A Warrior's Path

Mission Name	7-5 - A Warrior's Path
Locations	Sealion's Den (airship, again!)
Level Cap	uncapped, recomend average of level 70
Estimated Time	about 15 minutes
Special Items:	none
Difficulty:	medium-high. It’s more quirky than anything else.
Medicines Needed:	bring medicine similar to what you used on Snoll Tzar
Recomended Jobs:	Offense is very important. Bring hard hitting jobs
Brief synopsis:	show this guy you aren’t the pushover he thinks you are

Okay okay okay okay. Up until now I think I’ve done a pretty good job not talking about the plot of CoP. The few details these screenshots reveal pales in comparison to all the stuff going on in cutscenes I didn’t take pictures of. But this one is just unavoidable. I mean, I could just be vague about it, but since I’m taking screenshots you’d have to be blind as a bat to miss it, so here it is: your opponent is Tenzen, the samurai, and the three tarutarus are backing him up. Don’t ask why. I’m not saying.

You should note that this battle is uncapped. In fact, all the rest of the missions from here out are uncapped. Your party should be at about an average level of 70 for this mission.

Go for the Eyes, the Eyes!

These turncoat tarus… I wouldn't mind putting my maul through them. Unfortunately, in this battle, they’re totally invulnerable. They evade all attacks and resist all spells. That doesn’t mean they’re just here to observe. Oh no, they’re trying to kill you too. One of them is a RNG and uses ranged attacks. Another is a BLM with some pretty high level magic, and a third is a WHM that will buff Tenzen with Haste and Cure V and attack with Holy and Dia and other nonsense. Who the tarus pick on is pretty random to me. Some battles I would feel the force of their onslaught, other battles our RDM or SMN would, and still others they did very little of anything.

In addition to attacking, they also spam in say with crazy stuff like “Lord Tenzen is Invincible!” and “You’re so mean! You’re so ugly!” They also shoot off fireworks when one of your party members goes down, and they REAL crazy with them if you wipe. It’s pretty hilarious to watch and listen to them, but it causes quite a lot of spam which adds to the chaos of the battle. And no, you can’t blacklist them.

The tarus only attack (and yell out stuff) when you’re fighting Tenzen. Before the battle starts, and if you bind him and he can’t reach anyone, they stop altogether.

Tarutaru move lists:

Name	Job	Abilities
Cherukiki	Black Mage	-aga III spells, single-target IV spells Poison, bio, sleep
Makki-Cherukiki	Ranger	ranged physical attacks
Kukki-Cherukiki	White Mage	Cure V, Haste Holy, Dia

Strategy tips:

you can't hurt them. Just grit your teeth and bear the assault.
spread out to avoid AoE damage
they need line of sight to hit you, so if youre right under them, they might not be able to see you.

Blood and Glory

The Cherukikis are distractions. Tenzen is your real foe here. He doesn’t hit TOO terribly hard, but since the tarus are doing damage too it can add up. Tenzen of course has his great katana and uses melee weapon skills. He also has a very fast crossbow to shoot at any mages that get aggro.

After a little while, Tenzen eats a Shogun Rice Ball (I guess he forgot his food at the beginning) which ups his attacks, defense, and magic defense considerably. Some time again after that he uses his samurai 2-hour move, Meikyo Shisui. He will then start to skillchain you. His first two weapons kills are melee. His third is ranged. If he gets off that third weapon skill, he will immediately fire off what people call a level 4 skillchain: Cosmic Elucidation. It does just under 900 damage AoE to everyone, and if anyone somehow survives, you are ejected from the battle similar to with the Snoll Tzar.

Sigh.

You can bind him when he starts doing weapon skills with his 2-hour, but the darn thing just doesn’t wear off. I don’t think it EVER wears off. He’ll eventually break the bind and keep doing weapon skills. Even if it has been two minutes between his first and second, it still counts against you for Cosmic Elucidation. Even if they melee skills MISS they still count! So binding is good if you only have a little damage to do, but most likely he’ll eventually get the Cosmic off anyway, and down you will go.

Best thing to do is blast the heck out of him early, before he uses his rice ball. That means 2-hours. Astral Flow, Manafont, Chainspell, Eagle Eye Shot, whatever. With hope you’ll do so much damage early that the rest of your attacks will finish him off before he can kill you with Cosmic Elucidation. Fight hard here. Opo-opo Crowns, sleep potions, icarus wings, attack up food. Treat this battle like the Snoll Tzar and you should be able to beat him.

He does give up before the end, but it’s nothing like with the dragon. He gave up for us at less than 5%. So assume you need to drain his entire life bar. It is estimated you need to do between 12000 and 12500 damage. That's more than Snoll Tzar, but you were level 60 then and potentially are 75 now, so it's actually quite a bit easier to pull off.

Tenzen move list:

Move	Effect
(physical attack)	Attacks with great katana
(ranged attack)	Attacks with crossbow. Used if a character far away gets aggro
Shogun Rice Ball	Increases attack, defense, and magic attack for the battle
Samurai weapon skills	Does weapon-skill damage.
Meikyo Shisui	Prepareds to use Cosmic Elucidation
Cosmic Elucidation	800+ AoE Damage. You lost the battle immediately.

Strategy tips:

Tenzen's food ups his defenses significantly. Try to do as much damage as you can beforehand using skillchains and 2-hours.
Watch the tarus to and dispel any buffs they cast on Tenzen.
As with Snoll Tzar, focus on as much offense as you can while keeping everyone alive.
If Tenzen uses Meikyo Shisui, bind him and run out of range to delay his skillchain as long as possible.

It's a short and quirkly battle, but the rewards after you beat Tenzen make it all worth it. I hope you packed your swimsuit and sunscreen. Welcome to Al’Taieu.

Exp reward for completion: 1000

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