FFXIII - Barthandelus 1 (1 Paradigm, 1 Role Developed, No Shrouds, No Summon)

1 Paradigm Only (Bully = COM/SAB/SYN) 1 Role Developed (Lightning = COM, Vanille = SAB, Sazh = SYN) No Shrouds No Summon Tier 1 Weapons No Catalysts Things needed/used: Librascope = so Sazh will cast En-Elements immediately Edged Carbine ★ = Maximize Lightning's Magic Stat 25 Potions (30 to be safe) + Doctor's Code = Forego Medic Role Rune Bracelets = Focus on Magic Resist. Max level not necessary. First off, the gil was hacked in to eliminate time spent grinding for the ncu playthrough I'm doing. Everything else is unchanged. This battle is just a little detour/break from ncu. This set up doesn't actually require a lot of gil to be successful. The only thing needed is to max out Lightning's Edged Carbine. Best way to do this is to use 31 Crankshafts with a 3x multiplier. Maxing the Rune Bracelets isn't necessary. But I decided to upgrade them to cut down on healing time. The less Lightning needs to toss a potions, the more opportunities to focus on attacking, the shorter the total Battle Duration will be. Equipping Vanille with Belladonna Wand is, of course, essential, since she'll be focusing solely on Debuffs. Increasing her Magic isn't necessary so there's no need to upgrade it. For Sazh, any weapon will do since all he'll be doing is applying and reapplying Buffs. Stagger Maintenance from Procyons doesn't actually do anything for this battle. Surviving the single mitigated Destrudo here wasn't a stroke of luck. The party's HP was high enough to survive it as long as they are at full health before it hits. that's why I tossed Potions to full health right when he starts charging up Destrudo. ===Party Leader Positioning=== Another trick to shorten Battle Duration is to position Lightning far from Vanille and Sazh during the 2nd Phase of the Battle (when the babyfaces are all gone). That way, she won't get interrupted by any of Barty's AoE attacks. Ruinga is especially annoying for it's ability to swipe the characters right off their feet. So to do this, focus first on the two inner babyfaces. Once they're gone, the ones remaining should be the Left Pauldron and Right Pauldron. It doesn't matter which one you defeat first, but just make sure that Lightning is positioned right in front of one of them just before it gets destroyed (first 2:16, then 3:10). After that, spam Ruin on the remaining Pauldron so that Lightning ends up facing sideways (3:15). Now, you have Lightning separated from the rest of the party (3:40). Take note though that she won't stay in that position for long. Since the "battlefield" is (I'm assuming) circular in shape, she'll slowly get funneled back to the center as the battle drags on. But before she lands right beside Sazh and Vanille, the battle should already be over if done right.