Deep Dungeon Solo Progression Thread

Post here how far you've got by going solo.

So far i've got to floor 22

http://i.imgur.com/nMTeL8v.png

I've gotten to floor 20.

I feel like Progress is artificially hobbled by the arms/armor upgrade system. I beat floor 20 with 5 minutes remaining. And now I have the conundrum of it being completely useless to repeat 1-10, because every single silver chest I find fails, but I need to if I want to repeat 11-20 for actual chances at upgrades (which can still fail.) plus I might spend nearly an hour in there only to fail because of RNG.

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Originally Posted by Genaxx

Post here how far you've got by going solo.

So far i've got to floor 22

http://i.imgur.com/nMTeL8v.png

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Great thread! It's seems on the other threads like some are afraid to try it solo. Side note you might want to add in what class/role you did it as.

Floor 38, WHM. Unless I get a Manticore (maybe 2), I don't see how it's possible to clear this set of floors. Maybe amazing RNG with easy to get chests that drop steel/strength like candy and alteration always makes mandragora plant enemies appear on next floor for easy EXP instead of Mimics that almost one shot me and are pretty much GG. Basically spending 40+ seconds killing mobs at this point, most are multiple levels higher than me. Was using HQ raid food, too. Even if by some miracle I clear 40, I dread what 41-50 will be. Hopefully somebody makes an optimized run with what drops you need to get, otherwise just reset the current floors back to the beginning.

http://i.imgur.com/kXZEpcP.jpg

I made it to floor 26 with PLD before getting destroyed by trap RNG (triggered an alarm trap while dodging an AoE, and I had no Witching pomanders. Couldn't survive the damage).

I don't think PLD is the right class for it, simply because the damage is far too low and I won't be able to pick up Clemency until the higher floors. Cure doesn't cut it and Stoneskin can only do so much.

I think I could have made it to floor 30, but there's simply no way I would have been able to clear to 40 with how slow kill speed was getting (at least not without keeping kill count to a minimum on every floor, and I'd only fall behind in xp if I kept that up). I think you'd want a survivable class that can dish out good damage for this kind of challenge. SMN/SCH should be good by my reckoning. Maybe WAR could do it too? Unsure.

Floor 20 as Machinist.

Floor 36 on NIN. Nightmare Troubadour are my new hurdle with their attacks hitting for 700+ and I only have about 2k HP and you can't sneak past them.

I suppose I'll start using food.

Edit: Floor 38 now, died to dumb shit otherwise I think I could have finished >< and I have way more than 2k HP, my bad lol

Edit again: 40 down, killed boss on 2nd try. Kind of need 2 rage for it, other than that it wasn't too difficult.

Edit againnnn: And done :D

http://i.imgur.com/YiZrKiD.jpg

Wow gratz, I wouldn't have thought a ninja could do it, they should really add some kind of reward or title if you solo it.

Floor 29 on SMN.

The birds which use sleep always get me.
I also only had +14 armor rating at the time.
Now it's much higher, so I will try again

Next time I will use Manticore when I see them.

I deleted the save so I could do matched party, but I hope to start from scratch again tonight or tomorrow.

I've gotten to floor 47 on my black mage solo. Yes, I have died a LOT. Yes, those luring traps are extremely deadly at the higher floors, especially since most mobs are immune to sleep. Yes, I believe I can finish all the way to floor 50. I'm currently at +30 weapon +24 armor.

. . .Those mimics are also pure evil, they are basically anti black mage. Sleep doesn't work on them. Bind doesn't work on them. Slow doesn't work on them. Heavy doesn't work on them. Fortunately virus and manawall work on them, but they still hit pretty hard. If you accidentally get 2 on you at the same time, that's almost a guaranteed death, even with a pom of witching because of potion cooldowns.

Made it to 39 with SMN.


Even though I cleared the first 10 floors with 30 minutes to spare, I stuck around for the remained of the time to level up. Mobs respawn quickly, I just kept killing them.
This made the next 10 levels go by much faster than my first attempt.

From 10-20 I was able to take my time killing everything, getting a lot of level ups. Had a little spare time at the end to level up.

From 20-30 things were getting more difficult. The birds that cast sleep were a real pain, so I set Titan-Egi on Obey and used Landslide to interrupt it.
But it's tough when 3 appear in a row. Had to use a Witching item and made it through.

But I didn't have any spare time at the end and really rushed through the last 3 levels. The mobs were becoming higher level and tougher to kill.

Boss fight was easy.

Floors 30-39 were really tough. Some mobs were 2-5 levels higher. The catoblepas or whatever their name is, wander the halls and are really tough.
The floating eyes use Eyes on Me, which lowers your health too, so be careful not to move around until you heal yourself, otherwise you might step on a landmine and game over.

I had 3 problems which caused the failure.
First, on floor 32 or 33, there were at least 5 mobs in the room with the transporter. Killing them took a really long time, and at one point and succubus appeared from behind.
Now I was running short on time.
One floor 35 or 36, I got "Damage Dealt Decreased" and this is where things really went south.
It was taking much too long to kill things, so I was killing the bare minimum to just get to the next place.

Because I was running short on time, I was avoiding as many mobs as a could, and couldn't get many treasure chests.

I had 7 minutes left and was going to last floor. I was planning to use the Manticore to blow through it.
And the effect "Items Unavailable" appeared.
And "The Gloom Spreads!" appared.
And I had no Serenity item.

So, Manticore was impossible, and the enemies were insanely strong. I was fighting a level 58 one in the first room, and another one spawned directly next to it.
And I was dead.

I think 31-40 were the hardest floors, boss included (only one that I couldn't one-shot). For him you'd probably want to save 1-2 rages for the adds to kill him before he kills you.

Once you get to 41 though the rest is really pretty easy.

Got to the 40th Floor on Summoner today!

Boss fight.
I use Titan-Egi and plan to Interrupt his Scream ( I think ) ability.

The boss summons adds, which are easy to take care of.
Then the boss begins casting room-wide AoE. I try to use Titan-Egi's stun, but I don't make it in time.
HP goes from full to 69 instantly.

Then the boss immediately casts the same room wide AoE again.
No hope. Died.

At the time, the boss was in the center of the room.
Maybe it looked like the AoE covered the entire room.

My question is: Is 40th floor boss's AoE really room-wide or is it just really big? For example, if I keep the boss on the edge of the room, will there be a safe zone of the other side for me to run to?

I've gotten pretty good at clearing 30-39 now and think I can get to the boss again without much trouble.

I got as far as 20 using both blm and nin, but always running out of time before getting enough mobs to level high enough for my liking. Can only manage to get to about lvl 22-23 on 1-10, then about 32-33 11-20. Spent 15 minutes running down the clock on lvl 19, but very few mobs respawned, certainly not enough for any kind of levelling.

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Originally Posted by FinaSel

Got to the 40th Floor on Summoner today!

Boss fight.
I use Titan-Egi and plan to Interrupt his Scream ( I think ) ability.

The boss summons adds, which are easy to take care of.
Then the boss begins casting room-wide AoE. I try to use Titan-Egi's stun, but I don't make it in time.
HP goes from full to 69 instantly.

Then the boss immediately casts the same room wide AoE again.
No hope. Died.

At the time, the boss was in the center of the room.
Maybe it looked like the AoE covered the entire room.

My question is: Is 40th floor boss's AoE really room-wide or is it just really big? For example, if I keep the boss on the edge of the room, will there be a safe zone of the other side for me to run to?

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I think your selfheal + pot could safe you from there. I m not sure, if its stunnable. But its a room-wide AoE, so you cant dodge it.

The problem behind Solo or Double Team Palace of the Dead is the damn time limit.

If you try to rush trough each floor, you re not strong enough for the next fights and missing some important pomanders.
If you level your character, you re running out of time or get killed by random encounters or traps.

I totally swear, some enemies hitting so hard at later floors. I still love the challenge, but to dying at the last floors is so frustrating.

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Originally Posted by Caitlyn

I think your selfheal + pot could safe you from there. I m not sure, if its stunnable. But its a room-wide AoE, so you cant dodge it.

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I was level 55 at the time of the boss fight, with 7 minutes remaining, and the AoE + attack which comes immediately after it took me to 69 HP.

I did used a potion and began self healing, but the boss immediately used the AoE after that again.

Also, Titan-Egi's stun ability's cooldown is too long. Even if I had successfully stunned the first one, the cooldown would not have been ready for the second.

Ifrit-Egi also has a stun ability, but I'm not sure how well Ifrit-Egi will be able to tank it. I might try it one more time and hope my stuns can be used quickly enough.

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Originally Posted by XiXiQ

I got as far as 20 using both blm and nin, but always running out of time before getting enough mobs to level high enough for my liking. Can only manage to get to about lvl 22-23 on 1-10, then about 32-33 11-20. Spent 15 minutes running down the clock on lvl 19, but very few mobs respawned, certainly not enough for any kind of levelling.

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Using food which increases your EXP rate and also a Company Action which increases EXP rate might help.
I haven't tried it yet, but I think I am going to, if I reset my progress.

unfortunately have tried both food and FC buff is on all the time, no difference to exp earned at all. none of the exp bonuses seems to be active. When I think about it, only an hour per floor means you have a whole 6 mins each, somewhat of a catch 22 if you're trying to get some levels up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by XiXiQ

unfortunately have tried both food and FC buff is on all the time, no difference to exp earned at all. none of the exp bonuses seems to be active. When I think about it, only an hour per floor means you have a whole 6 mins each, somewhat of a catch 22 if you're trying to get some levels up.

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Wow, I didn't know that.
Good to know, because that's what I was going to try next.

Got to the 40F boss for the 4rd time today.
I killed one of the adds and the damage of the boss's attack seemed to decrease. Perhaps if both adds are killed it does little / no damage?
Unfortunately, the attack still freezes you, making you unable to heal or use potions.
And the next attack comes immediately after, while you are still frozen.

I tried using Titan's stun, and I was sure I made it in time.
Unless you have a job with more DPS / a way to stun the boss / shield yourself from the damage, it seems like it's going to be too tough.
Summoner DPS just isn't enough with Titan-Egi tanking the boss.

Perhaps next time I will try using Ifrit, since the boss doesn't seem to do too much damage with normal attacks. Then switch Ifrit to attack the adds when they come.

no idea if it's a bug, using NIN - was level 34 when I got to 20th floor boss. No cooldowns cross-classed from monk were available (second wind, internal release), the drg cross-class like flurry/invigorate were useable. Should this be happening? am I missing anything?

Was finally able to pass the 40th floor boss on Summoner.
http://i.imgur.com/gPFDvu7.jpg

When I tried before, I was only level 55 and had a hard time killing both adds.
So I would always suffer too much damage from Scream.

So I restarted from floor 1 and killed as many mobs as possible to level up. Used Strength and Steel items to allow me to kill mobs faster and multiple mobs at once. Spent as much time on the last floor of each section as possible.
(Finished 20th and 30th floor boss with less than 1 minute remaining).

Reached the 40th floor boss at level 57!
This gave me Tri-Disaster, which made the fight SO much easier.
I was able to quickly take down both adds and kill the boss with less 50 seconds left!

Floors 41-50 were extremely easy. Quickly leveled up to before floor 43. Used Rages and Flights to rush to floor 50.
http://i.imgur.com/dXkrIr0.jpg

So happy I didn't give up!

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Originally Posted by XiXiQ

no idea if it's a bug, using NIN - was level 34 when I got to 20th floor boss. No cooldowns cross-classed from monk were available (second wind, internal release), the drg cross-class like flurry/invigorate were useable. Should this be happening? am I missing anything?

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I wish I knew. I have never played NIN or Monk, so I'm not sure.
Maybe you need to drag the skills onto the hotbar. (They might not be added automatically.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by XiXiQ

no idea if it's a bug, using NIN - was level 34 when I got to 20th floor boss. No cooldowns cross-classed from monk were available (second wind, internal release), the drg cross-class like flurry/invigorate were useable. Should this be happening? am I missing anything?

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You don't have all your cross-class slots available at that level, so they may have just been greyed out until you level up.

Long post incoming!

After a friend of mine presented one of the first documented, legitimate solo clears on AST, I decided I wanted to do the same on WAR but also make it as extreme as I could by deliberately completing all 50 floors with the lowest possible aetherpool stats. I settled on +24/ +24 as you see below (though killing Edda automatically adds +1 to each. This is a new change as of the most recent hotfix.)

Long story short, I sat stuck at the stage 40 boss for several days while trying to kill him at level 54 with +22/ +22 stats. I actually got close several times (20 % or less HP) but the process of merely getting to the boss with enough time to clear and with pomanders of rage to down the adds became a great exercise in frustration. That is when I abandoned SAVE SLOT 1 to try for a better assortment of pomanders.

To up my stats a bit higher, I just kept repeating floors until I got to the +24/+24 that I arbitrarily chose. I made a deliberate decision to ignore all silver chests henceforth.

Those +2 extra stats to both my weapon and armor allowed me to actually pass those floors and then finally onto 41-50, which I had never previously seen. In fact, I became so stubborn at doing this challenge that my solo clear (as seen in the images below) is actually my very first clear of the Palace of the Dead.

Image capture after each set of floors:
http://i.imgur.com/e02nPsh.png

Images of Edda clear:
http://i.imgur.com/p2Ku54D.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Pcww3G1.jpg



-vnbr

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Originally Posted by FunkyBunch

You don't have all your cross-class slots available at that level, so they may have just been greyed out until you level up.

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good point, I'll re-arrange them and see if it makes a difference :)