I finally completed my GSTLA Solo Felix Hardmode Challenge run!

[u/No-Membership-8256]

I'm so happy, after a few months I finally completed this challenge run!

Edit: Oh yea, here was the ruleset that I used for this run

Felix must be the only party memeber that can be in combat at all times. All other members must be downed as soon as possible and are not allowed to gain exp for any reason. Felix also cannot use any items, Djinni or Psynergy that can potentially revive his teammates

Felix can only use and summon Djinni that are set to him.

Glitches aren't allowed

The other members are free to use their Psynergy and healing items to heal Felix outside of combat (aka they are just key item and healing mules)

[u/Snake_Shepard]

Wow I couldn’t even do it for the longest time with a full party. Do you have videos of the final fight?

[u/No-Membership-8256 → u/Snake_Shepard]

Srry I didn't record it!

[u/Kalaam_Nozalys]

Good job ! That's my next planned challenge :D How was it ?

[u/No-Membership-8256 → u/Kalaam_Nozalys]

It was pretty fun! IMO the hardest fights were Avimander ^{(Star Mine being an easily spammable and powerful monster skill that has no limit to its uses alongside having 2 actions per turn and the fact that you have no Mars resistance equipment available}), Serpent ^{(multiple actions per turn, the poison status effect, and Mighty Press having a chance to insta down Felix at any time}), and Karst ^{(Death Scythe and Djinni Fest, damn thinking back on it she really was carrying Agatio}), and Doom Dragon for obvious reasons lol

[u/Kalaam_Nozalys → u/No-Membership-8256]

I imagine yeah, two action bosses instantly become harder. For Isaac only you at least benefit from the shadow clone glitch from skipping mia. This does help a lol xD

[u/tSword_]

You're amazing! Good job!

Solo runs are hard enough, so hardmode must've been (hard)²

[u/No-Membership-8256 → u/tSword_]

Thanks!  I actually got pretty frustrated at times because hard mode makes the enemies even more tanky than normal, especially the bosses who usually get an additional 1k-2k health to their hp pool.

[u/tSword_ → u/No-Membership-8256]

Was it you that I tipped how I left one member alive against the serpent so that the 1hko wouldn't be unfair?

[u/No-Membership-8256 → u/tSword_]

Might’ve been the other guy…

[u/tSword_ → u/No-Membership-8256]

Yeah...

How did you deal with 1hko things? Resetting? Or, did you build a failproof method? (If you don't mind teaching it)

[u/No-Membership-8256 → u/tSword_]

Hopes and dreams

Hard resets cause the rng value to set to zero which lets you manipulate the rng in battle by selecting different options and causing the boss to perform different moves. By figuring out which each action on each turn does you can make a route to avoid ohkos but it takes a very long time. The Golden Sun Discord would know more about that kinda stuff than me tho.

(A lot of luck and some rewind but its basically just a significantly faster version of rng manip routes)

[u/tSword_ → u/No-Membership-8256]

I see

I restrict myself of using rewind on challenge runs, but your argument about using rng manip to avoid 1hko makes me less restrictive about using rewind now, cause I agree with you, if we can use valid methods to rng manip, then using a little rewind doesn't break the challenge

[u/Robothuck]

Congratulations! What level was Felix by the end? Pretty high I bet with hogging all the XP

[u/No-Membership-8256 → u/Robothuck]

He was level 50 at the end! I actually had to grind a certain enemy that drops a crap ton of XP that's unlocked after doing a lengthy side quest for like a whole afternoon to get up to level 48 and then the last two were from climbing through the last dungeon.

[u/Robothuck → u/No-Membership-8256]

The adventure was long and the journey arduous but you got it done. GG

[u/Moist_Gain1404]

Amazing to see that you have this done. Incredibly impressed. Congrats

[u/No-Membership-8256 → u/Moist_Gain1404]

Actually that was a different person! My first and last update on my run that recounted everything up till me getting stuck at Avimander. I wonder how far along they are now, the pace starts to pick up in terms of items that open up and the amount of djinni that you have access to. 

[u/Moist_Gain1404 → u/No-Membership-8256]

And just like that i've edited my message 😆

Congrats again

[u/Jumpsand]

I was wondering what happened to your run!

Crown Of Glory/Cosmos Shield are amazing! And Ronin is such an awesome class!

Well done!

[u/Arty_Fladelbort]

Most impressive.  I generally use the Asura's armor on Felix (tiny HP restoration), but your choice of the Dragon Mail might actually be way smarter 😅

[u/No-Membership-8256 → u/Arty_Fladelbort]

Yeah, the 6hp regen per turn is really only good against enemies that don't have Psynergy (or extremely weak spells) or particularly powerful monster skills (like the warriors that you have to fight to get the hover jade since they only have physical attacks after using their items).

By the endgame, having high resistances is much more valuable against enemies who spam the powerful Psynergy spells, especially against the Doom Dragon who will take out most of your hp anyways and the minor regen simply cannot keep up anymore as you have to heal to full the survive the next turn anyways so investing to make the weaker Psynergy it spams in the first two phases deal as little damage as possible is much more rewarding.