Transcendence Tier 2

• Absorbs Earth & Holy, Immune to Launch

• Worker Beasts will warp the Commander's turn right after they go

• A red aura will surround them after the Commander buffs making them highly resistant to Magic BRV DMG, and this cannot be overridden with imperils

• At 79% HP, 49% HP, & 29% HP, the Commander will send away/remove the worker beasts, and delay itself

  • The adds will be resummoned after 12 player actions

• The boss doesn't have much variety in terms of attacks, so mainly just look out for the boss' single target BRV+HP attack, do not get broken by it! The ALL attack is a BRV only, so just make sure your entire team isn't broken.

Required (all):

• Black Crystal: Garland is king, Machina, Squall, & Leon are the only other black crystals that were found to help with this tier. (*maybe* Auron?)

• Delayer: No clears at time of release have been found with any delayers other than 5 keys listed above. The massive MDEF that the boss gains with its red aura makes characters like Emperor heavily countered, but he can make it through. The inability to launch removes Cloud, Keiss, Dark Knight Cecil, and other delayers from being reasonable here. Auron MIGHT work, but make sure you have the damage, we tested a clear and it got close.

  • Note that Y'shtola doesn't care about magic defense since she has so many BRV gains, but also - Earth is absorbed, so Stone will unbreak the enemy, allowing your team to rebreak the boss and delay an additional turn.

Garland is certainly the best option, fulfilling both requirements for the stage. He has nonstop delay with high damage, and is even capable of soloing this tier of Transcendence, but we can't stress it enough, how little sense that makes - as you will need to compose a party for the Reckoning stage with only 4 characters... so be prepared! 

Aranea works extremely well here, constantly unbreaking enemies and delaying 2 additional turns with her Dragoon Dive+. Her Vitalcrusher debuff can be sustained throughout the fight, allowing the rest of your team to generally cap damage throughout.

Lightning is a force of nature on this stage, single target delay is her specialty, so just build a balanced team around her.

Emperor needs a specially crafted team, but he did have a clear, and he can delay relentlessly.

The strategy of this tier is much more straightforward than previous Transcendence levels. You must delay the boss, and not give it many turns.  If it gets some turns, that's certainly fine, just be wary of the single target BRV+HP attack.

If you do not have access to Garland, Aranea, Lightning, Y'shtola, and don't want to figure out Emperor there are numerous other options coming in the future to help destroy this stage thanks to powercreep.

• Weak to Fire, Thunder, Water, & Dark

• Resists Ice, High Resistance to Magic

• Immune to HP Attack Disable

• The first enemy to act will buff itself with HP DMG Reduction that needs to be prevented or dispelled

  • They will frequently apply these buffs after their turn, so consistent dispel is important if allowing them to take turns

• After one buffs itself, it will gain 80k+ BRV that needs to be shaved

• At 49% HP, when the orb reappears, they will both gain 80k+ BRV

Required (all):

• Blue Crystal: Faris, Mog, Krile, Trey, Aranea, Wakka are recent choices

• Weakness Damage: This has many strategies:

  • Party Enchanter: Ignis, Desch, Krile, Kuja, Garnet, Guy all work and allow you time to boss rush in the last 50%

  • 2+ Self Enchanter: Lightning, Faris, Mog, Reno, Golbez all imperil their own element to hit for weakness, so while they help, this becomes even more of a boss rush in the last 50%

  • Enchant Call: Ignis, Krile, Gau, Rydia, Lulu (buff) for the party. Ceodore for self

    • With just calls available - bring out the premium damage dealers, see the no boss turns strategy below.

Strategies (pick one):

• Dispeller: If you give the enemies turns, you will need to dispel their buffs. Faris, Beatrix, Arciela all handle dispeller duty. Aerith stops buffs, and can also resurrect if you need it. Play a fair strategy and don't sweat it.

• No Boss Turns: 

  • Consecutive turns with Terra, Lightning, Aranea, Ultimecia. Pair alongside Yang and just watch them melt. Yang and Terra can clear this before Yang takes 3 turns. Yang certainly not required.

  • Delete Turns with Amidatelion, bring the damage dealers alongside, use Cloud call to dispel if needed.

• All bosses are immune to launch

• This fight has a 130 turn limit, we've seen quick clears under 80, but many going 120+, buckle in for a long fight. 

  • Total HP pool = 20 million HP

• Wave 1 Metal Drums, Weak to Wind, 3 million HP each

  • They have many HP attacks, including AoE HP attacks

  • Many attacks have high turn rate if they break you

  • When their recast bar fills, they will get green streaks around them and BRV gain, and you must break them (many team comps can avoid them ever filling recast)

    • If you fail to break them, they will dispel the targets buffs and do a BRV+HP attack that will likely kill you

• Wave 2 Necro Raven, Absorbs Holy, 3 million HP

  • When KO'ed will use Reincarnate, restoring 3 million HP, and cleansing all debuffs

  • If you let it get a turn following reincarnation, it will recover 10% HP (300k HP) each turn it takes

  • (Good to Burst here)

• Wave 3 Fallen Parrots, Weak to Water, 4 million HP each

  • When either enemy drops under 80% HP, they will both turn white. This happens again when one drops under 30% HP.

    • Their ATK & DEF are boosted in this mode, and if you heal yourself while they are white, you lose that much HP instead

    • They stay white colored for 10 player actions. In the last 30%, wait them out if you need to heal back up!

    • One potential strategy is to drop one to 29% HP, trigger both turning White - THEN burn down the other one and kill it. Otherwise, expect that when the 10T are over, and they return to Black color, they will immediately go back into White Wing form for another 10T.

  • When both are under 50% HP, they will both turn black again

  • Whenever they turn black, they apply framed buffs to themselves, which you will either want to prevent, or load them up with framed debuffs ahead of the 49% HP threshold

Required (all numbered bullets):

1. Fire/Thunder/Water/Dark attacker/call: The +4 count on wave 1 is generous, so it gives you some choices:

   • Party Enchant from Ignis, Desch, Krile (safest)

   • Just an enchant call from Krile or Ignis (use on a slow character, use when the orb appears at 79%)

   • Self enchanters like Lightning, Mog, & Faris (depending on the damage output of your team, this usually isn't enough with just one)

   • Note: If using Terra, do not use her LD in this wave if you can help it

2. Delayer/Terra: One of Garland, Lightning, Emperor, Y'shtola, Terra are near required for wave 2. None of them need BT if there's another BT in the party. You can operate without a delayer, but you might need calls like Cloud or Y'shtola, and you will most likely need Terra to burn down the first phase using one of her LDs, and then her BT in the second phase after resurrection.

   • Second Phase: DO NOT LET THE BIRD TAKE A TURN AFTER RESURRECTING! BURST if you need to!

3. Debuffer(s): Load them up with debuffs in wave 3! You want at least 5 on each. Count your party debuffs, and then add any calls that you still expect to have for the end (remove Krile/Ignis for example since that's for wave 1). Keep in mind that if you are relying on calls, when the debuffs fall off, it turns into a boss rush!

   • White parrots will turn your healing into damage. If you are using HP Regen toward the end of the fight, stall for the 12 turns for the parrot to revert to its safer black state and heal up! If you are using Ignis, simply stay Papa Bird (offensive) stance.

   • Framed debuffs from your calls, or from Ignis, Mog, etc are great to keep them from applying all of their generic buffs. Aerith will stop them cold, keeping your team safe, while also contributing a debuff herself.

Creative & Unique Runs

• We are linking some noteworthy videos that utilize unexpected team comps. We thank these players for their creative efforts :)

  • If you have a run that you believe is noteworthy, please message inkwelder#4907 (discord) or inkwelder_ (reddit) !!!

• If you are looking for creative runs on the GL side of the game, please do check DissidiaInfo.com 

Denam Pavel using Terra BT, Krile LD, Faris LD (Calls: Cloud / Deuce / Pecil)

• Only video that did not use a delayer in main party

minan ch using Emperor BT, Aerith LD, Krile LD (Calls: Hope / Aranea / Ramza)

Only video found using Emperor as delayer

Denam Pavel using Yshtola BT, Yang LD, Aerith LD (Calls: Cloud / Krile / Faris)

• Only video using Y'shtola or Yang found

Alphinaud Leveilleur using Terra BT, Caius LD, Ignis LD (Calls: Serah / Ysh / Cloud) 

• Only video using Caius as a delayer