Long Gui and Shaolong Gui Farming

[Ultima]

As we all know, the Treasure Hunter trophy is a tremendous pain in the ass to acquire. It involves farming an enormous amount of gil by repeatedly killing Oretoises. Most people choose Adamantoises/Adamantortoises but the stronger Long Guis have a far better drop rate. I thought I’d share a strategy that allows the player to farm 2 Long Guis and 8 Shaolong Guis in 40-45 minutes.

Shaolong Gui: This fight is the more luck reliant of the two depending on your strength and equipment. The Shaolong Gui has an attack called Bay that has a high chance of inflicting Daze and rendering this strategy almost unsalvageable.

Let’s start with the character choices for this battle and why they are or aren’t useful.

Lightning – She is capable of being one of your damage dealers and synergists. Enfire is one of the main keys to victory in this fight and she is one of the three party members who can cast it.

Snow – I cannot stress enough how important Snow is in this battle. His titanic health stat and access to Daze make him the ideal Saboteur for keeping the Shaolong Gui in check.

Sazh – He is another of the characters with access to Enfire and capable of being a potent damage dealer with the right equipment.

Fang – Another of my major recommendations for your squad, and possibly your leader, Fang is the best Commando of your team and has access to Bravera, Faithra, Protectra and Shellra.

Hope – Hope has access to Enfire but not to Daze and since the Shaolong Gui only takes 10% damage from magic attacks he cannot act as an offensive player.

Vanille – She has all the necessary Synergist abilities but lacks Daze and the physical strength to help with the offensive part of the battle.

For the sake of example we’ll use the team I use of Fang/Snow/Sazh. Now we can move onto Paradigms.

Tortoise – SEN/SEN/SEN – This is used for sponging damage, mainly Bay and Ultima.
Infiltration – SAB/SAB/SAB – This is for adding all the standard debuffs.
Recuperation – SYN/MED/SYN – The medic heals any damage while the two synergists add buffs.
Smart Bomb – RAV/SAB/RAV – The Ravagers drive up the stagger gauge while the saboteur maintains Daze.
Devastation – COM/SAB/COM – The commandos deal damage while the saboteur maintains Daze.

Equipment: The only really necessary equipment is a Genji Glove for each of your damage dealers. Here is what I’m currently using as an example.

Fang: Kain’s Lance – Genji Glove, Kaiser Knuckles, Collector Catalog, Imperial Armlet
Snow: Midnight Sun – Nimbletoe Boots, Nimbletoe Boots, Aurora Scarf, Aurora Scarf (Allows for ATB Rate +20%)
Sazh: Hyades Magnums – Genji Glove, Kaiser Knuckles, Imperial Armlet, Imperial Armlet

If you are not worried about defence then swap the Imperial Armlets for Rainbow Anklets or other equipment that resists Daze.

Strategy: Have your active paradigm on Tortoise as the Shaolong Gui pre-empts with Quake. Immediately switch to Infiltration and cast Slow to prevent the damage racking up too quickly, then make sure Deshell, Deprotect, Imperil, Curse and Daze are all active before switching to Recuperation. Snow as a medic will heal all of your party to near full health while you (as Fang) must cast Protectra, Shellra, Bravera and Faithra on your entire party. Sazh should have cast Enfire by this point. Switch to Smart Bomb and stagger the Shaolong Gui before changing to Devastation and finishing it off. If the battle went perfectly and your party has maxed the Crystarium then your final time should be 2:00 – 2:30.

[Ultima]

Long Gui: The second strongest monster in the game and one tough son of a *Bleep* to take down. Or is he? Vanille makes short work of this monstrosity if played correctly. 3TP IS REQUIRED FOR THIS FIGHT.

Let’s start with the character choices for this battle and why they are or aren’t useful.

Vanille – She must be your leader, no if, buts or maybes. Death is your key to victory.

Fang – Access to Slow, Bravera and Faithra make Fang a strong second choice.

Sazh – Haste and Enfire combined with powerful attacks make Sazh a good choice for your team.

Snow – He is an adequate replacement for Fang if you prefer Bravery and Faith over Bravera and Faithra.

Lightning – She would act in exactly the same way as Sazh for this battle.

Hope - He would act in exactly the same way as Sazh for this battle.

For the sake of example we’ll use the team I use of Vanille/Fang/Sazh. Now we can move onto Paradigms.

Espionage – SAB/SAB/SYN – For buffing Haste and Enfire while debuffing him.
Guerilla – SAB/SYN/RAV – For the rest of the buffs, maintaining debuffs and raising the chain gauge.
Smart Bomb – SAB/RAV/RAV – For maintaining debuffs and driving up the chain gauge.
Devastation – SAV/COM/COM – Start using death and deal damage with the commandos.
Cerberus – COM/COM/COM – The ultimate offensive paradigm for switching to during the death animation.

Equipment: Vanille needs the Malboro Wand to improve her debuffs and as high a magic stat as possible. Beyond that the equipment is up to you.

Vanille – Malboro Wand – Genji Glove, Magistral Crest, Magistral Crest, Magistral Crest
Fang: Kain’s Lance – Genji Glove, Kaiser Knuckles, Collector Catalog, Imperial Armlet
Sazh: Hyades Magnums – Genji Glove, Kaiser Knuckles, Imperial Armlet, Imperial Armlet

I only didn’t swap out the defensive equipment for the sake of convenience when moving between Long Gui and Shaolong Gui battles.

Strategy: 3TP IS REQUIRED FOR THIS FIGHT. Immediately summon Hecatoncheir and wait for the ‘miss’ to appear so that you know you’ve dodged Ultima before skipping the animation. Cast Poison on the Long Gui. Cast the other debuffs and recast Poison so that it lasts longer then enter Gestalt mode (ideally the Gestalt gauge should be maxed). Only use the attack that uses one point of the Gestalt meter and wait until the last second to use the attack. The Long Gui cannot stand up when an Eidolon is in Gestalt mode so racking up 8 million HP of poison damage is easy. Once Hecatoncheir has been dismissed, maintain the debuffs, wait for Fang to cast slow and Sazh to cash Haste and Enfire. Switch to Guerilla and continue to maintain the debuffs while Fang casts Bravera and Faithra. Next, switch to Smart Bomb and stagger the *Bleep*. You can start casting Death with Vanille or maintain the debuffs. It’s your choice at this point. Once the Long Gui is staggered, switch to Devastation and cast Death. During Death’s animation switch to Cerberus and the damage will be multiplied so much that you may hit 999,999. Immediately switch back to Devastation and repeat the process with Death. If all goes well the monster should be dead by the 4 minute mark.

[Ultima]

The area you're looking for is at the save point in The Archylte Steppe - Eastern Tors. Where you fight the Gigantaur there are four Shaolong Guis and two Long Guis for you to have your way with. The fourth Shaolong Gui is on the cliff just beside the save point. Four Shaolong Guis should be enough to replenish 3TP for your next Long Gui battle. The Shaolong Guis respawn as you run around but you must soft reset for the Long Guis.

EDIT: You do not need all of the weapons and accessories in your inventory at once for the Treasure Hunter trophy. You must simply have held them at one or more points in the game. If you are not a completionist, are happy with your equipment setup and (this is the important point) have raised an accessory/weapon to it's absolute maximum stage then you can sell it or dismantle it to help you in levelling other equipment. I am no expert in dismantling equipment and how lucrative it can be so experiment for yourself.

Good luck and I hope this helps.

[wee187]

I'm going to go ahead and sticky this. Lots of useful information here. Thanks, Ultima.

[Ultima]

I'm going to go ahead and sticky this. Lots of useful information here. Thanks, Ultima.

When you're doing your FFXIII LP, could you try out these strategies? A video example would make the info even more helpful.

Oh and thanks for the sticky.

[wee187]

I'll try them out, definitely. Although I almost always stick to Light/Hope/Fang, even in these turtle cases, I'd like the experiment with these other strategies anyway.

[sentry88]

You know how you said you need tonnes of gil to get trophy. Are all items for this trophy are in the shop? Also do you need to be holding everything at once or do you at least need to have held the item? 
please reply

[Ultima]

You know how you said you need tonnes of gil to get trophy. Are all items for this trophy are in the shop? Also do you need to be holding everything at once or do you at least need to have held the item? 
please reply

All the items required for the synthesis process you can buy but some accessories are one time only drops from bosses or rewards for missions e.g. Doctor's Code, Gold Watch, Growth Egg, Survivalist Catalog.

You DO NOT need to be holding all the accessories and weapons at once. You must simply have had them in your inventory at one point in the game.

[CVL14558]

i would like to personally congratulate you ultima XD i just used your strategy on the shaolong gui and beat it the first time XD (had a connessieur catalog and ended up getting the dark matter XD)

also applied a similar setup to my earlier save (after unlocking stage 9 crystarium) and beat a adamantortoise 1 time and got the trapozohedron

so, thank you verry much

[Ultima]

i would like to personally congratulate you ultima XD i just used your strategy on the shaolong gui and beat it the first time XD (had a connessieur catalog and ended up getting the dark matter XD)

also applied a similar setup to my earlier save (after unlocking stage 9 crystarium) and beat a adamantortoise 1 time and got the trapozohedron

so, thank you verry much

You're very welcome.

[CVL14558]

T.T

it works 100% (well 96%....ultima spell killed me a few times)

T.T i always get the trapezohedrons and dark matters.....am i lucky or unlucky....i'm trying to obtain gil

i guess since i'm actually at this point now, the stuff is more fun to do but i've decided to run through the eden circle (starting at the end killing the Sacrifices and going all the way to the Adamantoise and back again) i've already amassed 3 million gil in 5 hours (perfumes, platinum ingots, credit chips, incentive chips, excess scarletites etc) and it's better than fighting those darned Gui's XD

XD it's fun and has the same percentage of working as ultima's guide up there lol. if you want i could post my strategy for killing the Adamantoise without the use of a summon. i've never died using it lol (side note: the same strategy can also be applied to the Adamantortoise)