Any% Hard Character Setup

This guide includes notes that I abide by in my personal runs. This may or may not apply to you, and if you have any suggestions, feel free to message me here or on the Anime Speedruns Discord.

I don't use characters that are purchasable, as it goes against my personal ethics. So, this will contain no discussion of any of them.

This guide was created before the DLC released. Updates/balancing may change viability.

## General Notes

- Wee Pincers are one of the most important parts of the run. Using Crabby Resonance is vital for getting high Attack, and it only gets better the more you maintain it.
- Tyranny III, which can be gotten towards the end of the run, also makes a huge different in Attack.
- Since I don't generally return to town, unless the story makes me, quest turn-ins, and getting the Tyranny III, all revolve around when I would normally be in town.
- As with normal GBFR gameplay, SBAs are generally used to stop bosses from using ultimate attacks, but can still deal damage. Interrupting a boss the moment it enters Overdrive, or is about to reach an HP threshold, is a great use for your SBA. Maglielle 1st is a great example of this, since it's possible to 1-cycle her, if your setup and luck is solid.
- Sometimes, your AI party will just... Not use SBA. It feels effectively random. They might have full SBA, they're not downed, not afflicted with status, and they're nearby. They still just... Don't use it, sometimes. Not sure why.

Eugen post-run, with different combos of Sigils:

![](/static/blob/rnq79x2e.png)

As you can see, Crabby Resonance is more effective than Tyranny III, but together they're a huge increase. Wee Pincers are a high priority because of this. Even missing a few can make a huge difference, as well, as pictured below:

![](/static/blob/7e90m63e.png)

Losing 1 Wee Pincer might be fine, but more than that and it'll start getting bad. Every Attack bonus counts.

## Character Lineup

During the tutorial and opening sections, you're forced to use the Captain. Generally speaking, I find the Captain to be pretty weak, so I swap them onto AI as soon as I get the chance. That being said, familiarize yourself with their movesets, as you'll have no choice but to play as them a few times in the story.

When picking characters for any reason, consider the following:

- Characters with high stun or high damage are generally the best picks.
- Characters that have both high stun *and* high damage are extremely valuable.
- Pick characters whose element will be effective for what you're planning, because you won't be swapping them around much. Exploiting weaknesses can make a huge difference.

## Pre-Crewmate Cards

Once we're out of the tutorial, and we have the ability to edit our party, my party lineup looks like this:

1. Eugen (My main)
2. Captain
3. The 3rd and 4th slots will be Io and Rackam in any order.

Obviously you play as your main, so it's always in the first slot. The Captain will be in your team for the entire story, so they're a shoe-in for the second slot.

Unfortunately, Katalina isn't a great character. She's too complicated to pull off consistently, and her AI regarding Skill and Ares usage is terrible.

Rosetta, in my opinion, is super fun. I love how she plays, because it's so different. Unfortunately... She's playing a different game, which means she's worse at GBFR. Her damage takes too long, and it isn't consistent, both of which aren't useful for us in this run. You should play her casually, though. She's pretty fun.

Io is an absolute beast. It may look like she stands around a lot of the time, which she does. She also drops sparkly nukes on enemies. Great starter party pick, but not super fun to play as due to her slow, long charges.

Rackam just has solid damage. Nothing super special, but he doesn't need to be. Another solid starter pick.

When it comes to weapon upgrades, prioritize your main, then the Captain. *Only upgrade weapons for other character if you have spare materials you know you won't need.* Just like Mastery, money will be tight for most of the run.

### Mastery

It's vitally important to keep your main character ahead of the curve. It's also important to keep the Captain up in terms of Mastery.

Mastery in Hard Any% is extremely tight, especially early on.

**DO NOT SPEND MASTERY POINTS ON PARTY MEMBERS OTHER THAN YOUR MAIN AND THE CAPTAIN.**

Io and Rackam, while useful in the early game, will quickly become outclassed as you level up Eugen and the Captain. They will be replaced at the first chance we get.

Additionally, spending Mastery on Defense nodes is typically not worth it. For Eugen and the Captain, make sure you get their Perfect Block and Perfect Dodge abilities. The AI's survivability increases dramatically once they have access to both of those things. Good thing they're cheap.

When it comes to which stat nodes you should pick, keep in mind the following criteria:

1. Valuable Skill nodes on your main (in my case, Eugen) have maximum priority.
2. Nodes that increase Attack power on your main. The priority of this criterion is only barely lower than the first.
3. Skills on the Captain.
4. Attack power on the Captain.

*IMPORTANT EXCEPTION:* Regarding the previous criteria, the Perfect Block and Perfect Dodge abilities for *at least* your main should be acquired before Furycane, and maybe before the Goblin Boss. This does not take many Mastery points, but it can limit the amount of early Attack nodes you take. Use your best judgement, as this part of the run could still be optimized.

The following is a chart I made to keep track of Eugen's Mastery at a glance:

![](/static/blob/pzmdxo4z.png)

This chart includes pathing through the Venom Shot Skill. Venom Shot is a great Skill for Eugen, simply because it deals damage when you're normally unable. It remains permanently useful. It also includes picking up Disruptor, which I mainly just use as a DPS cooldown, if I use it at all.

Eugen's Sniper Vision grenades are extremely powerful, so his abilities are mainly for reactions or continuous damage.

The following is what my Eugen's Skill setup looks like once all abilities are acquired:

![](/static/blob/1n54y8qe.png)

**REMINDER: DO NOT SPEND MASTERY POINTS ON PARTY MEMBERS OTHER THAN YOUR MAIN AND THE CAPTAIN.**

## Crewmate Card #1

Once you beat Furycane, you'll get the first Crewmate Card. We'll be using it immediately.

Any character you acquire through Crewmate Cards have their stats and weapons scaled to your rough point of progression. They'll come with a ton of Mastery nodes filled in already, so you won't have to do any of that. As stated in the last section, you'll only ever be spending Mastery on your main and the Captain.

In this first case, we'll be getting Sigfried, who I call "Siggy". Siggy has multiple great points in his favor.

- Just like Eugen, he has high damage and high stun.
- Also like Eugen, he's an Earth element character. All of the current Earth characters (Eugen, Siggy, and Cagliostro) are solid picks. Get it? Solid? Whatever.

We'll be replacing either Rackam or Io with Siggy. I haven't determined which is optimal, but they're nowhere near as effective as your main, the Captain, or Siggy at this point.

Getting an Earth character at this point is a good idea, as we'll be headed to Leautagne (I hate this name) next, which is full of Ice enemies, including two bosses. Earth is strong against Ice, which means Eugen is effective here, too.

One of the main reasons I like Eugen is because he's effective against both of the main bosses of Leautagne, both because he's an Earth element, and also because their speed is no issue for him.

I know I keep saying this, but it's an important lesson I had to learn:

**DO NOT SPEND MASTERY POINTS ON PARTY MEMBERS OTHER THAN YOUR MAIN AND THE CAPTAIN.**

Siggy will do just fine without any Mastery upgrades. He'll be getting replaced, anyways.

Around this time, you should be maxing out your main's Mastery until we reach Chapter 5. Once their Mastery is maxed out, spend about 1/3 to 1/2 of it on the Captain's Offense tree, and save the rest. Once we get past Leautagne, Mastery will unlock again, and we'll dump the rest into the main.

## Crewmate Card #2

After you reach Chapter 5, which is Seedhollow, and you finish up the story in the town, you'll get another Crewmate Card. Like before, we'll be using this immediately.

As I said before, characters you unlock with Crewmate Cards will have Mastery roughly scaled to your current progression.

This time, we bring out the man, the myth, the legend; the fastest man alive...

### VASERAGA

![](/static/blob/xzd1rx5z.png)

To many GBFR main story/ANY% speedrunners, Vaseraga is known to have effectively the highest movement speed. His run speed is the same as the others, but one of his melee combos allows him to cover great distances rapidly. Performed optimally, this movement tech can be maintained indefinitely, though it does require a bit of learning to get the hang of.

Vaseraga will be replacing whoever is left from the starter lineup, either Io or Rackam. Do not replace Siggy, as his stats are still useful.

Aside from being fast, Vaseraga has high damage, and high stun. He has a natural ability to resist knock-back from his character-unique gauge. He'll make use of this as an AI character, too. In my runs, currently, I use him for his movement. So, if you plan to follow my advice, familiarize yourself with Vaseraga, too.

In this section of the game, until the next Crewmate Card when we return to Seedhollow, we'll be making intermittent use of Vaseraga for his speed. Both Dahli and Phondam (desert and volcano, respectively) have a lot of movement involved. His tech makes a huge difference both locations.

Aside from his movement, he's a solid pick because he's a Dark element. Maglielle is a Light boss in Dahli, which is coming up. While her shield stops most damage, she has a small HP pool for this point of the game, and she's pretty easy to stun. Vaseraga's slowing skill helps greatly here, as well.

The fact of him being Dark element will help with Tayu and Maglielle 2nd (in the duo fight in Seedhollow), a bit further down the line.

### !!! WARNING !!!

In my runs, I swap between them on the fly. You can only do this out of combat, so be aware.

Any time you swap a character in the open world, their SBA gauge resets to 0.

*Only swap characters if their SBA is low, or if you've planned and prepared for the result.*

### **Eugen's Weapon**

In Seedhollow, you'll get the choice to make some new weapons. Making weapons is generally more effective than upgrading, as I find it to be cheaper and easier.

In this case, I make the Leviathan, and fully upgrade it. Always keep Eugen's weapon upgraded as much as you can.

## Crewmate Card #3

To be honest, this card is sort of up in the air, for me. I usually pick Narmaya because she's a Dark element, and she's pretty powerful. I could certainly be convinced of another pick. However, that Dark element attribute will be quite valuable against two bosses coming up: Tayu and Maggy.

As before, she'll be replacing someone. This time, Siggy's getting the axe, as his stats are too far behind.

Narmaya will be on the team until the very end.

### Eugen's Weapon

By this point, if everything has gone well, once I reach the Pillar of Vayoi, I can generally get his weapon near level 75. This gives him easily the highest damage in the party, when paired with his Mastery.

## Id (temporarily) joined the party!

At the Pillar of Vayoi, the final open-world section, as soon as we beat Furycane Nihilla, Id will become a potential party member. I haven't done enough testing to determine if he's a good replacement for Vaseraga or not, yet. I imagine that he is, but I'd have to do some targeted testing.

Regardless, you'll have to put Vaseraga back on the team when we reach the final fight.

# Conclusion and Summary

We sum everything up, I make the following decisions:

1. Start with a party lineup of (in order): Eugen, Captain, Rackam/Io
2. Focus on Attack power Mastery and Skills for Eugen.
3. Give the Captain a few Offense upgrades, as well. Make sure they're upgraded a decent bit, because they're required, later.
4. Get enough Defensive Mastery to give both Eugen and the Captain Perfect Block and Perfect Dodge. This should always happen before Furycane.
5. The first Crewmate Card will be used for Sigfried. Replace either Io or Rackam.
6. Following the Mastery path image above, max out Eugen's Offense Mastery, then put a little into the Captain.
7. Use the second Crewmate Card on Vaseraga. Replace whoever you didn't replace with the first card.
8. Get Eugen's new weapon, the Leviathan.
9. Whenever you wouldn't be wasting SBA, use Vaseraga for movement sections in Dahli and Phondam. 
10. Use the final Crewmate Card on Narmaya, replacing Siggy.
11. Fairly sure Id is a good swapout for Vaseraga, but not certain. Needs testing.

Following these general *character* rules, Bahamut Versa isn't really an issue. Fate Episodes, Weapon Mastery, and Optional Quests won't be required.

Thank you for reading, and I hope this helps. Makse out.

Vaseraga Movement Tutorial

# https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrEgbt1JJAY- Tsu's little unscripted guide to Vaseraga movement - 

Notations, Attack / L (Square/X) , Unique / H (Triangle/Y), Dodge (R2/RT)

1. L -> Dodge -> H -> H -> Dodge (before full swing)
2. H -> Dodge (after the full swing)
3. H -> Dodge ( before full swing)
4. repeat 2 and 3 and with the correct timing you should never see the slow dodge (your dodge timer will never run out if done correctly)

side note: if you get the slow dodge, don't fret, you can press H again and still keep it the movement going.

Kohiiiiro

Makselord

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Name	Autor
Any% Hard Character Setup	Makselord 5 months ago
Vaseraga Movement Tutorial	Kohiiiiro 2 years ago