Enemy Info

Location

The location for the mark is directly east on top of the large bluff. Once you reach the spot you will get a CS with a giant Cactaur (actually it is called a Gigantiaur), during which Sazh has a rather amusing exchnage. Evidently he has some prior experience with this particular mob.

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Left Gigantaur Enemy Intel. [Right] Mega Cactuar!

Strategy

There are two ways that you can handle this fight: (1) Complete the story mode, cap your jobs, upgrade your kit, and then fight it; or (2) Use the “Luck” style of fighting. I chose to do (2) but YMMV!

Method 1 : Complete the story mode. Basically it is what I said above - you complete the story mode, then cap off all of your jobs, then upgrade all of your kit, and finally you fight this thing. Doing it by this method is not by any means a fast fight - and you can still fail.

Method 2 : Luck mode. Like some of the previous missions where we spammed the Death spell, this is a luck mode approach in which we are basically counting on one of the passive abilities to kick in, allowing us to kill the mob. In this case the passive ability we are relying upon is “Random: Instant Chain”which, when it kicks in, instantly staggers your opponent. If you want to use mode 2 you will need to do all of the following steps: - Alter your party structure to Lightning (Leader), Fang, and Vanille. - If you do not already have it in your decks, add Tireless Charge (Commando/Commando/Medic). - Equip Lightning with the Hauteclaire, the Hunter’s Friend, and an Energy Sash. - Equip Fang with the Survivalist Catalog and Speed Sash.

The Fight : Basically you are hoping that one or both trigger the ability on the first attack, which will instantly stagger the mark. The ability kicks in when one of your party members actually hits the mark, at which point they will stagger, and you should immediately use Summon, and attack the mark, continuing the attack until it is dead. This should take less than a minute to complete once you start a fight that spawns the passive ability, but you may have to die and restart a dozen or more times before that happens. Bear in mind that this guys regular attack does 10K in damage, and he will rotate through your party targeting each member one at a time. If you are unlucky he will target Lightning first, which will be a bad thing if he is then staggered, because you could end up dying anyway, but let us hope not. Once the mark is dead you collect your reward: 20,000 CP, a Cactaur Doll, the rank of Needleworker, and of course, another mission down with 5-stars! Once you complete the fight you also unlock the Trophy/Achievement “Floraphobe” (which is worth 30 GP which is a lot for this game)! How cool is that? This is also one of the missions that factors in a couple of other mission-related Trophies/Achievements so it is all good.

Floraphobe

Toppled a green terror and cut an oversized succulent down to size.

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