FFXIII - Barthandelus 3 & Orphan (Low Level/NEU/No Shrouds, No Setup Switching)

Check description for info.
Battle Conditions:
Limited Crystarium Use
No Equipment Upgrade
No Shrouds
No Auto-Battle
Treasure/Drop/Reward Equipment Only
Additional Conditions:
No switching setups between battles
Use Snow/Lightning/Hope (reason below)
End each battle with Sovereign Fist (just for kicks)
Full Playlist:
• FFXIII - Low Developme...
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=Setup=
The characters that require no further development to give me access to every useful ability are Sazh, Vanille and Fang. But to go against the expected, I'm going with Lightning, Snow, and Hope instead.
Looking back, I noticed Snow was the least used party leader. So to make it up to the guy, Snow was chosen for the role.
In exchange for disregarding the usual "Starting Weapons" and "Doc's Code Only" conditions, switching paradigm setups between battles was banned.
No grinding was done in the entire playthrough. Secondary Roles were developed with whatever CP was obtained at this point. Particularly, I wanted to grab Slow for Snow and Poison for Lightning.
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=Recommended Abilities=
You'll want to make sure that you have access to these abilities with the character combination you choose for your party. You may not need ALL of these abilities to win, but having them will make this boss gauntlet a whole lot easier to deal with.
SYN
Augment: Bravery, Faith, EnElement, Vigilance, Haste
Defense: Protect, Shell, Veil
SAB
Debuff: Deprotect, Deshell, Imperil, Poison
Debilitation: Slow, Curse
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=Barthandelus 3=
SYN: Haste, Protect, Shell, Bravery, Faith
SAB: Deprotect, Deshell, Imperil, Slow
Ultima ignores resistance and can deal anywhere from a moderate to a huge chunk of damage (Variance is 98%). However, a SEN's Role Bonus still takes effect regardless, so if your party is low on HP, switching to a Paradigm with at least 1 SEN will help immensely.
Thanatosian Laughter also ignores resistance. But unlike Ultima, it cannot kill since it does %type damage based on the target's remaining HP (or gravity damage as FF generally refers to it). So even if your HP is on red: You. Will. Not. Die. Healing before eating a ThanatosL would actually be a waste of time.
Half the lasers Barty shoots are physical type damage and the other half is magic damage. So even though the two big attacks ignore resistance, Protect and Shell are still useful.
=Orphan 1=
SYN: Haste, Vigilance, Bravery, Faith, EnElement, Protect, Shell, Veil
SAB: Deprotect, Deshell, Imperil, Poison, Slow, Curse
Start in a Paradigm other than the one with a SEN so you can switch to it before the opening Merciless Judgement to get that first long shift animation out of the way. Toss a Librascope while you're at it too.
Like ThanatosianL, Merciless Judgement can't kill since it does %damage based on the target's remaining HP.
Orphan starts out in Consumate Light then shifts to Consumate Darkness after a certain time (not sure if the amount of moves or battle time is the determining factor). Any XIII player knows you do NOT want Orphan to go into Consumate Darkness or you'll be plagued with tons of status ailments. So, that's where all the buffs and debuffs come in.
Basically, put up all the listed buffs and debuffs, stagger asap, then hammer Orphan's HP down to around 40% HP. With stacking buffs and debuffs and Poison, it shouldn't be too hard.
Orphan automatically interrupts everyone with Merciless Judgement once it hits the 40% HP mark and switches to Opposite Extremes (its 3rd phase). The visual cue for the 40% mark is when the green bar lands just above the left side of the 5th debuff from the right. Imperil in this video's case (see 8:20 mark).
In Opposite Extremes, you can cheese the fight by just making sure Poison stays up and concentrate on surviving while waiting for Poison to deplete Orphan's HP.
Pregenitorial Wrath has a 50% chance to cause Death so you may want to equip the party leader with Cherub’s Crowns. One thing to keep in mind is that this move prioritizes Medics and Sentinels. If none are present, the target will random.
=Orphan 2=
SYN: Haste, Vigilance, Bravery, Faith, EnElement
SAB: Slow, Curse, Deprotect, Deshell, Imperil
O2 uses Temporal Hollow every 70s to reset the Chain Gauge and remove all buffs and debuffs from the field.
Just stick the necessary buffs and debuffs and Stagger asap before that happens. You'll definitely want Tri-disaster (RAV/RAV/RAV), maybe even two, in your deck for this fight. With stacking buffs and debuffs, O2 would be gone in no time.
=Other=
More battle notes can be found here: • FFXIII - Final Boss Re... (Mid Level - Final Boss)
If you squint, the vid title is kinda like a reference to another popular franchise.

[@ZorroLocoStudios]

Great job on this! Do you think you'd run the same Paradigms if you used the other 3 characters? This is a great setup for all three battles. Either way, I'm happy you used Snow!
Also, I didn't even notice the title at first lol

[@Lilpuppyluvah]

_"I'll show _*_you_*_ a miracle!"_ Snow is a must-use because of quote xD I'd probably switch up 2-3 of those Paradigms and lead with either Sazh or Fang. Anyways, if you celebrate, Happy Holidays!

[@ZorroLocoStudios]

It is a great quote, you're right! And yeah I do, happy holidays to you too!

[@ZorroLocoStudios]

Watching this battle back again, I just noticed that Snow doesn't have his weapon in the first fight lol.

[@Lilpuppyluvah]

Weird, I didn’t notice that! I only noticed it in the Ushumgal Subjugator 1 fight in Ch9 with Hope.

[@ZorroLocoStudios]

Have you ever seen the glitch where Snow gets his weapon outside of battle? I spent a while trying to do that on my 360 version just to get a good look at Save the Queen haha

[@Lilpuppyluvah]

Haven’t even heard of it ‘til you mentioned it. I went looking for a video so now I have xD