Board 8 > Final Fantasy Record Keeper Topic 54: Dual Awakenings-Awakening Harder

(+) Yeah! (+)

100 mythril:
4/11: Lili AASB dupe (5/15), Lion Sync dupe (3/5), Lili LBS, Lion Dyad
2/11: Prishe Sync, Lili Sync

That went very well. I actually feel this might be good enough for a Bahamut win now:

Prishe AASB, Sync, AOSB
Lion AASB, Sync, Dyad
Lilisette AASB, Sync, LBS
Ayame AASB, AOSB (clearly the weak link)
Elarra AASB, Sync1 or 2

Any other Bahamut, it wouldn't even be a question if that's good enough, but IX is so damn tanky.
I probably want to get Lilisette's and Prishe's HA, but I'm swimming in Sapphires anyway.

I had been putting off physical Alexander because I remembered really needing wall for magical and I didnt have a physical chain. Decided to just try it with Golbez chain and it turned out to be very easy:



Golbez was capping with his sync despite dealing magic damage and I finally got to really test out Sephiroths BDL9 (didnt quite get the 99999s, but he did break 80k with his sync!)

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Sephiroth with hero gear tears through Alexander like he's made wet tissue.

Oh speaking of which I finally got a 5% armor for Braska! Good thing too since this the last week for fire hero artifacts. Kinda bittersweet since I still don't have a 5% weapon or armor for Barrett despite doing that labyrinth so many times (but I keep getting 5% Seph weapons and coats...) but I'm good for now with everyone else. Man do I want Lion's HA to help with Bahamut so much right now! I could use the soul gauge boost to get her awakening up faster in phase 1 so I can skip the confuse.

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I finally had a good labyrinth run (passive-wise, anyway) today; only five pieces of HE, but all of them were perfect which completed Matoya. Most of this season has been a constant stream of barrier/minor boost pieces, though. Right now I have 5/5/8 for Braska, Matoya, and Sazh after probably around 50 total manual runs. For FF4 I put in much less effort and got 6/9 complete...!

I do have at least 4s for everyone though besides Cyans armor (and its not like Im gonna be using him anytime soon).

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I tried physical Abductor Enkidu with Prishe's sync, she didn't really do much better than Squall despite his sync being like a year older. That stinks! She basically need Ayame to utilize it but I swap Celes for her I won't have a 150 hit chain and phase 4 is so stupid bulky!

Man I feel so bummed doing pulls for recent stuff and still not being able to beat these old bosses.

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Omg, finally! After a full weekend of suffering, this bastard is done. Burn in hell, you fucking asshole.

The first difficulty was figuring out how to survive until the dispel without using an Elarra SB, so I could counter the dispel with her AASB. The solution was actually having Elarra defend on her turn 2. I still needed either a heal chase on Lili's turn 3 dance or a w-cast of Elarra's HA on turn 3, but that wasn't too unreasonable.

I used Lion Dyad and Prishe AASB to get through phase 1. This got me out of phase 1 just before the end. Lilisette AASB at around 20 seconds so it would last through phase 2.

Phase 2, I unleashed everything else I had:
- Lion Sync and AASB for the double cap-break, which also allowed breaking King's Rage in phase 3.
- Elarra Sync2 for the crit damage and USB1 when I needed it to remove some souls
- Lili cast the chain, sped everyone up thanks to her AASB, USB to remove 2 souls before Sphere Ray. She countered the phase 3 Fullbreak with her Sync.
- Prishe used her Sync, then spammed C1 until phase 3, where she used C2 instead
- Ayame went Glint into AASB, used Hailstorm once, then switched to Frost-touched Blade spam

I had ungodly w-cast luck this time, so I got him to ~1% on that second chain. He died shortly after, without needing a 3rd chain.

Congrats!

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Impressive! I'm still stuck with Aphmau as a healer though because no Lissette awakening so I gotta use Orran as a full break counter. Surprised you did it before Lion's hero gear came out in a few days. Though unless I luck into Zeid/Ayame sync with a golden fest ticket or dream select grab bag I might have to wait until Prishe's HA are out too...

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Got my phys Ifrit kill in the most hilariously sloppy fashion possible:



I screwed up and pushed him to 55% too early and Yuffie and Leila died, losing their active BDLs. I managed to push him to about 10% anyway before my chain ran out and Tidus got berserked (with Mogs second AASB2 use already expired so I couldnt cure it). I further screwed up and used Yuffies USB instead of her AOSB, so I had to just slowly chip away at the last 10% mostly without infusion until berserk finally wore off around 2% and Tidus could finish him off. Somehow Mog and Elarra kept everyone alive long enough for that to happen!

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Congrats on beating him! He was probably the most annoying 6* Magicite for me.

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Thanks! Yeah, I was surprised I pulled it off that run; the other one Im really not looking forward to is phys Diablos (presumably magic Ramuh and Leviathan shouldnt be too bad once I get those teams in order).

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Diabolos isn't that bad, you just have to make sure you understand what his gimmick does. Use Tyro for that fight because his glint totally solves the gimmick (unless you have an even better source of esuna).

I remember people hated Ramuh at the time but I don't really remember why, I think he's been completely powercrept. Leviathan also shouldn't stand up to modern equipment.

I'm kinda taking a break from trying high level content right now, although I will try the water lab when it comes out. Is it just me or do physical supports seem a lot more flawed than magic supports right now? Cait Sith boosts magic damage through the roof on his own, has decent healing, and has last stand, regenga, and a 75% damage reduction barrier. I don't have Mog but from what I hear he has good healing, good damage boosting, and also combines well with Cait Sith. For physical Orran is pretty good and he heals a lot on his own, but Ode to Victory sucks so he can't boost damage as much as Cait. And if you combine him with Quina they can do great damage boosting but they have no last stand and not very much healing so it's really hard to run them both instead of a real healer. (And one more inconvenience, Quina's 100% crit is on a SB that can't be honed for two uses.)

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For magic Diablos I used Mog's AASB2 for group esuna in P3; I had Rem to brute force there though.

For Ramuh I think I possibly could do it now with Red XIII (SASB, HE)/Emperor (AASB1, HE)/Tellah(CSB, HE), but unless I make an HA for Emperor and/or Tellah they'll all be fighting over chain stoneja (Red would probably blow through his HA hones too with the ATB sync).

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Congrats on the Ifrit kill.

Ramuh was really bad on release, because his damage output was through the roof, and he punished you hard if you didn't have empowered infusion at a time where Syncs really weren't common. Powercreep probably caught up to him more than any other 6* magicite.

Absolutely agree on physical supports just not being on the same level as mage supports. I think the best is probably Quina with its Sync and preferably AASB for 30 seconds of QC, and Elarra with USB2/Sync2. I don't have Quina Sync, so I can't really test it, but that seems like it should work best

Nothing wrong with using Meltdown at the 6* magicite level. My memory's a little fuzzy but I don't think HAs existed then so you were using Chain Stoneja / Meltdown / Brothers if you were lucky and Chain Stonega if you weren't. Now that I think about it I don't think Brothers was even out yet when that fight debutted because I remember being impatient waiting to get it.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with waiting for more power before you do it either.

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...actually whoops Meltdown totally slipped my mind (and I used it for Shiva/Titan!) Maybe I can do Ramuh after all then. Otherwise I was semi-considering making Tellah's HA since it looks pretty solid, but it would mostly be a waste if I never got a BDL for him.

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Physical Diabolos was a nightmare (no pun intended) I haven't fought him since I got the win because well why bother when Rem pacifies that fight when I need more of his magicite? Maybe he's been powercrept at this point though with hero artifacts.

Sazh is also a good physical support but barely anyone seems to pull for his relics. His Awakneing 2 is a full break counter too.

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Welp looks like I was able to take him down after all!



My physical clear was way slower despite having BDL for everyone. Im also not sure why I was getting hit by his attack that does like 90k (survived with last stand); I thought having the infusion from Reds sync would have prevented that? Well, whatever!

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Oh yeah, I kinda forgot about Elarra's sync 2. I pulled on that banner a few times, but my luck wasn't good last fest. It's coming back for 7a but the banner it's on isn't that great for me since I have Zidane's sync and dyad already.

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Im also not sure why I was getting hit by his attack that does like 90k (survived with last stand); I thought having the infusion from Reds sync would have prevented that?

If I recall correctly, Ramuh checks your en-element level when he raises his staff, and punishes you for it a couple turns later when he lowers his staff and does the attack.
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Hrm, I guess it's possible I didn't have Red's sync up by then? I might have delayed chain a little bit because Emperor had to use his glints to get en-element but I can't remember for sure.

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I believe the standard advice for Ramuh was "bring an En-Earth LMR or be able to survive an overkill." His first check is quite early.

Edit: En-Earth Glint+ would also work but would have been less commonly available Back In The Day.
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Ah okay yeah I guess the first Staff of Olduum is turn 5 and then he punishes you on turn 10. I had Emperor in slot 3 to try and trigger his trance LMR so I had to do ability-->defend--->G+-->ability to actually get the infusion; guess that was too late. For physical I guess I probably used Biggs' G+ and never realized you needed infusion before BDLs were up?

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The next Labyrinth group and nexus boss is Thursday, anyone else gonna try for a day 1 win on Salamander?

Magic I should be be good

Edge Awakening (honed) sync, AOSB, LBO
Strago both awakenings AOSB, OSB for the crystal orbs, LBO, chain
Gogo 5 Chain, Awakening, USB
Double Moogle

Physical I should be good too with Lion (dyad, sync, awakening, AOSB) and Paine (sync, chain, awakening, quickcast USB) I was thinking of using Edge for physical as well but I also have Tidus sync1/Awakening, while the sync1 isn't great I also have his OSB for the crystal orbs so that might give him the edge (no pun intended) on Edge.


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For once I feel better prepared for physical than magic.

Tidus - awakening, sync 2 (ATB), dyad, and LBO.
Paine - sync (extra cap breaks), awakening, chain

Then I have two ways I can go. Either a more standard team with Rikku (awakening, dyad, chain) plus probably Orran and Lenna. Or I can try Edge (awakening, sync), Orran, and Quina. Edge can use his improved Eblan Doppelganger to help keep the team alive.

For magic my Strago only has one cap break (his first awakening) so I might need a draw on the upcoming VI banner with a bunch of his stuff. OK and either Edge or Rydia will be my DPS.

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I might try for fun/partial rewards with my magic team (4BDL+chain) but there's no way I'm clearing it!

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I won't try for a day 1 clear, but I feel like both should be doable.

Magic
Strago - Sync+AASB
Onion Knight - Sync, AASB, Dyad
Gogo - I will lens his AASB and Chain if I don't randomly pick them up somewhere
Cait Sith
Mog

Physical
Lion - Dyad, Sync, AASB
Paine - Sync, AASB, Chain
Rikku - CSB, AASB
Tyro (Dyad, AASB) or Orran (AASB, Sync)
Elarra

I don't really like Rikku there, since her damage is underwhelming, Lion should already provide sufficient imperil, and even chain duty could be covered by Paine. However, I think Paine would rather be a dps than chain, so I don't really see an alternative.
Besides, my next best character is Tidus with AASB+Dyad, which isn't enough power for fights like this. Or possibly Bartz with a bunch of stuff, but without dedicated water SBs.

Realized I actually did have enough BDLs to field a magic lightning team (for some reason I forgot about Edge):



A lot of that time was stalling until doom killed Desch and Lulu; that happening like 18 seconds or so into the fight is pretty awkward timing!

Just physical Diablos left and Ill be done with 6*s!

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Tried phys Diabolos several times and couldn't quite get it done (with Tyro+Elarra, Celes (SASB2) Pecil (AASB, GSB), and Delita (AASB, USB1, G+)). I got him down to 4% once so presumably I could kill him with this team, but it's pretty annoying. I also failed to process the fact that Celes' HA is AoE which is, uh, less than ideal for P3...

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Finally finished acolyte book 17. The crystal water shortage is my major barrier, since I had barely touched record dungeons previously. Got to the last island in chapter 1 finally. Duped Seymour's AASB in the free pull.

In my JP account, which has FAR less stuff, took down Phoenix in 20.26, second 5* magicite to go down (Madeen was first). Going to farm a bunch, since I need those sweet HP boons.

Back to Global, unsure whether to finish the "other" 6* for each element (killed 6 physical and 2 magical, so would need to make a bunch of magic teams), or look at going after a DB or Argent Odin next. Will likely finish the 6*s first, since that seems more "in order", but we'll see!

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If you have any elemental team with four BDLs and a chain (and a healer AASB to rez slots 2+4) Id definitely try WOdin; having him in your deck will also help in clearing out the remaining 6*s.

The general strategy is to use one chain + BDL to push him to ~75%, at which point hell put up a massive DEF/RES/MND buff thatll probably kill your momentum unless you can counter it. Around this time hell use Argent Zansetsuken which will very likely wipe you unless hes at rage 1 or below (they just recently changed it so rage 3 is no longer an auto-wipe so I guess maybe you can last stand it now, but itll still do like 16k to the party or something). Between 80-90% hp and 40-50% hp he gains several stacks of rage every few %, so you dont want to be in those ranges for AZ.

Shortly after AZ slots 2 and 4 will likely die (some elements through death, some with doom, some with antiheal; for antiheal you can possibly prevent them from dying with stoneskin/hp stock based healers). You typically put your support and chainer in these slots (also slot 5 gets the most gauge so you probably want your healer there). Assuming they die, use a healer AASB to revive them, put up another chain, and then try to blitz him down. At 30% theres a phase transition similar to the Dark Odin fight. If you cant get him to 30% fast enough theres also another AZ, but you should be able to outrace it in a four BDL team.

Wind has an additional DEF/RES/MND buff at 35% which kinda sucks (though it only lasts four seconds and you get interrupted at the beginning of P2 anyway so its not a huge deal).

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LordoftheMorons posted...

If you have any elemental team with four BDLs and a chain (and a healer AASB to rez slots 2+4) Id definitely try WOdin; having him in your deck will also help in clearing out the remaining 6*s.

The general strategy is to use one chain + BDL to push him to ~75%, at which point hell put up a massive DEF/RES/MND buff thatll probably kill your momentum unless you can counter it. Around this time hell use Argent Zansetsuken which will very likely wipe you unless hes at rage 1 or below (they just recently changed it so rage 3 is no longer an auto-wipe so I guess maybe you can last stand it now, but itll still do like 16k to the party or something). Between 80-90% hp and 40-50% hp he gains several stacks of rage every few %, so you dont want to be in those ranges for AZ.

Shortly after AZ slots 2 and 4 will likely die (some elements through death, some with doom, some with antiheal; for antiheal you can possibly prevent them from dying with stoneskin/hp stock based healers). You typically put your support and chainer in these slots (also slot 5 gets the most gauge so you probably want your healer there). Assuming they die, use a healer AASB to revive them, put up another chain, and then try to blitz him down. At 30% theres a phase transition similar to the Dark Odin fight. If you cant get him to 30% fast enough theres also another AZ, but you should be able to outrace it in a four BDL team.

Wind has an additional DEF/RES/MND buff at 35% which kinda sucks (though it only lasts four seconds and you get interrupted at the beginning of P2 anyway so its not a huge deal).

This is super helpful, thanks! Should I try and take out at least one AOdin before going after a DB?

Also, was sitting on like, 900 sapphires, and realized I hadn't really fully record boarded many people. Didn't have a lot of 6* motes, but got HAs for Ultimecia (both Syncs and an AASB), Prishe (Dyad and Sync), Ayame (Sync/AASB), Shantotto (Sync/AASB), Ashe (Dyad/Sync/AASB), and one or two others I'm forgetting.

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You can do them in either order; afaik WOdin can be good for DB if you happen to have a single element team for a realm (better for offense, worse for defense than a HC I think?) but if youre using a HC its not gonna matter. I did three DBs before I did any WOdins (XIV, T0, and IV which are apparently all among the easiest) but Ive now done five WOdins. Theres also more of a difference between the DBs than the WOdins.

I would definitely recommend RBing whoever youre bringing to these fights and to consider their HAs (sapphires are kinda scarce though so dont just automatically buy them for everybody; check out how good the specific HA is compared to alternatives and factor in how much stuff you have for the character, how many teams theyll be on, etc).

Also note that labyrinth quick explores on the 20 floor S1 dungeons give a lot of 6* motes (probably 10-15 on average?); if you do a couple quick explores daily those will add up fast

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Definitely makes sense. I took a look at who was on my previous 6* magicite teams to help. Ayame is likely a fixture, with Squall, on my physical ice team. Shantotto and Ashe will definitely be on my magical lightning team. Haven't looked at putting together my XI DB team yet, but nabbing Prishe's Dyad and Sync should definitely get her on there. And Ultimecia will, at the very least, be on my magic wind team, as I have both of her LMRs too, which can both trigger her HA. Probably magic dark too.

I definitely have neglected getting rat tails, so most of my HCs are not super leveled. Will have to look at that shortly.

EDIT: I'm definitely also progressing very slowly through Labyrinths. I need to get all those cleared.

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Ah yeah I have a shortage of rat tails too; you want your HC to be at least level 80 for DBs.
Labyrinths are a slog for sure

Anyway, after making some questionable artifact purchases to finish the book of trials mission I finally finished book XIX and got my free AASB: OK AASB1!

That's four BDL for III so maybe I'll try that DB next? Wish Arc's HE was in water labyrinth instead of holy!

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Woo-hoo! First Half hour clear!



Surviving the first few turns was a problem, but thanks to Strago's LM2 I lucked out and everything was mostly smooth from there!

New books too! I got Cid Raines' sync! :D Sorry Vayne but looks like Raines is gonna be the new dark mage DPS now!

Used my two tickets on FF10, Seymour awakening dupe, Tidus quickcast LMR dupe, UGH. Well at least I got a rank up.

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Usually I've already done all these book of trials tasks but this time I need to do like 30 more level 3 job motes. That kind of inconvenient, since I don't even know who I've already done it for, but it's probably good that it's forcing me to get those 3% bonuses. I also need 2 more crucible abilities, not sure if there's anything left that's useful.

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Congrats!

I'm nowhere near completing this book but I was one RB away from getting the ticket so I grabbed that and used it on X:

2/11: Tidus LBO, bUSB

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Congrats on the win! I won't have time to try until later.

Finally got all my level 3 empowered spheres, that was slow. So many pointless animations.

Free sync: DK Cecil
Ticket: 1/11 Fran LMR

At least the sync isn't a dupe.

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Tried Salamander with my physical team, this guy is pretty tanky. I died in phase one! I'm going to try to copy a turn order someone posted on the FFRK board, since they used basically the same team as me except I have Paine instead of Yuffie.

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Free Sync was Fujin, so that's great. It has extra BDL on its cmd 2, I love those kinds of syncs.

Too bad that I've already beaten VIII Bahamut and Sandworm, but I think there's already another wind-weak lab boss in JP, so there's something to look forward to.

Yeah the next Wind weak Nexus boss is Earth Guardian from FF9, also Sandworm will be updated with harder version in a couple of months.

I did a manual run but I only got 1 Lion HA and it was a bad attack up at the start of the battle, blech. Looks like her stuff is going to be rare since I got lots of Lulu and Wakka gear, even a 5% armor for Lulu and Wakka already.

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I did two runs for a total of 7 pieces of HE; no +element or +8 pieces yet.

I might try Sin after getting a full set of Lulu HE... what Yuna stuff would I want to lens? All I have for her is her gauge G+ and a dps USB.

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Looking like I'm having much better luck so far with HEs than I was having in fire lab; I've done like 4 runs of the Lulu/Wakka/Lion dungeon and I already have 4/0/8 for Lulu, 3/5/8 for Wakka, and 5/5/8 for Lion (not that I have any SBs for Lion).

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Oh I'm jealous of those Lion passives. I want to fight physical Salamander but I need better passive for her.

I used today's ticket on FF10, got Rikku's water chain finally, though it probably won't see much use with the Paine/Lion combo.

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Anti-desire sensors at work again!

I think I remember getting 5/5/8 for some of the other characters you were hunting for earlier very quickly as well that I had nothing for (Rubicante and Fusoya maybe?)

Also apparently I do have a nonzero amount of Lion stuff (but just her BSB/G+/LM)

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It was Fusoya, I did so many runs trying to get a 5% armor, same with Ceodore, though I never got a 5% weapon for him. Probably will have to try again when the Holy group comes out in January so I can use him for Anima.

Rubicante was thankfully very quick to get 5/5/8, especially since I used him for two Nexus bosses.

Did two more runs but still no 5% weapon or armor for Lion, got a 4% weapon at least. But so many stupid Lulu bracers! UGH! C'mon RNG I already got a 5% one!

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Lol yep and the Lulu bracers are the main thing I still need here; too bad there's no trading!

I also got a 5% Cinque armor from a quick explore which eliminates the last of my sub-3/3/6 passives from S1

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At least you can get Lulu's bracers as a damage % reward on Salamander, it's all RNG for Lion

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Definitely hoping to get one from RNG before my phys water team is able to get to 70%(?) on Salamander!

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