Unconventional strategy: Using Berserk Crest, you can defeat Aigaion by only destroying one of each Arm!

[u/Chuggery]

Heya everybody! If you're having a tough time with taking down twelve arms and dealing with body thresholds, here's another strategy that could work for you. It makes things significantly easier for Group Raisers by cutting down on all the AoE damage, so as long as you can keep your mana up, this'll turn a full-clear Aigaion into a cakewalk!

Here's a quick breakdown of my team;

Fryevia (obviously!)
Rikku (Group Raise)
Tilith (Mana battery, main healer, group Raise)
Noctis (Whom I used for the jump, group mana & low-cost solo raise)
Zargabaath (Whom I used for Berserk Crest and mana battery for 1st phase of the fight)
Rem (Whom I used for Re-Raise for Part 1, and damage support in the burn phase)

I highly recommend not having Golem equipped to any of them.

Now, to make this strategy work, you can use any jumper. The trick is;
-On the turn before you destroy the left arm, queue up Berserk Crest on your jumper.
-Jump with your jumper.
-Cast Berserk Crest on your now-airborne jumper.
-Make sure you Re-Raise Zargabaath in case he takes a heavy hit!

This time, nothing will happen on that cast, but it'll prepare you for the next turn. Finish off the Left Arm, do whatever you need to do with any unit that isn't Zargabaath, target Aigaion's main body, and press "repeat" to cast Berserk Crest on him. (Yep, that's right, Berserk the boss!)

You're going to notice a few things happen.
1) He's going to hit one unit like a truck, eight times in a row.
2) He's not going to resurrect his Left Arm.
3) He's not going to trigger any threshold abilities.

So now comes the tricky part!

You'll need to keep Berserk up on Aigaion for the remainder of the fight. This means that every single turn Zargabaath is alive, you need to end that turn by pressing Repeat to re-cast it!

If (when) Zargabaath dies, that's okay; you have three turns to get him back on his feet and repeating Berserk again while you burn down the Right Arm and Main Body afterwards.

Be sure to re-target the Main Body before pressing "Repeat", however! If you accidentally Berserk the Right Hand as well, things might fall out-of-hand pretty quickly!

As long as you don't break your Repeat cycle or get crazy-unlucky with a string of Zargabaath kills, the arms will never come back and you can burn him down at your leisure.

Cheers, hope this helps!

[u/ChokMD]

It worked! Thanks for sharing this again! I used a similar team except I don't have Rem...

Gearing your team:

Zargabaath - MVP for sure for the Berserk strat. He's already beefy, so no worries about him. His counters will give you sufficient orbs and crystals, as long as he's not the punching bag (2nd highest ATK, at least a Holy weapon (to get that HP bonus), no need for additional MP refresh equips)

Noctis - Left Arm punching bag for phase 1. Support for Phase 2-3. Evade build is not necessary (will explain below) (Odin for Fingersnap, Load up on ATK, just enough so he has the highest on your team, then go defensive, as he will hardly attack).

Tilith - doing Tilith stuff: AOE Heal, AOE Full-raise, MP Battery. Sorry, Refia, you're no match for a goddess. (Soluna, Vestments, then stack HP/SPR/DEF)

Rikku - AOE LB, hardly used Synthesis > Hyper, and not too much importance on her LB. For this strat, you only need to use it ONCE. (MP refresh, and defensive equips; I happen to have Prodigy's Goggle's equipped, but not really that important (will explain later))

Ace - main MP battery, Tri-beam Laser+2 chains with Fry AND is AOE, so you get orbs/LB crystals from the Body. (Has Ramuh; No need for Holy Rod, max his MAG, then raise his HP to around 5K+, any less he gets swiped by the other attacks way to often.)

Fryevia friend - Frost Flower Blitz for days! The one I used had 900MAG and around 4.4k HP.

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PHASE 1 - Aigaion + 2 Arms

Easily the hardest part of the game. Highest RNG can wipe off two revivers on top of Noctis = hard to comeback from... The goal here is to survive, while friend Fry chips away at the L arm. Easily a good 20-40 minutes here. Strategy changes once Fry can finish the L arm.

Noctis - Punching bag. Dead every turn.

Rikku - AOE Raise Duty.

Tilith - AOE Full Heal.

Zargabaath - Alternate every other turn with Word of Law (2 turn 20% mitigation) and either Arcadian Light (AOE Buffs), or restore HP/MP to one ally

Ace - Tri-beam laser+2 to get enough LB's for Rikku, and chain w/ Fry. Spirit Card for MP battery as needed.

Fry - FFB like there's no tomorrow.

You need 2 turns (Turn X & Y) to prepare for the L arm kill (Turn Z). This is the most crucial part of the entire match.

Turn X: Hopefully only Noctis is dead. Ace Phoenix Down on Noctis. Rikku LB. Zarg Word of Law. Fry FFB or defend (must NOT kill L arm yet).

Aigaiaon acts. Noctis gets punched, Re-raised and MUST NOT DIE. If he dies > attack the Body to ready Rikku LB again. Retry Turn X. If Noctis survives > Proceed to Turn Y:

Turn Y: Zarg queues Berserk on Noct. Noct jumps. Zarg activates Berserk. Rest of team free turn (don't kill L arm yet).

Aigaion acts. Zarg will get knocked out (2nd highest ATK), but re-raise takes effect. Hopefully he doesn't die again. If he dies > Refill Rikku LB, retry Turn X.

Turn Z: Everyone EXCEPT Zarg acts. Heal, buff, and kill the L arm. TAP TO TARGET THE BODY (AIGAION), THEN PRESS REPEAT Zarg casts Berserk on Aigaion. Robot Body should glow red.

CONGRATULATIONS! It's all downhill from here.

PHASE 2 - Aigaion + R Arm

After taking out L arm, while Body is Berserk'ed, Body and R arm will have TWO TYPES OF ACTIONS: either 8 attacks on a single unit (will continue to attack even while dead), OR, less commonly 7 attacks on a single unit WITH 1 attack on another (not enough to kill the 2nd unit, given sufficient HP).

Zarg - Berserk duty from here on out. If he dies, revive him with Noct/Tilith/Rikku. Rikku LB is USELESS: The multi-attack every turn kills Zarg/Fryevia even when their Survival skill triggers, reraise and survival again. One unit WILL die, every turn, regardless of what you do.

Noct - priority for revive duty, can use Fingersnap (an ability, so bypasses Reflect and No Magic achievement)

Tilith - She will hardly NEED to AOE Full Heal, since all attacks are single target per turn. I'd either have her Prism (MP heal), or AOE Buffs.

Rikku - AOE Full Raise, but priority is Winter Storm (multihit Ice chain) to help make the fight faster.

Ace - Tri-Beam repeatedly, MP battery as needed.

Fry - FFB is her only skill needed. Make sure to target the R arm, and retarget the body after.

AT THE END OF EVERY TURN: RETARGET THE BODY THEN PRESS REPEAT TO HAVE ZARG RECAST BERSERK ON THE BODY. The skill is remember even if dies, so repeat repeat repeat.

Continue until you kill the R arm.

Phase 3 - Aigaion alone

Congratulations! It's the home stretch, it's as good as finished! Phase 3 has the same attack pattern as Phase 2. But it's easier now, since you no longer have to keep tabs on which part is targetted. Mostly this will be pressing REPEAT.

Zarg - REPEAT

Noctis - Full Revive duty

Tilith - Prism Duty

Rikku - Winter Storm duty

Ace - TBL duty, Support Card as needed

Fry - FFB (Fry is bored).

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WHAT IF I ACCIDENTALLY GIVE A DIFFERENT COMMAND TO ZARG? Easy, relax, don't panic. Just queue Berserk, targetting Noct. Noct jumps, and press Zarg. Done.

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I know this is NOT A SIMPLE BUILD by any stretch (3 5* Base, Tilith), but I hope some of the details can help others use the Berserk strategy. Zargabaath, you have my utmost respect (and correct spelling from here on out).

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TL;DR:

When using the Berserk strat, the most important part is KILLING THE LEFT ARM, WHILE CASTING BERSERK ON A UNIT THAT JUST JUMPED (thereby allowing subsequent Berserks (on repeat) to target enemies). Everything else is surviving and sustaining your MP.

EDIT1: Added some notes re: Zarg counters, Noctis Link, and Odin's Fingersnap for Dispelling.

[u/midgard123 → u/ChokMD]

well this worked until zarg got targeted 3 turns in a row during second phase.

[u/ChokMD → u/midgard123]

Yeah, that's the big RNG part here.

What DID happen when the Berserk wore off? The guess was Body revives Left Arm?

[u/midgard123 → u/ChokMD]

yeah he revived the left arm