FF6 Tenkarider's contest (accessible even to casuals)

This is a puzzle.
What's the point in asking something that you should try for your own?

If i'd have a suspect, i'd verify it. that's the way to find clues.
Understood, Watson?

PS. you risk to ruin the joy of the discovery, which is the goal of a puzzle, i think...

I finally got around to playing this, and it was not as difficult as I expected, however, I doubt I did it as fast as I could have(I guess that's where the challenge comes in, after all). Really fun to puzzle out, however.

You kinda got the point of my task

As said from me, and confirmed by you, the task isn't so much difficult: the true challenge is to figure out the most efficient and quickest way to finish the task, considering your available resources(visible or not).

That's why the task is a puzzle

One week left, so take it in consideration, if you want to participate to the contest.
If you have recorded anything, please show it to me soon if possible via an Unlisted YouTube video or Mediafire, etc.
Just remember to not make public anything, until i post your videos.

PS. I wonder if Cyprus managed to do some progress with the task...

PS. I wonder if Cyprus managed to do some progress with the task...

Nope. Why? Because you sir, certainly put up some difficult tasks (Not that it is Bad Thing), for would Typically see you as a Challenge Hacker.

Too bad... that because it's not difficult at all... but if you don't find any clue, you'll keep to fight disarmed.

This is the last help for the task... take or leave:

- easy route: Kuku & Kupan;
- normal route: Task Manager(hidden weapon);
- Hard route: Kupec & Kupop.

All the other routes are basically an hybrid version of the 3 routes above.

Time up. here's some consideration before...
more than 10 people downloaded the task, but only two managed to submit their video, so i'm gonna assume that there was a lack of immagination/ideas.

This task required much of that, since there's the need of some advanced tactics, i should had to propose this task later and do a simpler one, but i'm going to follow a chronological order of the storyline as i create future tasks...

So, here's my video solution(due to lack of time i haven't had the chance of optimize it), in which explains really useful tricks that you can learn and use even in other hacks to improve the quality of your runs and surely makes you better at playing ff6:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2TEXZc0xmg


Here's the results, no splitted screen video, afterall there are only 2 submissions :

The first position, Lockirby2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2dIUKIv1qg

The second position, Cecil188
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npXTlWGRURc

Thanks you two and who have give it a shot at least

Feel free to give any feedback, if you want... i'm talking also to who
tried it, but didn't manage to win. i don't care if it's a positive or negative feedback, make me hear your voice: did i do something wrong?

Constructive critics/discussions are welcomed, that means... don't just jump here and say: "your hack is impossible, bla bla bla", it's simply wrong, and it's not difficult too, the video of Cecil188 is a proof, it requires the minimal preparation possible... you just have to figure out that the dirk can cast cure on allies, the rest is simply fighting as in the normal game, a route accessible to anyone, afterall...


This was a puzzle, as any respectable puzzle there's also written the solution and details below:





Task #1: RESCUE TERRA!!! - All the features of the hack

- Load save:

You'll guide terra until the place in which she falls in
the hole... Terra isn't able to fight due to attack being
replaced from tools(no tools avaiable, of course) and magic
command removed completely, so no leveling chance for Terra,
since the timer starts only after the event scene, so raise
the level of Terra would have meant rise the level of anyone
else.
She won't be able even to start the battle if you don't remove
the moogle charm equipped to her.

But it's not an useless part of the hack: Other than opening
chests(Fenix down in particular), the more expert players
should be able to discover that her Mithril knife, buckler and
moogle charm are more than what they look:
If used in battle...
- Mithril knife will use scan on target(won't break);
- Buckler will cast protect on the target(won't break);
- Moogle charm will summon Palidor(consumable).
So you should really remove them from Terra, they'll help in
the task.

- CUSTOMIZED EVENT SCENE, nothing to comment; -

- Task begin:

Ok, so now you have 3 groups... chose the better and win?
Wrong!!! just going and fight will cost you too much time,
if you manage to survive the battles...
Stop a second and value your resources:

--------------GROUP #1--------------

1) Locke:
fight
steal
-
item

Dirk
-
Leather hat
Leather Armor

-
-

Weak, but fast... besides he can steal, and that's a key to
solve the task. His Weapon has an hidden power, you should
definitively remove it from him... the other equip are
switchable with Mog, if you want use his group

- Dirk will cast heal to the target, you can also select a
party, due to the lack of healing items, group # 2 and 3 have
really need of it(won't break);

2) Kupek:
fight
tools
-
item

Mithril Pike (locked)
ice shield (locked)
-
-

gale hairpin (locked)
gale hairpin (locked)

His unique features are tools, you don't have any of them, you
must steal some from the monsters in the hack, they are:
- debilitator, used for advanced tactics, like exploit ice/fire
weakness, for the monsters and the boss, still it requires luck
- chainsaw, extremely effective on minions, useful for
speedrunning and deal high damages

He's also immune from fire and absorb ice, he has 2 gale
hairpins... i don't know if they are cumulative but surely this
was for give to group #1 more chances of preemptive attack

3) Kupop:
fight
-
-
item

morning star (locked)
thunder shield (locked)
-
-

Earrings (locked)
Earrings (locked)

Apparently useless, actually he's the true leader of the group:
If you select party equips you're able to see all equips
and relics of the group in a single screen, even if they'd
be invisible, normally... Once you'll see he has 2 earrings,
and eventually notice that he has 40 points in magic(7 point
more than anyone else), you'll realize that he's the mage of
the group... you may ask which magics, since he cannot cast...
item magics are their repertory: using consumable hacked equips
inside the hack, in few fights he'll be able to deal 9999
damage with one cast!!!

4) Kumama:
fight
health
-
item

Mithril claw (removable in battle)
Flame Shield (removable in battle)
-
-

gale hairpin (locked)
gale hairpin (locked)

Definitively the best healer available(the only one too), you
don't have need of use dirk, in this group... but actually the
whole hack revolves around him for another reason: he's one of
the three moogles who has the chance of remove/equip weapon
and shield in battle, which means that you could take his fire
shield.
You can also switch his weapon with a more powerful ice/fire
rod stolen from the Kinmammoth, an attack may cause the chained
spell casting and kill minions quite fast.


NOTE: i really wanted that people would have notice the
need of switching weapons in battle, the most ignored feature
of FF6... which it's possible to use in a very clever way,
plus the need of use consumable equip to use powerful attacks.
Using the fire shield makes you win the first battle in a snap
with any group, level and magic power are the damage factor,
at the same time all the minions are weak to fire.
The other use is to deal huge damage at the boss, in the case
you manage to exploit the fire weakness with debilitator tool.



-----------------GROUP #2-----------------


1) Mog:
fight
dance
-
item

mithril pike
mithril shield
-
-

-
-

Mog is so much reliable and versatile that will probably be the
most chosen group for the task, he has the chance to equip the
secret weapon of this hack, at the same time the dance which
will learn after the first fight is perfect for kill minions in
few attacks.
One useful detail is the mithril shield, another casting equip:
- Mythril shield, casts shell on target, useful for resist to
the magic attacks of the boss(won't break).

2) Kuku:
fight
slot -> gp rain
-
item

flail (removable in battle)
paladin shield (removable in battle)
-
-

Coin toss (locked)
-

He's the weakest in the group, if you don't switch rows, he may
die in one blow and skrew your run... but he also has 3 super
features: the gp rain that will cause high damage on higher
levels(enemies will drop enough gold to make you toss at will);
he can switch equips in battle, that gives him the ability of
equip the secret weapon and lets take you from him the almighty
paladin shield, which will make the wielder almost immune to
the magic stance of the boss.

3) Kutan:
fight
runic
-
item

mithril blade (locked)
thunder shield (locked)
-
-

-
-

Not much to say: he can runic, since i setted all boss magics
blockable from runic, you may handle the magic stance of the
boss with him.

4) Kupan:
fight
shock
-
item

full moon (locked)
flame shield (locked)
-
-

-
-

His shock command is powerful enough to make him the strongest
moogle, in the first battle. In any case he can kill minions
really fast and do even higher concentrate damage.
If you use him, you should be able to finish the task without
even figure out all that stuff related to weapon switch.



------------------GROUP #3------------------

1) Kushu:
fight
throw
-
item

chocobo brsh (locked)
flame shield (locked)
-
-

atlas armlet (locked)
atlas armlet (locked)

I edited the hack in order to make possible to throw any
removable weapon, that gives many bullets to him, double atlas
armlet will boost his throw damage too.

2) Kurin:
fight
-
-
item

mithril pike (removable in battle)
ice shield (removable in battle)
-
-

dragon boots (locked)
-

He's theorically the strongest moogle in the hack, that because
he can switch in battle the secret weapon and jump at will:
that will do insane damage on the boss, but that is very slow,
you'll realize fast that he's not the best DPS dealer.
Anyway he can give away the ice shield and equip the paladin
shield too.

3) Kuru:
fight
-
-
item

mithril blade (locked)
thunder shield (locked)
-
-

true knight (locked)
-

His only feature is to shield near fatal allies from physical
attacks, in the case you want to kill some allies to get more
experience, he may hinder your goal.

4) Kamog:
fight
-
-
item

boomerang (locked)
buckler (locked)
-
snow muffler (locked)

-
-

He cannot do nothing, but he wears a snow muffler, so he has a
really high defense, in the case you want to kill him, it will
be very nasty to take him down, the better solution would be
to throw him a weapon.



-----------------YOUR ENEMIES:-------------------

1) SilverLobo: level 10 HP 800
steal: - common -> debilitator
- rare -> chainsaw
drop: - common -> shuriken
- rare -> ninja star

exp: 8000
gold: 2000

He's very quick and do sometimes double attacks, his special
may risk to kill the target, if it's not in the back row

2) Kinmammoth: level 6 HP 2000
steal: - common -> ice rod
- rare -> fire rod
drop: - common -> shadow edge
- rare -> beads

exp: 8000
gold: 2000

He's slow, but hits hard, the blizzard will do about 50 ice
damage to the party, he may double special 1 or 2 targets:
if he hits twice the same target with that, it may die at max
HP even in the back row...

3) Task's guy(alias Marshal): level 18 HP 30000
steal: - common/rare -> Task manager(see note)

He's uber buffed, alternates attacks(90-180 damage) or net(stop)
with Absolute 0(deadly ice damage to party, 400-500 damage)
or atomic ray(deadly fire damage to party, 400-500 damage)
while the 2 silverlobos are still alive;
If they die, he'll start to alternate attacks with the special,
which does insane damage(400-500 damage in back row) to target.


so... how to win?
Minions gives a lot of exp, so you can grind, the less you kill
of them(and the more allies you keep alive), the more will have
to be accurate your strategy.
Net is a terrible time waster, but in that form you have a lot
of chances of winning(due to absorbing shields), if you don't
want to risk to be caught by net, then you should kill the
silverlobos before, to handle better the special, you should
use buckler on allies, so that damage will be halved.
He starts weak to poison, and absorb all the other elements, if
he takes elemental damage, he'll use wallchange to hinder
element exploits, the scan with mithril knife is a good idea,
right after the wallchange(if you're lucky, he will be already
weak to fire/ice).
Unique commands are the most common way to kill him(shock,
gp rain, throw), but the third way(the most sure and effective)
will be to kill him with Task manager. what is it?

---------------Task manager-------------------------------------
| in any task i'll create there will always be an item called
| Task manager, it's always effective to win the task, it's
| not meant to be the best solution, but will depend from the
| effectiveness of the other strategies available.
| In this case is a pimped Aura lance, 255 power, +7 to stats
| (+ 7 at magic will affect item casting for sure), double
| damage to the boss(human), same damage to back row and raise
| preemptive chances. powerful.
| It's also throwable, but you must use it proprely, or you
| won't have other ways to win.
----------------------------------------------------------------

The most important exploit is the fact that the boss is an
undead, so that Elixir will be your best weapon against him!
The same for the nerfed fenix down which will do 1850 cheap
damage to win.
It wasn't so hard to figure out this weakness, the only Fenix
down you find won't revive you: that means that there's an
undead somewhere that you absolutely won't be allowed to kill
him with revive, who can it be? the boss, obviously... the
other 2 are just minions.


One last note: if you wonder how to match stealing Task manager
with winning using group #2 or #3, it's simple: as soon as
it starts the task, you have a small chance to sneak with locke
dodging all the minions and fight the boss immediately: the
only reason to do it is to steal with locke and remove the
fire shield before dying. that won't be a gameover due to the
contitions of this history event, that let's you also remove the
shields in battle from groups that don't have to fight.

With the moogles you can change equipment on in battle, can you only change it in battle? I didn't know it was possible to make it so allies can only remove weapons during a fight.

Normally moogles, Banon, Leo, Ghosts and others npc are setted to deny equip/relic switch in the inventory, the same for weapon/shield in battle.
In ff3usme, in the actors section there's a flag that decides if you can switch their equip in battle or not.
So i make that possible for 3 moogles in total, 1 for each group

group #1 the moogle with flame shield;
group #2 the moogle with paladin shield;
group #3 the moogle with ice shield.

Too bad that there aren't flags available for switch equip/relic in the inventory...

Cyprus asked me something about that during the task#1 period: that put me in a difficult position... if i'd had answer yes, the puzzle inside the task #1 would became automatically solved for everybody, if i'd had answer no, i would lied and made impossible to solve the puzzle for almost anyone, who'd probably believed to my lie.

So i was forced to answer in a certain manner, thinking to that... maybe my answer was quite harsh to him
If i hurted you in some way, forgive me Cyprus.

I'll do something about questions asked, but please... send them to me with a PM, it's more easy in that way to handle a "dangerous" question.

Good to know. I purposely checked to see if I could reequip the moogles in the menu, because I too wished to throw flame shields, but after I couldn't, I just gave up on that idea. >.<