The Last Remnant: True Conqueror FAQ

Hello Folks, This is an FAQ for The Last REEEEEEEmnant: True conqueror. figured i'd make one since the category name doesn't quite exolain what is occuring if you're not in the know. SO:

What is the True Conqueror? What do you need to unlock such a thing?
The True Conqueror is the true final boss of TLR. In a nutshell, the final boss of this game has 8 Ranks, depending on various different conditions that you can complete as you do the plot. This boss, to put it plainly, is straight unfair. no matter how good your party is (well, short of hundreds of hours of grinding), there is no way to consistently win this fight. But that's fine, we have strats.
As for how you unlock this mofo, the only condition for True Conqueror (Rank 8), is simply to complete all quests. There's quite a lot of these and they take quite a lot of time, but frankly, it's easier to unlock rank 8 than it is to unlock some of the other ranks.
For reference: the any% route fights the conqueror at rank 3. In comparison, True conqueror uses scarier AoE Arts (up to like triple the damage of rank 3's versions), uses them more often, has real single target damage, has four times the HP, and is overall an asshole.

Why are you murdering thousands and thousands of these poor, defenceless creatures?
LANDWORM ARE THE ENEMY. But no, really, the grinding in this game is a very strangely built thing. basically, the higher you chain (in the top right goes), the more of an exp multipler you get, up to 2x the base. Exp isn't (entirely, against very strong enemies you get a multiplier but there's no like, exp value each enemy gives you) based on the type of enemy you're killing in this game. you get EXP for performing actions, and having actions performed against you, and you get a certain amount of exp for terminating a union, and you get exp for finishing a fight, based on the amount of links you went into the fight with (you get up to 20 in this spot).

What are the goals of the grind?
There's 3 real goals to the grind, but they all get covered during one of them, pretty much. You want Cachexia (which i will explain further down) on 3 units, you want immense amounts of stats (the softcap is reached for every, or almost every, character that takes part in combat), and you want skill ranks on your main DPS skills (and bewitch, up to rank IV). You finish most of these goals just trying to unlock Cachexia, which is the top-level hexes arte and takes literally forever.

Why are you not using blackout to grind?
Because of how the above goals work, we're stuck grinding for much longer than any% is. Any% makes use of blackout to capitalise on the exp you gain when you finish a fight, based on link count, but we have to kill so many things to finish learning Cachexia (and Bewitch IV) that blackout only slows the process. Basically, you gain 2 (base) skill exp when you input a command, and 2 when that command gets used on the enemy. using blackout will wipe the entire field, and so there are no enemies left to use the skills on anymore. So you effectively need twice (ish) as many turns, though each turn will pass faster.
As i said before, having actions done against you also increases your stats, and is one of the few ways to gain "random" stats (stats that are outside of the soft cap). Every enemy that attacks a unit has a chance to increase that unit's HP, once per fight. so longer turns aren't that much of an issue.

What's Cachexia? Why is it so important?
Cachexia is a Hexes art that reduces the enemy's AP to 0. What this means, is that if they input any arts after you land Cachexia, they get the "insufficient AP" text instead of using said art. There's two major uses to this, and one nuance that makes it inconsistent.
The first, and most important, use, is that it helps you to "skip" End of Turn attacks on bosses. EoT are disgustingly powerful in this game, and slow you down signficantly because you have to spend time to recover from it. after which, you might have to deal with another. Skipping them entirely is much simpler to deal with. They all cost more or less 10AP to use, so they're always going to have the AP to use it unless you're using Cachexia.
The second use, is like a smaller version of the above. It lets you skip other potentially threatening or party-wiping attacks, such as the conqueror's deep impact (which is AoE and if it crits all 18 people, WILL KILL YOU INSTANTLY). The boss will try to use the art, it will say "insufficient AP", and the enemy will do nothing. This works like the "standby" command, which is why there's a nuance, explained below.
The nuance to this, when Insufficient AP appears, the enemy stands by. this is an Issue because standing by generates AP (allowing arts the next turn, and reactivating EoT attacks). This is why i specifically (though it's faster anyway) only want Cachexia to be rank 1. Rank 1 arts are significantly slower, and you don't want to Cachexia before the opponent moves. The way to avoid this is to tank the first turn, no matter what he does, and have your unit use Cachexia after (but turn order is somewhat random, so it's still not consistent). Worst case scenario, as long as you always have a union with Cachexia flanking the boss, they will always reduce his AP to zero to avoid the EoT (unless he dodges).

Why are you not getting X strong unit? (Jager, Wyngale, Allan, Zolean, Enlightened Seven, etc)
All of those units happen on disc 2, after the aqueducts. I fiddled with a route that did a short grind on disc 1, completed it, recruited some big bois listed above, and then did a long grind, but it really wasn't worth it. If it made things 100% consistent, sure, but there's no such thing in this game/category. When you do the aqueducts, lots of quests, disappear, so at least a short(ish) grind is needed to be able to get to disc 2 without skipping quests.

There we are folks. There's probably something obvious i've missed, and sorry for the long-winded answers, but this game's complicated. If you have any questions not covered by this FAQ, just ask. I'll try to answer.