MAG, MND, SPD), or is there more to it than that(buffing EVA, raising elemental resistance, etc.)?

Also, as an aside, I'll presume that the HP restoring effect of Mari's Homemade Novice Barrier is meant to try to compensate for the HP loss from Overflowing Unnatural Power, although how effective that will be in practice, well...

Renko Usami (thanks to Leerius for doing most of it)

Spoiler:

SPD Boost
EVA Boost
Status Boost
Motivated Heart
Hands-on Experience
Sealing Club:
Same as Merry
Ability to read the stars (星を読む程度の能力):
Increases PSN, PAR, HVY and SHK resistance for everyone except skill holder by (SLv*8 )%
The effects are still active if skill holder's is in reserve but halved.
Ability to read the moon (月を読む程度の能力):
Increases TRR, SIL, DTH and DBF resistance for everyone except skill holder by (SLv*8 )%
The effects are still active if skill holder's is in reserve but halved.
Maintenance:
Same as Nitori
Astronomical Observation Position:
Decreases the rate at which the encounter rate counter increases by (SLv*10)%.    
This effect stacks with other similar skills,
but will cap at a maximum of 75% reduction. (same as Rumia, but 10% instead of 12)
Easygoing:
Same as Kogasa

Spell animation
Galaxy Stop:
Cost 6 MP   Multi-target: SPI Attribute   Magic Attack - ACC +50
SPI spell that targets all enemies, and can inflict powerful PAR, SIL and SHK.
Adds powerful effects, but slightly reduces the ATB bar of all allies on the front line.
Assault Beacon
Cost 9 MP   All Allies: DRK Attribute   Auxilliary Action
Powerful auxilliary action that increase all stats of all allies.
The effect is very powerful, but it will reduce the HP of all allies on the front line.

Spoiler:

And now, about Renko...

1. Is Galaxy Stop a MND piercing MAG based attack, like in the previous game? Because, since she no longer has Charge, which would damage allies based on her MAG stat, then there's no reason to not power up her MAG stat now, right? Also, is the 20% ATB cost to all members reduced from leveling up the spell? If so, by how much?

2. Assault Beacon... It seems to suffer the same problem as Maribel's Overflowing Unnatural Power spell, considering the the cost of its effect(9 MP and 33% HP from everyone other than Renko for a 36% boost in all stats?), and since she doesn't have a HP restoring countermeasure like Maribel, it kind of makes it hard to consider even using it at all. Does leveling up fix this sort of issue in the same way as with Overflowing Unnatural Power(increase buffs, decrease HP loss per use)?

And that's all that I got for now as questions.

[ViciousYukkuri]

Okay. I'm going to flat out ask a few things about the "returning newcomers", if that's fine by everyone else...

Spoiler:

Okay, so about Maribel...

1. Um... You wrote that Chaotic Quadruple Barrier is a single target DRK spell that hits all enemies...   
Anyways, which is it? Single target, or all targets?

2. You wrote that Mari's Homemade Novice Barrier heals HP when it's leveled up. How much HP are we talking here? And is it affected by the Healer and Enchanter subclass skills?

3. Overflowing Unnatural Power's drawback sounds a bit severe, even with leveling up (8 MP and 45% HP for a 72% boost in all stats at max level), so I'll ask the obvious question: By "boosts all stats", does it mean the five stats that normally get boosted by buffs(ATT, DEF, MAG, MND, SPD), or is there more to it than that(buffing EVA, raising elemental resistance, etc.)?

Also, as an aside, I'll presume that the HP restoring effect of Mari's Homemade Novice Barrier is meant to try to compensate for the HP loss from Overflowing Unnatural Power, although how effective that will be in practice, well...

Spoiler:

And now, about Renko...

1. Is Galaxy Stop a MND piercing MAG based attack, like in the previous game? Because, since she no longer has Charge, which would damage allies based on her MAG stat, then there's no reason to not power up her MAG stat now, right? Also, is the 20% ATB cost to all members reduced from leveling up the spell? If so, by how much?

2. Assault Beacon... It seems to suffer the same problem as Maribel's Overflowing Unnatural Power spell, considering the the cost of its effect(9 MP and 33% HP from everyone other than Renko for a 36% boost in all stats?), and since she doesn't have a HP restoring countermeasure like Maribel, it kind of makes it hard to consider even using it at all. Does leveling up fix this sort of issue in the same way as with Overflowing Unnatural Power(increase buffs, decrease HP loss per use)?

And that's all that I got for now as questions.

Spoiler:

First, Maribel
1. It's a single target.

2. It heals a pretty good chunk. Around 6k at level 151 when maxed out. I think it would be safe to assume it's affected by those skills.

3. It means the 5. Atk, Mag, Def, Mnd, Spd. The price seems steep, but it's totally worth it.

Now, Renko

1. No, its not Mind ignore anymore. The ATB cost isn't reduced either. You can level up her MAG if you feel like, but she doesn't do stellar damage, so building her bulky or speedy is more effective.

2. Leveling doesn't decrease the health cost, but it does increase the buff. If you follow it up with a party heal like Reimu or Maribel, or use characters with regen like Youmu or Komachi, this skill give a lot of bang for your buck.

I don't know if you guys have fought a boss that makes you want to just kinda roll over and die, but this extra boss on 16F sure is something else. Not quite Serpent of Chaos levels, but close.

[Kuilfrayt]

Okay. I'm going to flat out ask a few things about the "returning newcomers", if that's fine by everyone else...

Spoiler:

Okay, so about Maribel...

1. Um... You wrote that Chaotic Quadruple Barrier is a single target DRK spell that hits all enemies...   
Anyways, which is it? Single target, or all targets?

2. You wrote that Mari's Homemade Novice Barrier heals HP when it's leveled up. How much HP are we talking here? And is it affected by the Healer and Enchanter subclass skills?

3. Overflowing Unnatural Power's drawback sounds a bit severe, even with leveling up (8 MP and 45% HP for a 72% boost in all stats at max level), so I'll ask the obvious question: By "boosts all stats", does it mean the five stats that normally get boosted by buffs(ATT, DEF, MAG, MND, SPD), or is there more to it than that(buffing EVA, raising elemental resistance, etc.)?

Also, as an aside, I'll presume that the HP restoring effect of Mari's Homemade Novice Barrier is meant to try to compensate for the HP loss from Overflowing Unnatural Power, although how effective that will be in practice, well...

1. This is called "Me doing it fast and being a moron". It's a single target spell.

2. The heal is based on the spell level and (from what I can tell) her MAG stat. Leveling up the spell also increases the effect of the boost (starts at 16% without any level, up to 24%). It is not affected by Enhancer's skills "Heart of Prayers"and "Enhancer's Strengthening" (the heal is not increased, nor is the potency of the Boost, it makes sense, since its not a buff, but a Boost). However, the heal does trigger the effect from "Heart of Compassion".
The heal is increased with the Healer's skill "Efficient Treatment".
Basically, anything that says buffs in its description won't affect the spell, but anything that has heal in it will.

3. No it only boost all 5 primary stats. From what I know, only "Main Character - Reimu", "Ability to Sense a Thousand Ri Ahead", "Deep Fog Labyrinth" and "Powerful Enough to Use Shikigamis" will boost the other 2 stats. (and only MC - Reimu and Shikigamis are the only one who buffs them with direct %, like the normal buffs)

ViciousYukkuri answered while I was typing, so I won't bother with Renko

[Leerius]

Spoiler:

3. Overflowing Unnatural Power's drawback sounds a bit severe, even with leveling up (8 MP and 45% HP for a 72% boost in all stats at max level), so I'll ask the obvious question: By "boosts all stats", does it mean the five stats that normally get boosted by buffs(ATT, DEF, MAG, MND, SPD), or is there more to it than that(buffing EVA, raising elemental resistance, etc.)?

Spoiler:

In the postgame characters who are not gambler with full ATK/MAG and sub equips oriented toward them will deal very low damage and will most likely die in 1 hit if they don't have high resistance and HP pool.

Spoiler:

2. Assault Beacon... It seems to suffer the same problem as Maribel's Overflowing Unnatural Power spell, considering the the cost of its effect(9 MP and 33% HP from everyone other than Renko for a 36% boost in all stats?), and since she doesn't have a HP restoring countermeasure like Maribel, it kind of makes it hard to consider even using it at all. Does leveling up fix this sort of issue in the same way as with Overflowing Unnatural Power(increase buffs, decrease HP loss per use)?

Spoiler:

Give her the enchanter subclass with the skill healing 20% HP it helps alot.

[ditt93]

I don't know if you guys have fought a boss that makes you want to just kinda roll over and die, but this extra boss on 16F sure is something else. Not quite Serpent of Chaos levels, but close.

Not really roll over and die, but that boss did surprise me the first time, so the second time I fought it, I decided to just take out the boss first.

[jaxter0987]

Well that boss is certainly a thing...

Spoiler:

Took me like 5 minutes before I realized that the boss was stripping away my max HP with that move of his. Defenses don't seem to hinder the damage so I honestly have no idea how you're supposed to beat it at challenge level without using what I consider to be the most broken strategy, ATB manipulation. Got wrecked obviously on my first encounter with it.

[Serela]

Spoiler:

Merry's Homemade Novice Barrier

says it's single-target on the wiki, although I'm fairly sure from what I've read/the video it's multitarget. Anyway, the two new characters seem interesting... one can do a variety of things and has good stats overall, giving her a versatile set of roles you could set her up for, and the other has Maintenance to possibly turn into a potent buffing tank~ How much does

Spoiler:

Assault Beacon

buff at max, though?

[Kuilfrayt]

Spoiler:

Merry's Homemade Novice Barrier

says it's single-target on the wiki, although I'm fairly sure from what I've read/the video it's multitarget. Anyway, the two new characters seem interesting... one can do a variety of things and has good stats overall, giving her a versatile set of roles you could set her up for, and the other has Maintenance to possibly turn into a potent buffing tank~ How much does

Spoiler:

Assault Beacon

buff at max, though?

Spoiler:

For Barrier, it was actually bugged in 1.201, and was only targeting Mari, and only affecting her, so I made a mistake and put single target. Assault Beacon goes up to 44%

Also made a correction on Yukari Yakumo's Spiriting Away, it now has a base cost of 34 MP, will consume all MP (like Master Spark), leveling up the skill will reduces the base MP cost, and the more MP is consume, the lower the delay will be, at a rate of 4% per MP (so if she has 39 MP, it consumes an additionnal 5 MP, and puts her ATB value at 2000)

[SirChaotick]

All this talk about the second game. Quite tempting, I must say, but I'm determined to finish the first one first. Good thing the translation isn't out yet, helps keep the urge down.

I am somehow still hung up on Rinnosuke on 18F. It's astonishing, really. Last time I asked for help, most said that he was really easy in comparison to Yukari, while I steamrolled over her and can't get past him at all! So once more, I'm going to have to inquire.

First, general information. There's a fairly wide discrepancy in levels between my characters, but that's to be expected, I suppose. Most fall in the 80-90 range.
I've tweaked the party configuration a lot in desperation, but Meiling, Reimu, Komachi, Ran, Nitori, Kaguya and Iku are constant among them. Their role is probably obvious, except perhaps for Ran, who mainly deals damage with her composite screen-swooshy attack.
Most of the time I also include Remilia and Minoriko for additional tanks and heals.
The remainder is pretty much assorted damage dealers: Suwako, Youmu, Patchouli and all those others. I'm not sure which is best. I've also considered Yukari to keep the defense buffs topped up.

Strategy generally consists of keeping at least 50% defense buffs up on everyone and having Ran smash through the first phase with Iku backup after doing the party-wide offense buff once or twice. Then swap about damage dealers according to elemental weakness of the phase.
I think it's an alright concept, but the thing is that even with all the defense buffs, people just die at random! At Rinny's ridiculous speed, it's hard to swap someone in without suffering an attack before the buff can land, and that damn Scarlet Gold Sword sweeps the floor with any non-buffed non-tank. Not to mention it'll land on any square it wishes!
Most of the time, things get less nasty after his first phase is through with, but by then four of my team members will be dead and I have no serious hope of just enduring through every single one of them! I've only taken out at most three elemental phases in one run, and I'm pretty sure I'll have to deal with all six of them at once. It seems ridiculous!

So, aid me, o forumgoers. Point out my ignorance! Who am I to pick, what am I to do?

[Kirin no Sora]

All this talk about the second game. Quite tempting, I must say, but I'm determined to finish the first one first. Good thing the translation isn't out yet, helps keep the urge down.

I am somehow still hung up on Rinnosuke on 18F. It's astonishing, really. Last time I asked for help, most said that he was really easy in comparison to Yukari, while I steamrolled over her and can't get past him at all! So once more, I'm going to have to inquire.

First, general information. There's a fairly wide discrepancy in levels between my characters, but that's to be expected, I suppose. Most fall in the 80-90 range.
I've tweaked the party configuration a lot in desperation, but Meiling, Reimu, Komachi, Ran, Nitori, Kaguya and Iku are constant among them. Their role is probably obvious, except perhaps for Ran, who mainly deals damage with her composite screen-swooshy attack.
Most of the time I also include Remilia and Minoriko for additional tanks and heals.
The remainder is pretty much assorted damage dealers: Suwako, Youmu, Patchouli and all those others. I'm not sure which is best. I've also considered Yukari to keep the defense buffs topped up.

Strategy generally consists of keeping at least 50% defense buffs up on everyone and having Ran smash through the first phase with Iku backup after doing the party-wide offense buff once or twice. Then swap about damage dealers according to elemental weakness of the phase.
I think it's an alright concept, but the thing is that even with all the defense buffs, people just die at random! At Rinny's ridiculous speed, it's hard to swap someone in without suffering an attack before the buff can land, and that damn Scarlet Gold Sword sweeps the floor with any non-buffed non-tank. Not to mention it'll land on any square it wishes!
Most of the time, things get less nasty after his first phase is through with, but by then four of my team members will be dead and I have no serious hope of just enduring through every single one of them! I've only taken out at most three elemental phases in one run, and I'm pretty sure I'll have to deal with all six of them at once. It seems ridiculous!

So, aid me, o forumgoers. Point out my ignorance! Who am I to pick, what am I to do?

Well, the first problem is that any character that is below level 90 is essentially underleveled, and since the floor that you're on is a great, if painful, place to level up, my suggestion to you is to grind until everyone is around level 100 or higher. That should alleviate the issue somewhat.

Also, the first form of Rinnosuke is actually the hardest part of the fight, because you need to hit him for over 360k total damage to force him to do his Form Shift, meaning that you need to either be able to do that level of damage before you're buffed up, or your sturdier characters need to be able to take a hit or two from his attacks(Tenshi might be able to pull that off, provided that you build her for full defense coverage(DEF, MND, HP, etc.) and Rinnosuke doesn't decide to use Rasetsu Fist on her). Also, I'll presume that you have made sure that your Characters are also given high resistance from all ailments and to debuffing, because you'll need that too.

And, speaking of stat boosting, you could try to boost everyone's SPD via the Magic Library, provided that you have enough Skill Points left over, or get a SPD buffer to help you out(or both, if it helps).

Finally, part of the fight is kind of luck based, even with adequate leveling, so if at first you don't succeed, either try again or grind for more levels to help. That's all that I can tell you.

[Serela]

Eh, lv90 Reimu can be good for Rinnosuke if you want the fight to be a bit of a challenge and you have a pretty good party. If you go up to Lv100-ish like Kirin said you should be able to wipe it no problem, but, in any case, a few levels can't hurt. I wouldn't recommend using 18f though... the battles are harder and take longer then the previous floors for a pretty small difference in exp/skp gained, IIRC.

Saying "anyone under 90 is underleveled" is pretty silly, though, considering that characters have vastly different levelup rates and lv90 can be totally sufficient for the fast leveling characters like Reimu. (And by this I mean the entire party would be fine) I'm not sure what level that'd translate to on the slower levelers like Patch/Remi, since I didn't ever pay attention to that sort've thing...

(As a side fact, High 100s/low 110s on Reimu is where people used to do it when the general player didn't know how to properly design a party, e.g. most people used Sanae instead of Minoriko for support/healer and thought minoriko was terrible, no one used Iku, and defensive builds on non-attacking characters were lesser used then they are now)

Anyway, for the fight itself, it sounds like you're more or less handling it well. Rinno is immune to all kinds of status effects and has blatant weaknesses to all elements at some point or another, with a varied moveset, so there's not really any special strategies apart from the obvious, and that it's recommended to go pretty defensive on that fight. The first phase is definitely the scariest, he's fairly tame afterwords apart from stray physicals hitting the back.

[jaxter0987]

~Background Info~
So, aid me, o forumgoers. Point out my ignorance! Who am I to pick, what am I to do?

SPD buffers before the Plus Disk portion of the game are absolutely amazing. I'm honestly surprised you're not using Sakuya or Aya.
In regards to the whole under leveled business:
If Reimu is at or above the recommended level on the wiki you are definitely not underleveled. Sure a few more levels couldn't hurt but the game's fun when there's a bit of challenge to it.

Most people have a general party they stick with by this point so using Reimu as the basis for comparison is fine as faster leveling characters will have higher levels than recommended but that doesn't mean they're prepared while the inverse is true for slower leveling characters.

I also don't know how the rest of us went about getting through the first form, but I had my set up of Meiling, Remilia, Reimu, Yukari (in that party order) to get through his first form with no losses.

Meiling kept herself healthy, Remilia spammed Spear the Gungnir after a quick Curse of Vlad Tepes, Reimu and Yukari kept the party healthy and defensively buffed up respectively.

I'm just going to summarize the strategy on that page:

Rinnosuke's pattern is that during one of his 6 elemental forms and his final form, every 4th turn he gets (turns 4, 8, 12 etc), he'll be using a strong party wide nuke whose element is based on the form he's in (he uses World Shaking Military Rule during his final form instead of a nuke, which buffs his ATK, DEF, MAG, and MND by 66%).

After 6 turns of being in an elemental form, he has a 50% chance of using Form Shift from then on. Keeping careful count of the number of turns he gets can make bringing out your attackers much easier.

Rinnosuke's FIR Form is the weakest of all his Forms so spend that form renewing buffs and healing your characters instead of trying to kill it. When its the last form left alive, spend as much time as needed to prepare all your characters for his Final Form.
He only has 200k health in this form but obviously, he's the most dangerous in this form so prepare for a damage rush (having Marisa with her MAG buffed up and her SP full for a full power Master Spark helps).

And as Kirin no Sora pointed out, there's still a deal of luck involved as even if you follow the best practices, Rinnosuke might just randomly decide to cut your nukers down with Scarlet Gold Sword / Start of Heavenly Demise. Also, if you haven't already, consider investing into TP for your characters. Both Scarlet Gold Sword and Start of Heavenly Demise take away 1 TP from your characters and you're likely going to be doing a lot of Switches which also consume TP.

Eh, lv90 Reimu can be good for Rinnosuke if you want the fight to be a bit of a challenge and you have a pretty good party. If you go up to Lv100-ish like Kirin said you should be able to wipe it no problem, but, in any case, a few levels can't hurt. I wouldn't recommend using 18f though... the battles are harder and take longer then the previous floors for a pretty small difference in exp/skp gained, IIRC.

"The EXP here is basically double that of the previous floor, which was itself about one and a half times that of the floor before it, making this a place where you can make some significant leaps forward in levels... provided you don't mind having to return to base very frequently due to the ability of enemies here to regularly knock out party members fairly easily."

I don't know man, three times the amount of experience you'd get from when you were grinding for Yukari seems like a pretty good deal.

[Kirin no Sora]

Eh, lv90 Reimu can be good for Rinnosuke if you want the fight to be a bit of a challenge and you have a pretty good party. If you go up to Lv100-ish like Kirin said you should be able to wipe it no problem, but, in any case, a few levels can't hurt. I wouldn't recommend using 18f though... the battles are harder and take longer then the previous floors for a pretty small difference in exp/skp gained, IIRC.

...to be clear, I'm just going by what the wiki's telling me, and Chaotick is going to need them at those levels for the next floor anyway. It's the wiki that says that it's a good place to grind, if you can handle it.

Saying "anyone under 90 is underleveled" is pretty silly, though, considering that characters have vastly different levelup rates and lv90 can be totally sufficient for the fast leveling characters like Reimu. (And by this I mean the entire party would be fine) I'm not sure what level that'd translate to on the slower levelers like Patch/Remi, since I didn't ever pay attention to that sort've thing...

Again, I'm quoting the wiki here, which is where I got the recommended level thing from. And a faster levelup rate is usually supposed to be a compensation for lower stat growths per level. So, fast levelers(Minoriko, Rumia, Cirno, etc.) need more levels to keep their stats on par with everyone else, while slow levelers(Patchouli, Remilia, etc.) are the exact opposite. I do believe that this was mentioned to be the same in LoT2 by someone else earlier?

Also, I got a question about LoT2 skills. Specifically, the Grand Incantation skill. Does said skill affect the power of healing spells by chance?

[ViciousYukkuri]

Also, I got a question about LoT2 skills. Specifically, the Grand Incantation skill. Does said skill affect the power of healing spells by chance?

Yes it does. It's awesome.

3 outta 4 extra bosses down, but this last one (THE EYES) should be the funnest.

Spoiler:

Got stupid lucky on the angel/stone one. That guy, at recommended level, is super fukken difficult. Worse then the cookies, and the final boss, for sure.

E: Wow that one died really fast. On to Strengthen final boss, I guess.
E2: Woo! He's dead. Now to do it all with my synergy group! Oh God, the random battles are actually battles and not one sided massacres...
E3: And I just saved over my file that has everything. At least I beat the Strengthen final boss before I did.... :colonveeplusalpha:

[Serela]

quoting the wiki

The wiki recommended level I think goes by Reimu too. Basically, it's just a matter of "this is where Reimu should be" rather then "this is where all of your party members should be", as Reimu is given at the start and very few people remove her from the party due to how critically useful her support is.

Also, wow, I definitely misremembered the EXP difference then, oops. I think I grinded on 17F just because I could beat the battles far faster and for a longer period of time, then.

[SirChaotick]

Thanks, gents. Reimu is level 93 atm, so I've got no excuse, do I? She might be a little higher level than she's supposed to be because of experience discrepancies between characters on the front, in the back and at home, but according to what you've told me it should be doable.
I did notice the FIR form is just pathetic, so I should be able to catch my figurative breath there.

I'll give it another couple hundred tries with the Meiling/Remi/Yukari/Reimu setup and see if it works out eventually.
Wish me luck...