Optional Bosses in Tales of Graces f

Okay, I just finished the Zhonecage floor 10 in Tales of Graces f today, clearing the dungeon with all characters maxed at level 200. Frankly, the EXP in floor 10 is ridiculous. At least 750k EXP per battle on Easy; with EXP-boosting food like Chilli Shrimp the EXP per battle easily reaches 1.5 to 2 million. I hit the level cap long before I even reached the Zhonecage final boss, Solomus. But I admit floor 10 is very large compared to the other floors, so it's recommended that you get the Turtlez Flute before you attempt floor 10. That way, you can set EXP-boosting food in your eleth mixer permanently and never have to worry about refilling it since you can just summon a Turtlez merchant.

Solomus is quite easily beatable at level 200 on Easy. He managed to get one mystic arte off on Asbel, which got knocked down but it barely even scratched his HP (Asbel had a 50% damage reduction title equipped and Book of Fortitude was set to the eleth mixer). When Solomus split himself into 5 copies, I had Asbel and Hubert take down individual copies one by one while Sophie distracted the others. Cheria was busy healing (wasn't really needed, she only cast one Healing Circle the entire battle) and casting Indignation. I just kept racking up 100-hit combos which allowed Asbel and Hubert to use their level 3 mystic artes in succession, ending the battle in 1 minute 29 seconds.

Defeating Solomus unlocks a new optional boss, Lambda Theos (upgraded version of the final boss, Lambda Angelus). This also locks all trophies associated with Lambda Angelus including the game clear difficulty trophies so make sure you obtain those before defeating Solomus. Lambda theos isn't all that he is hyped up to be on the Tales of Graces f forums. The upgrades that he gets from the original version are double HP (240k HP on Easy), massive boosts to PDEF, CDEF and EVA, but his PATK, CATK and ACC are just boosted very slightly. This means that his attacks will still be only as damaging as Lambda Angelus on Evil, but he will be very hard to stagger. So all you need to do is get a combo going. Once you start a good combo that reaches more than 100-hits, cycle through the characters and use everyone's mystic artes. I got lucky with an Eleth Burst at the same time as my combo reaching 150-hits so all I needed to do was spam level 3 mystic artes. Lambda Theos's mystic arte is not that painful if you have 50% damage reduction titles equipped and the Book of Fortitude (Book of Glory is not recommended since it saps eleth too quickly and this battle is longer than Solomus due to Lambda Theos's high PDEF and CDEF). I won the battle in 2 minutes 9 seconds.

I decided to attempt the Rockgagong, hearing about how unbeatable it is without the infamous piggyback method or X10 damage grade shop bonus. I am happy to announce that the Rockgagong IS beatable at level 200 on Easy and well within the 20 minute time limit. This is my setup:

Preparing for the Rockgagong

Party: Asbel, Cheria, Hubert, Sophie

Level: 200

Difficulty: Easy

Accel Mode: All at 100% when entering battle.

Strategy: All on Aggressive, Asbel on Rarely defend, Cheria on Always defend, Hubert and Sophie on Regularly defend, Asbel on B heavy, Cheria on B only, Hubert on A heavy, Sophie on Balanced, All on use Accel Mode when Near-death.

Artes: Turn off all artes except those that hit the Rockgagong's weaknesses. Leave Virtuous Radiance and Indignation on for Cheria. I controlled Asbel for the bulk of this battle so I set to his shortcut B-artes the following: Aurora Lotus, Gale Maw, Plasma Shock, Shattersteel Swarm.

Titles: All best 50% damage reduction titles.

Food: Seafood Stew

Eleth Mixer (9749 capacity, 12 slots):

• Seafood Curry
• Mabo Curry
• Chilli Shrimp
• Book of Preemption 
• Book of Fortitude
• Book of Metabolism
• Book of Partnership
• Book of Satiation
• Book of Growth
• Book of Friendship
• Book of Awakening
• Book of Expansion

Note: There is a time limit of 20 minutes for defeating the Rockgagong. I have no idea what happens after 20 minutes but I think it's an instant game over. Aslo, while you can enter Eleth Burst and Accel Mode in this battle, mystic artes are locked for this battle. The special effects you get when enter Eleth Burst or Accel Mode still occur.

Summary: Upon entering battle, I immediately controlled Cheria to move to slightly off-centre to the left furthest back from the Rockgagong. There is a spot where none of the Rockgagong's attacks will hit (I didn't manage to find it though, Cheria still got hit by a tornado attack nearing the end). I controlled Asbel to use B-artes hit any weaknesses of the Rockgagong that have not been hit by Hubert or Sophie, ensuring that most if not all his weaknesses were hit at all times. The Rockgagong is weak to A-artes so when his weaknesses were covered, I shirted to using A-artes and racked up combos with Hubert and Sophie. The Rockgagong's head bobs up and down so I had to time my A-artes wisely. The AI for Hubert and Sophie does this excellently. Don't worry about his attacks as Cheria will heal when anyone has been hit, and if the Rockgagong K.O.'s a character with a critical hit (which happens rarely), the food in the eleth mixer will bring them back to life instantly. It is quite easy to rack up 150 to 200-hit combos since the Rockgagong attacks very infrequently, giving you plenty of time to guard and continue the combo even if Hubert or Sophie gets knocked down.

Once his HP reaches below 50%, he will start to rest his head on the ground for a few seconds every once in a while. Use this opportunity to activate Accel Mode and go crazy with attacks. Hubert's Accel Mode, Arrow Squall, increases the combo counter to insane hits and carries on even if Hubert is knocked down. Asbel's Accel Mode, Spiral Surge, adds additional hits to every attack he makes. Sophie's Accel Mode, EX Boost, makes her attacks significantly more powerful and completely heals her HP and refills her CC to maximum upon activation. Cycle through the characters and activate their Accel Modes one at a time. Sadly, Cheria's Accel Mode, Temporal Rift, does not affect the Rockgagong since he is not considered to be *in* the battlefield and cannot be stopped by time. Try to finish this second half of the battle as soon as possible because the Rockgagong will start using more powerful attacks and he also starts eating melee characters, instantly removing them from battle.

The Rockgagong ate Hubert and Sophie nearing the last 1% of his HP. Thankfully, Cheria was in the middle of casting Indignation and with one more Aurora Lotus from Asbel, the battle was over.

Clear Time: 2 minutes 44 seconds

End Note: It really depends on when the Rockgagong decides to eat your characters. If he eats them too early in the battle, it might be wise to just reattempt the battle since it's harder to chain combos with less than a full party. The Rockgagong can only eat characters near its head dealing melee damage, so another strategy would be to use all ranged attackers like Malik and Pascal. Although my Malik and Pascal are both level 200 with all mastered titles, I rarely used them throughout the game so I wasn't confident enough to place them in battle not knowing the extent of their Accel Modes and artes.