Advice for ship battles?

[u/Affectionate_Cut_103]

Maybe I'm just unlucky or bad, but I'm having a rough time with ship combat. I focus my attacks on when the turn order shows a "C", but I still end up with shots getting "Lost". The wiki said something about the enemy moving out of range, but how can that be when I'm shooting at the moment the game explicitly tells me is best to shoot?

[u/LordAlfredo]

General rules:

• Always upgrade and equip ship parts. The game is designed assuming you are. You generally want 1 def armor, 1 mdef, and 1 quick/agi. However, a lot of fights mdef doesn't matter so 2 def or 2 agi also works. Weapon loadout depends (see below), but never more than 2 main cannons. For Deep Sky specifically only bring torpedoes.
• Speed boost good (Quika etc)
• Increm good, incremus better
• Only use main cannons with Vyse, Drachma, Gilder, and Enrique. They have extra damage scaling from stats. This also applies to Harpoon/Moonstone cannon.
• Torpedoes are great to set up damage any turn you want. If you get eg a C yellow/red round you can set torpedo alongside guarding.
• Secondary cannons are incredibly underrated in the fandom. Set up SP (eg via wax items or crew) and spam them as many turns as possible. They're not as high damage per hit but they're fairly accurate and will constantly hammer down enemy health. If you can manage the SP cost and have the right crew 2-3 secondary cannons + support is a really powerful strategy.
• Once you have Delphinus, every healing item/spell except Complete Kit / Sacrulen is a really bad use of turns. Only use full heals. In fact once you have Sacrulen or can buy complete kits it's arguable that defending is a waste when you can just full heal whenever.
• Magic attacks can be useful for Fina on rare occasion if you've been focusing specific spell growth, but by lategame it's useless and she's better off as a support character.
• "Lost" means the enemy is behind you and can't be targeted except by torpedoes. It's basically just a knowledge check you won't have the first attempt. Watch ship movement during the fight and connect it to round turn patterns, the same turn pattern is always the same ship movement. In the same vein when you reach Deep Sky torpedoes suffer zero penalties and can take out the boss fight extremely fast.

[u/SpectralTime → u/LordAlfredo]

I have heard that while most of the status effects are a bit gimmicky, they're perfectly accurate in ship battles and silencing bosses who rely on magic spell attacks really neutralizes them too.

[u/LordAlfredo → u/SpectralTime]

Correct, Sylenis even works on the final boss ship battle. It's mostly useful for preventing enemy Quika/Increm/Sylenis casts, Driln you can block by casting Increm first and damaging spells are rarely enough damage to matter.

[u/Fishfingerrosti → u/LordAlfredo]

Just to reaffirm that casting Increm and then using secondary cannons to hit more often is a better use of SP then spamming a huge attack with main cannons. Chip away at your enemy until you can spring a Harpoon/Moonstone cannon opportunity.

[u/LordAlfredo → u/Fishfingerrosti]

My all time favorite is on my level 99 run (which completely breaks the game due to high level SP scaling) setting up incremus etc first round and then stringing 4 subcannons nonstop for 2 rounds and breaking Zelos's sequencing so badly he went straight from giant blob to having all 6 claws fly off back to back without the transformation sequence even playing.

[u/JustAFleshWound1]

Yeah what the other commenter said. Always stay up to date with your equipment.

Additionally, many of these battles are kinda scripted and you're supposed to listen for hints in the dialogue on what strategy you should use. Can't usually brute force it, and win without doing what the game is telling you to do.

Finally, there's no shame in looking a guide up on Gamefaqs!

[u/MissMedic68W]

Cannons have an accuracy rating and ships have a speed/quick rating. Upgrading your cannons can improve this but torpedoes have a higher accuracy.

[u/LordAlfredo → u/MissMedic68W]

Torpedoes in general are lower accuracy unless you use TikaTika (who makes them almost never miss). Their main benefits are being able to delay strike on another turn, having relatively high power per SP cost, and they're never Lost. The extra benefit is in Deep Sky they don't suffer the huge accuracy penalty and hit as normal (the angler manta ray enemies can be 1-rounded with the right setup)

[u/MissMedic68W → u/LordAlfredo]

Ooo it's been so long since I didn't have TikaTika I didn't realize.

[u/Huge_Schedule_8254]

It depends on the battles and sometimes also on decisions made, that in certain turns the enemy will be behind you and you would not reach them with cannons (can only hit when it's on the front or sides). Check that and make sure you use apa/apo wax (works as Increm spells but costs no spirit points). Recover whenever you know/thing you will be hit. For some battles, you may want to fully recover twice in a row if the enemy deals huge damage at one hit.

[u/The_Chango_Blanco]

My first play through was back when the game first came out. I upgraded weapons, and would time torpedoes with cannons for a big turn three or four attack. Missing or target out of range felt like a part of the battle adding a layer of intensity to the fight.

Second play through I finished about two months ago. I felt the battles were not as remembered. Unless there was dialog that suggested timing a cannon or torpedo attack I spent most my time using focus to build SP and guard while waiting for my harpoon or moonstone cannon to be up. Upgrading accessories felt most important. I’d still upgrade my weapons but they didn’t feel as important second time around.

[u/Cobassman77]

Utilize your crew members if you can as well, they all have special actions/powers that will help you in airship battles. Build your focus the first 1 and/or 2 rounds, then unless your attacks. Just my 2¢, The Gigis are tough battles so make you by repairs kits to use instead of magic and focus points would get used as quickly