FF3j Pixel Remaster Four Job Fiesta stuff?

PJ's rough FF3j Pixel Remaster "Four Job Fiesta" guidelines/outline:

Note: I am not in any way affiliated with anybody of importance, and none of this is "official".  I really like the FF3jPR and wanted an excuse to play more of it, and since this is Four Job Fiesta season and I don't want to play FF5, I decided to see if I could adapt the rules for it.  This is just a writeup of what I've been doing in case people want to know more specifics or do it themselves.  Pretty sure this challenge might be quite a bit different on Famicom or the 3D version, if possible at all.

I'm using the most basic arrangement for now, just to scope out how realistic this kind of challenge is for this game:

-Every unlocked job must be present in the party
-Jobs are unlocked at each crystal.  I added Onion Knight to every pool for additional flavor, but I've been rerolling if I get a duplicate Onion Knight.  I added the Eureka jobs to the earth crystal pool.  Will elaborate on these choices later.
-Can switch jobs whenever you want, as many times as you want, as long as each job is used at least once
-No restriction on killing or petrifying party members
-If no job is capable of white magic, you can temporarily switch to a white mage to cast Toad/Mini
-Don't have to clear Eureka, acquire optional summons, visit Triangle Island, etc.  I do all of it because I like to, but I don't see why it'd be necessary.



~~~~~~Job pools for each crystal~~~~~~

Wind:
	-Onion Knight
	-Warrior
	-Monk
	-White Mage
	-Black Mage
	-Red Mage

Fire:
	-Onion Knight
	-Ranger
	-Knight
	-Thief
	-Scholar

Water:
	-Onion Knight
	-Black Belt
	-Viking
	-Dragoon
	-Dark Knight
	-Evoker
	-Bard
	-Geomancer

Earth:
	-Onion Knight
	-Magus
	-Devout
	-Summoner
	-Sage (Eureka)
	-Ninja (Eureka)



~~~~~~Justification for Eureka jobs and Onion Knight~~~~~~

Onion Knight is a job in this game just like all the others, with a very strong identity.  Just because it is unlocked by default (and often useless) doesn't feel like an excuse to omit it from this challenge.  I feel like having the additional onion risk gives a lot of shape to the playthrough and I personally like the job.  Hahaha.  Banking on a strong water crystal job and getting onion really hurts the mid game, but guarantees a strong earth crystal job.  Similarly, getting onion at earth crystal means it will basically only be useful as an elixir thrower.  Getting an onion early hurts HP growth, but it means you're going to get help at water and earth crystals, and will be max job level for throwing items or if you need to get onion gear and carry.

As for rerolling dupe Onion Knights, I've done a 4 Onion Knight playthrough and had a lot of fun with it, but it really, really sucks to have multiples of them in your team if you're just looking for a fun and short playthrough.  I guess it'd make sense to use it in the same vein as Berserker Risk if you want the danger of a 50 hour playthrough.

For Eureka jobs, Sage and Ninja are the "super jobs" in this game, and are devastating.  It initially felt wrong to include them because they are so much more powerful than the other jobs.  After some consideration, though, rolling a Eureka job means you don't get the power spike at earth crystal, and have to defeat Doga, Unei, and Scylla with your existing team.  If you're already capable of beating those bosses without a new job, then either your team is probably already strong enough to win without them, or you've struggled enough and earned some relief.



~~~~~~Allowable exceptions for white magic~~~~~~

If you don't roll white mage or red mage at the start, you'll need to switch to white mage temporarily in a few places.  For these exceptions, I switch jobs at the inn, rest, use Toad/Mini, switch back, and then walk to the dungeon in that state.  All of the required state changes:

-Mini: Change at healing spring in forest north of Tozus, walk through Tozus and the tunnel to Viking Cove.  Can change back at the Inn in Viking Cove if you're not heading straight to Nepto Shrine (Mallets not yet available).
-Mini: Change at Viking Cove Inn, walk to Nepto Shrine from there.  Can change back at this same inn after clearing Nepto Shrine.
-Toad: Change wherever you want before sailing to Tower of Owen.  I prefer the Castle Argus healing font.  Can Maiden's Kiss the party back to normal after entering the hole in the tower.
-Toad: Change in the Dwarven Hollows Inn, enter the Subterranean Lake, can use Maiden's Kisses after entering.

For any other mini dungeons after this (Castle Hein, Doga's place, uhh...any others I might be forgetting), just use Mallets to mini your team.  They work outside of battle, even!  Can buy them in Dwarven Hollows or Village of the Ancients, and probably elsewhere idk.



~~~~~~Job specifics that might help?~~~~~~

-Thief: There are two hidden rooms in the Amur sewers with Main Gauche and Orichalcum; Orichalcum is a draining weapon and makes Thief pretty unstoppable for a long while.  Re: stealing, the item you are able to steal from an enemy (4 tiers of "rarity") is based on job level: 1-30, 31-70, 71-98, 99.  You can steal anything in your current job level tier or previous tiers (i.e. job level 99 can steal anything, job level 50 can steal the two most common items).  There's some super nice stuff available!  Notably, you can steal Arctic Winds from Sorcerors in Saronia to help with Garuda beginning at job level 31.  Loads of late-game enemies have Lilith's Kisses (drain item) in the 71-98 pool.  King Behemoth has Protect Ring and common Elixir, all colored Dragons (Yellow, Green, Red) have Elixirs.

-Viking: In critical health (<25%) Viking gets a ridiculous damage reduction based on job level (appears to be close to 1 percentage point per job level).  His Draw Attacks ability always goes first and forces the enemies to hit him if they choose to use physical attacks, if it is successful.  Success rate is based on job level, and seems to be 100% at job level 99, even against bosses.  Against Cloud of Darkness, taking a full magic defense build (2x Aegis Shield, Ribbon, Protect Ring, Reflective Mail) reduces particle beam to ~70 damage at max job level!

-Monk: Village of the Ancients sells Headband and Kenpo Gi, which is a huge boost after Nepto Shrine.  Tokkul has a hidden sansetsukon but unarmed ends up being better than weapons quite early (level 15 and job level 25+?).  Cannot get armor that resists flame!  Salamander numbers: job level 51 did ~350-480 damage with antarctic wind.  Unarmed attack also doing about 350-450 damage (job level 40+, player level 20).  It's a 3 round win with everybody alive every turn; one physical turn and good turn order would do it.  Punch does 250 to Hein.  Monk scales super well into end-game, but gets very frail.

-Black Belt: Not much help is needed here, this job smashes ass.  For fun, Kick can apply the special properties of claws, which means a multi-target instant death kick with Faerie Claws equipped.

-Dragoon: Blood lance is in the Sunken Cave (SE triangle island) in the top-left of four hidden chests in the final floor.  Also for sale in the Ancient Ruins shop.

-Scholar: Items got 2.5x multiplier at some point at or before job level 27, and 3x multiplier somewhere at or before job level 57.  Didn't track it super closely.

-Dark Knight: No weapons available until you get The Invincible.

-Evoker: The outcomes of the summons are random, as far as I can tell.  Of note, Ifrit (Heatra) can use a great full-party heal, Odin (Catastro) can cast reflect on the entire party, and Bahamur can apply haste to the entire team.

-Bard: Paeon always goes first and heals around 20% of the party's max health at job level 99.

-Ninja: Super fucked. Ragnarok/Excalibur for most fights if you have healing, but can solo most things with Ragnarok/Blood lance.  Sell everything for shurikens, which did max damage to Ahriman and Cloud of Darkness at job level 70.  Hugely powerful class, free win if you can unlock it.



~~~~~~Some other lessons I learned the hard way~~~~~~

-Job levels are gained every 4 actions, and only 1 job level can be earned per battle.  Defend always goes first, so a defending party member always get job experience.

-Petrified party members still get experience but won't get job levels because they're not taking actions.  They can still be targeted by enemies.  Often the best use for jobs lacking equipment or underperforming, or for sections with very dangerous enemies.  It does still split healing effectiveness, though.  Full party heal with 1 dead party member heals more than a full party heal with 1 petrified party member.

-Giant Rat without a mage (warrior, monk, or onion start) requires using offensive items.  He has 1050 HP, and antarctic wind/zeus rage can do ~200-250 damage at the job level 33+ (strangely, at job level 32 I did 75-90 damage, and job level 37 I did ~275).  Best option, I think, is to grind in the Nepto Dragon gulf.  You can get in the boat and fight in the water there before clearing the Nepto Shrine as long as you don't try to leave to the ocean.  Most of the enemies can drop antarctic winds, which also help against Salamander.

-Salamander without healing is hard to beat in a sustained fight, so bursting him down with items is easier if you have spare antarctic winds, or farmed the outer sea for arctic winds (almost every enemy here drops them).  A warrior with freezing blade does a ton of damage but also probably needs item support from allies.

-Most non-dragoon team comps struggle with Garuda because multi-target healing is scarce at that point.  Thieves can steal arctic winds from Sorcerors (job level 31+), so you can stockpile those and try to burst him down if he opens with a physical attack.  Without a thief and without healing, the nuclear option is to hope for a rare Raven's Yawn drop from either Needle Monkey (less rare) or Sorceror (1/256) while you grind.

-Best EXP grinding places are in the first screen of Sunken Island (underwater dungeon under the SE triangle) and first screen of Bahamut's cave.  It is far better EXP rate than any of the final dungeons.  It seems far better to level to ~50 in Bahamut's cave than to advance to World of Darkness early because leveling there sucks.

-Ahriman always opens with Meteor, then a single target turn (tier 3 magic, curaja, or petrifying physical attack), then quake, then another single target turn.  Sometimes taking a petrified party member into the fight and hoping the single attacks hit them once in awhile gives just enough reprieve to recover.