Non-Cait Solo Therion Inferno Route v1.0 (more beginner friendly)

For PDF version of this, see: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lrxpsK4hQvPepDFIv-lFVe_5KeNFGsin?usp=sharing
Sample Run: https://youtu.be/TLHDObjUsCQ

Last Updated: Oct. 10, 2022

This is a more beginner friendly, noncait guide to solo Therion. It gets Apothecary for extra HP and gets the 3% Inferno gear to make Darius way easier and Gareth usually easier too. I estimate it's about 20-25 minutes slower than Cait adam hat + empowering necklace route, but it has an easier Darius fight by far and thus overall friendlier to try.

Note: If you get early Cait, you can still do this route but is slower still than the other route (just use Wind L/Fire L on the Cait and ignore most of the early Wellspring section to go to Scholar Shrine, trying to flee the battle or walking all of the Scholar walk to skip it, then follow the below or adjust as you like). If you don't get a Cait, this route lists stones to get and throw at encounters along the way to make up experience (we don't need any stones for any of the bosses, so they're all spares to chuck at random encounters).

Self notes to look into:
- wind M + wind L to grind Whitewood + Scholar encounter for EM, prob faster than Fire L? Return later for Conscious stone

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Do Therion 1
Grab Iron Helm next to mansion before triggering cutscene
Steal 4 Small Stones

Buy Arcane Knife, "No" to equipping
Equip + Optimize (this puts on Helm at same time)
Flee/Break encounters (dagger/sword to break before Fleeing or Flee if double)
(can try to walk the manse to skip third encounter)

Heathcote:
T1-4: Small SoulStone
T5: Wildfire x4
T6: Wildfire
T7: Wildfire x4 (rare range to miss by 7 damage but can dagger to finish; can grape if low HP but rarely needed)
Steal Nourish S + Pom S before leaving town

Note for EM: There are two methods of getting EM without relying on a Cait. The more stable one, which is listed below as the main recommended method, is to get the L stones in Derelict/Wellspring. The alternate method, if anyone else wants to try, is to get the Quarrycrest Wind M and Derelict Wind L and use them twice in back-to-back battles in Path of Beasts (do not exit the map in-between, as it has a static first encounter of 3 boars that only falls to the L stone). Then try to walk and skip or Flee the Scholar shrine battle. The below route assumes you'll be doing the more stable method.

Go toward Derelict Mine
On the bridge beforehand, start walking about 1/2 or 3/4 across the bridge
Save, then run into Derelict Mine (Flee encounter)
Enter Derelict Mine, walk to get Wind L
Run to Save Point and Save
Walk to get Conscious Stone and walk back to Save again
Exit by running
Run to Save Point before bridge
Start leaving by running and about halfway across bridge, walk the remainder to get out of the map
Save again before crossing bridge (walk halfway across bridge to exit the map)

Tag Sunshade
Get Old Coin when leaving toward Wellsprings
Enter Northern Wellsprings Sands
Walk this map to the Save Point in the south
Use Wind L on the static encounter of 1 x Sandworm and 2 x Giant Scorpion
(It may take a few tries to not be caught by surprise.)
Save at Save Point
Run and Tag Wellspring
Get Fire L in Southern Wellspring Sands (walk to get it since it's risky to run)

TP Bolderfall
Go to Scholar Shrine and throw Fire L at the encounter of the ram and the bird
Get Scholar Shrine, learn Blizzard and Lightning Blast
Put on Evasive Maneuvers

Tag Noblecourt and start C2
Exit and get Light M
Go to Forest of Purgation and get Light L, Forbidden Dagger, and 20k

TP Wellspring
Go to Moonstruck Coast and KO pirates with Light L
Get Merchant Shrine

TP Wellspring, go out and down
In Eastern Wellspring Sands, get the Thunder L on the left rock

TP Wellspring (you can skip this TP back, but that map's L has a risky encounter chance)
Go to Eastern Marsalim Sands
Get 20k + Thunder L
Enter Marsalim Catacombs (optionally Save on way in and out)
Get Viper Dagger
Buffer Glitch to get Master's Spear
Get Rev Jam
Exit

Tag Marsalim
In Item shop, buy
- 5 Grape M
- 5 Plum
In Armor shop, buy
- Knight's Shield (don't equip yet)
Go to Marsalim Palace
Get 3 Chests (High House Armor, 25k, Enchanted Circlet)

Menu:
- Nourish S + Healing Grape
- Equip Optimize

TP Sunshade
Go to East Saintsbridge Traverse
Get Apothecary Shrine

Exit and go southward toward Farshore
You will pass an NPC before bridge - do any random Steal to fail and get the Steal prompt to pop up
(You don't need the item, just the fail prompt)

Force encounter before Farshore
KO with LB x2 -> Light M (Blizzard breaks to give extra exp but that exp isn't really needed)
Enter Farshore and follow torches upright until you see the NPC on the bridge
Go left of NPC to get Ice L
Then go right across bridge and down immediately, hugging right wall to enter secret passage to get 30k

TP Bolderfall

Menu, go toward Victor's Hollow
Menu:
- Put on Viper Dagger
- Job to Merchant and learn Sidestep + Hired Help
- Put on Endless Items

Enter East Duskbarrow Trail but go back down to reset steps
Tag Victor's Hollow
Enter Victor's Hollow: Arena Gate
(This creates an autosave next to the NPC you need to steal from)
Return to title and enter the game
Steal Inferno Amulet (3%) from NPC next to you, return to title until you get it

Exit the town once you steal it
Reset steps in East Duskbarrow Trail and go back down to go toward Western Stillsnow Wilds

Before entering Southern Northreach Wilds, force an encounter and KO with Thunder L
Enter Southern Northreach Wilds and go upwards
If you reach the top leftmost torch (you'll see a chest in the top left of it), you can opt to get that Shad M chest
If you get the encounter before the torch, it's more unsafe, so skip the chest
(It only helps a minor bit in grinding but isn't mandatory)

There's a static battle of 2 Reptalios lizards you will get, KO with HHB x 2 -> any L
Tag Northreach, then go back down to Maw
KO 2 Reptalios again with HHB x2 -> any L
Enter Maw of the Ice Dragon to get 30k + Adam Hat

Note: You will be L16+ usually here but even L15 is fine. If you got no EI dupes, you will have no more stones as well.

TP Noblecourt
Steal Empowering Ring (55%) from bottom-right most guarded house
(We steal this now in case we fail and need to rep restore at tavern to be efficient)
Go to top left house, then to right screen's Tavern
Rep restore here if needed and if no more L stones, enter Tavern to steal Light M + Shad M (55%)

Go toward Barham's House and if you still haven't stolen the Empowering Ring, steal it this time
After Barham's cutscene, don't do story steals yet (we will come back later to do all the story steals with a higher level)

TP Wellspring
Go to West Everhold Pass
(If you get the encounter on the Stonegard screen, toss 1 L or 2 M. If it's Shaggy Aurochs + Dread Falcon, do Spear x2 on the Aurochs before the first stone toss.)

Enter West Everhold Pass
Get Light L
Enter Everhold Tunnels (encounters usually wipe you but 2 Dark Elem + Animated Armor fall to Light L + any M and is a good use of the stones)
Get Pom L
Go to boss and say No to the battle to reset encounter steps
Get Knowledge Staff and 35k

TP Wellspring, go toward Tomb of Kings

Go toward Tomb of Kings and before entering, menu:
Jobs:
- go to Scholar
Support Skills:
- take Evasive Manuevers off
Equipment, put on:
- Knowledge Staff
- Adam Hat
- Empowering Ring
- Inferno Amulet
Items:
- Grape HP to max

We don't use any stones for rest of run, so feel free to USE EVERY STONE you have to speed up this grind.

Notes:
- Aim for 2048 JP
- Use Grape and Plum after battles if you don't level up/as needed (we want > 800 HP and >= 44 SP before every battle, unless you plan to chuck an L stone)
- Use M/L stones as you like, but it's generally better to use L's on Light enemies or Caits

For encounters:
- LB -> LB x3 defeats just about anything (if you're caught by surprise by a Light enemy group, Defend -> LB x4 works too)
- for 3 Thief II (4 shield), use Blizzard x2
- for mix Thief I and Thief II groups , I recommend Defend -> LB x3
- for all Light Sentinels, Shad M + Fireball x2 or L Stone or LB -> LB x3
- for Light Sentinels/Guardians, use L Stone or LB -> LB x3 (if Light Remnant, can break it with Sword before throwing L)
- for Wind Sentinels/Guardians, use LB x2 -> LB (if Wind Remnant, then do LB -> LB x3)
- any Caits, use L or M stone or boosted LB x2 right away to KO them

Loot the following items through the grind:
- Fire L
- 9400
- Bright Stone
- Curious Antique
- Hasty Helm
- Healing Grape Bunch if you used a lot
- (Note that Bright Stone and Hasty Helm NPC for very little, around 1.5k/1.8k, so skip if you got cait money)
- if you are done, then grind near entrance

EVASIVE MANEUVERS BACK ON BEFORE LEAVING

Go to West Everhold Pass
Get Silver Pouch (and optionally Save)
Enter Shrine of the Runeblade
Save + Quit on the right side of the Save Point
Get 50k + Rev Jam

TP Noblecourt
Do story steals and advance the story with Barham until you steal Wyvern Scale on the right screen
(Rep restore as needed)
After stealing Wyvern Scale, TP Victor's Hollow and Steal Nourish M from entrance person (rep restore once if needed, but if you fail more than that, reload the autosave)

TP back to Noblecourt to finish C2's steals
You should be L21/22, so the last Crystal Ore Steal will be 65%+

Enter Orlick's Manse and right before Save Point, force one last encounter, KO with Blizzard -> Blizzard x3 (or LB -> LB x3)

Menu before Orlick:
Job Menu
- Job to Thief (down 1 from Scholar), learn Steal SP
- Job to Apothecary (down 1 from Thief), learn 3 skills
- Job to Merchant (if you have 1500, you can learn Hang Tough with 2 more skills but usually can't afford it yet)
Support Skills
- Hale and Hearty on
- (and Hang Tough if you were able to afford it; usually only happens if you got lucky Cait)
Items
- Nourish M
- Grape to max HP, need 6+ SP

Orlick
- if you get 1 poison tick of damage (310), on T5, you don't need Pom S and can just T5 Defend and use Steal SP x2
- if you get 4 Poison ticks of damage (310x4), it lets you skip Pom S/Defend and just use Steal SP into Vets x4
T1: HHV x2
T2: Steal SP
T3: Steal SP
T4: Steal SP
T5: Pom S (or Defend if you get 1 Poison tick of damage and do Steal SP x2 next turn)
T7: Steal SP x3
T6: Vets x4

Optionally go to upper Bolderfall to Steal Pom L from Alphas

MENU:
- Grape M to heal up
- Job Scholar (Note: If you have a spare L stone, you can skip this and just toss L on Darius' 3 minions)
- put on KNOWLEDGE STAFF

TP Wellspring, do Therion C3
Run into Tavern and steal Bottle of Wine
Mash A to give to Pauper
Run into Tavern
Run down to Southern Wellspring Sands and do cutscene

TP Wellspring
Go to tavern and steal from Barkeeper
Enter Black Market, go left

2x Darius's Lackey + 1x Darius's Henchman:
T1: LB x2 (range to KO all at L22)
T2: Fireball/Dagger if needed

Job Merchant and learn Hang Tough (any two but these are the fastest at the top):
- Rest
- Trade Tempest
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Hang Tough ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heal HP
Save before Gareth

Gareth: (Hang Tough is not mandatory but increases the number of winning scenarios against him)
T1: HH Mercs
T2: Vets x3
T3: Rev Jam [if you go last this round and first next round, you can Pom L instead]
T4: Vets x4
T5: Vets x3
[Watch for L23 or not]

TP Northreach, Therion C4
Enter Tavern to steal Pom L from left NPC (55%) [if you are under L23, delay after battle]
Get Master's Longbow

2x Darius's Subordinate + 1x Darius's Underling:
T1: HH Vets x2

Go to the Lorn Cathedral's cutscene
Optionally get Ice M for chip damage versus Darius

TP Marsalim
From NPC near Armor shop, steal 1 or 2 Pom L
(A very slow optional here to help with chip damage versus Darius is to go to Marsalim Palace and steal 1-3 L Stones 55%+ or Pom M's, but this is very slow and not recommended, not to mention prone to failing rep.)

TP Wellspring
Steal slightly leftward quest NPC Sweet Tooth's Pom L (55%)
Exit and go down one map and back up to reset steps
Get Dancer Shrine

Menu:
Equipment:
- Put on Forbidden Dagger (over Viper Dagger)
- Take off Adam Hat (we go helmless for Darius since we got the Nourish S + M nuts)
- Put on Conscious Stone (over Empowering Ring)
Jobs:
- Job to Dancer (1 up from Merchant), learn 3 skills
- Job to Thief (2 up from Merchant), learn Armor Corrosive
- Job to Merchant (2 up from Thief)

Optional but slow: TP Noblecourt, go to Hollow Throne (all the way left)
Go left in it to get Pom L + Rev Jam
(Decent encounter chance, so an option if you do this is to reset encounters entering Atlasdam map and back up)

TP Northreach
Steal 2 Pom M (80%) from leftmost NPC
Optionally steal Fool's Gold Ore from next NPC (sells for 4k; would only recommend if you needed to rep restore in both Victors and Noblecourt, as otherwise, you would have 24-28k extra here depending on if you got the 4k)

Sell items at shop (sell equipment greater than 1k). You should usually have 130k+. We want 120k going into Lorn, though 120.8k is nice for HHB x2 option to break encounters if needed, and usually after selling, we'll have about 126k or 136k (depending on if you did the Victor's Hollow rep restore), so there's usually a lot of leeway. If you somehow need backup money, you steal stuff around town to sell or just reload your autosave (or if you did the VH rep restore, you can save before doing the 3% steal).

Trigger Thief cutscene
Steal the thief's 55% Pom L
Steal his 3% and keep rep resetting as needed.

After getting 3% Steal, enter Lorn dungeon and go toward Darius
In second screen, get Pom L and exit and reenter

Go to Save Point before Darius for final menu as we take OFF Evasive Manuevers

Menu:
- Take off Evasive Maneuvers, put on Eye for an Eye
- Heal HP

Save before Darius (you typically have 6 Pom L and 1 Rev Jam or so for this fight, which is plenty with EI's item dupes.) This may vary depending on if you got optional resources such as Hollow Throne's 2 BP items, Alpha's Pom L, or EI dupes and such.

Darius (98,923 HP, weak to Spear/Dagger/Axe/Ice/Wind, 4 -> 6 -> 8 shields)

You can adapt to this fight but general gist is: deal about half health (47-54% Collect/Steal value though ideally closer to 47%), then do the AI Loop Glitch, which makes him do 1 attack per turn, making the battle free. To reach around half, you can break and do Vets x4 (+17% to the Steal/Collect) and then repeat break and Vets x4 (+17%). With Collect's 5% starting base, that's 5% + 17% + 17% or about 43% with all the extra dagger chip damage done. You can use stones or more Steal SP and such to bring him closer to 47%-54% to do the AI Loop from there. (Alternatively, breaking and doing Armor Corrosive Vets x3 is about 22.5%, then breaking and doing Vets x4 will also bring him pretty much right into 47%-54% range, but you can adjust based on the damage values.)

Here are relevant damage numbers of %'s to memorize (or write on a paper next to your run):
Note1: Darius starts at 5% base Collect, and it won't display above 100%, but he's KOed at 105% Collect.
Note2: Darius' halfway point is 55% Collect, and when he reaches this, he'll do or will be doing Sweep->PowerUp (it's this power up that we do the AI Loop Glitch for to avoid, since we don't want him at 3 actions per turn)
Unbroken Vets x4 is 8.5% ish
Unbroken Vets x3 is 7.5% ish
Unbroken Vets x2 is 6% ish
Unbroken Vets x1 is 5% ish
Vets x4 is about 17% Steal/Collect when broken
Vets x3 is about 15% Steal/Collect when broken
Vets x2 is about 12% Steal/Collect when broken
Vets x1 is about 10% Steal/Collect when broken
AC (Armor Corrosive) is just 1.5x the above numbers (ex AC broken Vets x4 is 25.5%), but you don't necessarily need to AC in first half (as you can just do two broken Vets x4 and then chip a bit from there, if preferred)
2700 non weakness L Stone is about 3% Steal/Collect
1100 non weakness M Stone is about 1% Steal/Collect (he never unlocks ice weakness; so Ice M always does 1100 too)
Reduce BP as needed to not overdamage him.

The start of this fight is pretty flexible, and you should try to adapt to the situation to try to be BP efficient. Standard start of battle is hoping for an Eye for an Eye hit from his one of his first two attacks on Therion.
(You can adapt the opening by using Sidestep x2/Sidestep x1 instead to stall for Eye for an Eye breaks or redo fight as needed.)

Example possible start:
T1: Defend/Sidestep
T2: Dagger x3 to break
T3: Rev Jam
T4: Sidestep x4
T5: Sidestep/Steal SP
T6: Sidestep x4/Vets x4 if broken/etc
T7: Pom L
T8: Sidestep x4
T9: Sidestep/Steal SP/Dagger(s)
T10+ Sidestep x4/Vets x4 if broken/etc and adapt more as fight goes on (read below)

Most of this fight depends on turn order and Eye for an Eye RNG, so it's not possible to make a full script. I will detail the general strategy. General idea is break and two full sets of Vets for 60k to bring him close to half HP (usually he'll be around 44% Steal/Collect), do the AI Loop with unbroken 30k Vets alongside dagger hits to break for the glitch (AI Loop needs him in range of 47%-54% with how we do it), then after getting the glitch, we follow up with breaking and Armor Corrosive'd Vets. Then collect, break once more, and do a final set of Vets.

You should aim to use Pom L/Rev Jam to get 5 BP as needed, and use Steal SP to replenish your SP while chipping his shields down. When you use either Pom L or Rev Jam, you will have 5 BP on your next turn. Pom M doesn't help nearly as much, but it can still be used to gain a bit more advantage of Sidesteps against him.

When you have 5 BP, it is more optimal to do:
- Sidesteps x4, Sidestep, Sidestep x4
rather than
- Sidestep x4, Sidestep x3
because the former is more BP efficient, letting you maximize your boosted actions and minimize turns lost to not gaining BP.
Note: These are examples of turns, and the Sidesteps above can be swapped for something else, like (Sidestep x4, Steal SP, Sidestep x4)

Build up a nice stack of Sidesteps (5+ Sidesteps, ideally closer to 9 Sidesteps while being efficient is better of course). Every few turns, Darius will LOCK your items. You need to break him to unlock them as reuse them again. This can be deadly if you have low Sidesteps, since you can't Pom for BP, so it's advised to break him soon after he locks items.

With the Inferno Amulet, all his fire attacks will do basically nothing to you, and for the bulk of the fight, you'll just be maintaining Sidesteps and doing chip damage to bring him close to half health. If you hover with Steal or Collect, it'll show a % of his health. It starts at 5%, and when it hits 55%, it means he's at half health. Note that, for example, when it hits 99%, it does NOT mean he's gonna be KOed with 1% more damage at 100%. He will be KOed at 105%, but the Steal/Collect doesn't display that high.

For our fight, you just need to know he will reach half health at 55% Collect/Steal, and we want to AVOID that. Doing two sets of broken vets damage on him will usually bring him to high 40%s but not quite there, which will give us some leeway for the AI Loop Glitch.

To do the AI Loop Glitch,
- bring him between 47%-54% Collect (ideally closer to 47% to have more time to pull off the glitch)
- chip him down to between 1 and 3 shields and tab away to Bow.
- maintain high ish BP on Therion (ideally 5 BP but 3-4 BP usually suffices)
- wait for one of two turn orders to do AI Loop

Turn Order 1 for AI Loop Glitch is where you go either:

Turn 1: Darius1 Therion1 Darius2 (NOTE: Darius1 action must NOT BE SWEEP; if he Sweeps, this DOES NOT WORK.)
Turn 2: Darius3 Therion2 Darius4

If this occurs and Darius 1 is NOT Sweep, you can do the glitch. Have Therion1 do Vets x4 (or some other boosted Vets to damage Darius to 55% or more Collect). Then Darius should do Sweep as his Darius3 action. Then Therion2 needs to TAB TO DAGGER and boost and break him.

ALTERNATIVE and preferred Turn Order 2 for AI Loop Glitch is where:

Turn 1: Darius1 Darius2 Therion1
Turn 2: Darius3 Therion2 Darius4

This one is more lenient because it doesn't matter what Darius1 or Darius2's actions are. Have Therion1 do Vets x4 (or some other boosted Vets to damage Darius to 55% or more Collect). Then Darius should do Sweep as his Darius3 action. Then Therion2 needs to TAB TO DAGGER and boost and break him.

If you are trying to glitch him and he locks your item, try to maintain high BP and hold out without breaking him, in case you get a turn order to do the AI Loop (getting the loop is an autowin, so you don't need poms or anything afterward). You can usually stall a few turns by just doing Sidestep x1 or possibly Sidestep x2 and waiting for one of the two turn orders above.

If he's close but not quite at 47%, such as at 43% or 44%, you will usually need to get chip damage on him, such as breaking and using boosted Steal SP or using any spare stones. When he's around 47%+, you can start watching for the AI Loop's turn order. If he's at 47%+ and you run low on Sidesteps, and he locks your items, you can actually just break him too (just don't do extra damage while he's broken, and he won't hit half health), then Pom up and Sidestep up, chip his shields back down to a low amount, and try again. (We aim for 47%+ early in case we need to do extra breaks to stall, as breaking him, letting him unbreak but not doing extra damaage, and then Pom'ing up and such doesn't usually add more than 1% or 2%, so he'll still be in the 47%-54% range. Hitting 55% means he'll be at half health, and you want to break asap to try to loop him if you go middle in the next turn, or it's just a reset and retry.)

Here are relevant damage numbers of %'s to memorize (or write on a paper next to your run):
Note1: Darius starts at 5% base Collect, and it won't display above 100%, but he's KOed at 105% Collect.
Note2: Darius' halfway point is 55% Collect, and when he reaches this, he'll do or will be doing Sweep->PowerUp (it's this power up that we do the AI Loop Glitch for to avoid, since we don't want him at 3 actions per turn)
Unbroken Vets x4 is 8.5% ish
Unbroken Vets x3 is 7.5% ish
Unbroken Vets x2 is 6% ish
Unbroken Vets x1 is 5% ish
Vets x4 is about 17% Steal/Collect when broken
Vets x3 is about 15% Steal/Collect when broken
Vets x2 is about 12% Steal/Collect when broken
Vets x1 is about 10% Steal/Collect when broken
AC (Armor Corrosive) is just 1.5x the above numbers (ex AC broken Vets x4 is 25.5%), but you don't necessarily need to AC in first half (as you can just do two broken Vets x4 and then chip a bit from there, if preferred)
2700 non weakness L Stone is about 3% Steal/Collect
1100 non weakness M Stone is about 1% Steal/Collect (he never unlocks ice weakness; so Ice M always does 1100 too)
Reduce BP as needed to not overdamage him.

This means that at 47% Collect, if you do Vets x4, he will go to 55.5% Collect and trigger his halfway action, for example. We do the AI Loop Glitch by breaking him just before his halfway power up action, which usually takes him to 3 actions per turn. (When he hits 55%, he does his halfway set actions of Sweep -> Power_Up_to_3_Actions, but if we break immediately before the Power_Up_to_3_Actions, then we can break his AI and cause him to loop Sweep over and over.)

After he's glitched, he'll keep using Sweep once per turn, so you can just use Sidestep x1 slowly and slowly build up BP or use spare Pom M/L as needed.

At that point, bring him to low shields, use AC x2 to set up Armor Corrosive ahead of time, and then break and do Vets x4 for a lot of damage. From there, Collect 30k from him, then break and do another Vets.

If needed, finish him with some dagger/Steal SP hits, but you can also take it more safe and set up more Sidesteps if desired.