Crystal Project 43: Rolling Astley... Eventually

Here it is. The stunning finale. Jade Passage purchasing to start, then back to the Castle.

After the block puzzle, Akamanto brings back your need to avoid Instant Death, though this one you can cleanse if you don't want to do Effigy/Hope's Cross shenanigans. It does have Utsusemi, so be prepared to either chew through the dodge stacks or just hit it with magic.

The Lava Salmon section is a bit hard to get the hang of, but once you do, it's not that tricky. Just swim and jump!

After that, getting to the final boss isn't that hard. All my last long and prosper tactics fail here, as Astley decides to just start banishing folks. That means, you need to do damage, and do it hard and fast. Nomad AP magic is great for that, along with Beatmaster/Valkyrie combo and a Ninja with Rogue skills (use daggers or rapiers, whatever hurts the most). My Ninja ended up with the ring that makes you undead, because the bonus physical damage was huge. Summon to paralyze the Warrior to prevent Cover, and just pour on damage. You need to drop Astley before anyone gets banished, or at most, one. After that, clean up isn't that hard. But getting to the point you can nuke Astley... that's a pain.

At about 2 hours we get to a build that wipes them... though I feel like with how often I used Bardbarian, I should have thought of it sooner.
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Time Stamps
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00:00 Let's Go!
08:00 Back to the Castle
10:35 Block Puzzle
29:00 "It's A Boss!" Akamanto
34:22 Salmon Lava Section
41:40 Bouncy Jumps
43:34 Throne Room and Rooftop Wandering
48:27 New World Stone Exploration and Prep
1:07:06 Astley! Lots of Learning to Do! Round 1: Fight!
1:10:22 Round 2!
1:13:48 Round 3!
1:18:04 Round 4... Through A Bunch!
1:38:26 Round Whatever: At Least Beating Astley
1:41:05 Finding More DPR
1:42:35 Round Whatever Plus: Astley and Chloe Down
1:46:35 Finding Even MORE DPR
1:47:44 And AGAIN and ...
2:00:00 Finding The Perfect Build and Final Pull
2:04:45 "There We Go!"