FF3 with 0x EXP Boost: Clearing the Game with One Lv8 Character and Three Lv1 Characters

The story begins when a great earthquake sinks the crystal underground, and four orphans from the remote village of Ur enter the resulting cave on a dare. Right after falling into a pit, the first battle begins. Because this battle plays out automatically, the party automatically gains 12 experience points. At this point, the plan to "save the world with zero EXP" had already failed.

Saying "But their lives go on," the speaker continues playing with experience gain set to 0x via the boost feature. It is a challenge they themselves admit is "already a losing battle." The first boss, the Land Turtle, has 111 HP, and since the party can deal around 40 damage per turn, the speaker figured it would go down in about three turns and beat it with auto-battle. Afterward, the four receive a revelation at the crystal's altar and set out on their journey.

In a cave near a cursed village, the party meets Princess Sara and fights the Djinn, the source of the curse. The Djinn has 550 HP and is weak to ice. Having picked up four Antarctic Winds by this point, the speaker threw all of them at it to win, then sealed it in a ring and sank it in a sacred spring. The speaker jokes that weakening something before capturing it is "standard Pokémon strategy."

The road to the next town was blocked by a huge boulder that had rolled down in the earthquake. At Cid's suggestion, they ram the airship into it, smashing the boulder and clearing the way. Next, on a mountain, they are carried off by Bahamut and meet Desch, a man with amnesia. With no chance of beating Bahamut, they flee, obtain the white magic spell Mini, and add Desch to the party.

Progressing to the next event requires using Mini. But at level 1, characters have 0 MP and can't cast magic. Saying "It's over," the speaker changes course: they turned off the boost and gave experience only to the first character (called "1-boi" in the video), raising them to level 8, where they can use Mini. This is where the "Lv8, Lv1, Lv1, Lv1" lineup listed in the description was decided.

At the Nepto Temple, the party shrinks down to enter a small hole and fights the Giant Rat, which has 1,050 HP. Since physical attacks barely work while shrunk, they attack with magic. The first character, who has MP, used a Blizzard they had picked up, and the second used a Flame Staff. The Flame Staff is a weapon dropped by enemies, and the speaker says it's handy for level 1 characters. The rest was finished off with auto-battle, and with the gem returned to the temple, the dragon that had been rampaging in the strait calmed down.

The party climbs a mechanical tower. This continent is a floating continent kept aloft by the tower's power, and Desch remembers that he is a survivor of the Ancients who had been sleeping as the tower's watcher. Medusa (2,000 HP), the agent trying to destroy the tower, was defeated simply by continuously casting magic. Afterward, Desch throws himself into the flames to stop the runaway power reactor, and the whirlpool blocking the strait disappears.

In the Dwarven cave, the party defeats Guzco (2,800 HP), the thief who stole the treasure, by slashing at him with four Warriors. However, Guzco had followed them and makes off with the horns. He reappears as Salamander (4,000 HP), having absorbed the power of the Fire Crystal. Its fire attack that hits the whole party is extremely powerful, and the speaker explains that two of them would mean game over. Even so, they defeated it and gained new jobs from the Fire Crystal.

When the party visits a village to the south, they are suddenly beaten up and hauled off to the castle. Here, the sorcerer Hein has been controlling the soldiers and carrying out repeated raids. When fighting Hein after escaping from jail, the speaker used the Scholar obtained from the Fire Crystal. The Scholar has the trait of doubling item effects, so they say they won just by throwing the items they had picked up.

Defeating Hein yields the Time Gear, a relic of the Ancients. With this, they convert the Enterprise into a ship and leave the floating continent. In the outside world, half the continent is submerged under the sea, which the speaker calls "kind of desolate." On a wrecked ship, they meet Aria, the maiden of water, and head for the Water Temple. Against the Kraken that appears there, they again used the Scholar, hitting it with items such as Zeus's Wrath to defeat it.

Waking up at an inn, the party finds that the Water Crystal has regained its power and the sunken continent has been restored. Hearing that there is a crystal in a nearby castle, they visit it and fight Goldor (6,000 HP). Since the town sold axes, they used the Viking obtained from the Water Crystal and beat it in three turns of attacking. What they obtained was the Gold Crystal, but it shatters right away. The speaker brushes it off lightly as "a minor-looking crystal."

After recovering the airship, the speaker tries to enjoy the exhilaration of flying the airship, one of FF3's greatest pleasures. Instead, they flew right into the middle of Saronia, where a civil war is raging.

At the tavern, thugs were picking on Prince Alus, who had been banished from the castle. In the fight against the Gold Knight there, the speaker used the Knight and the Monk. The Knight's defining feature is protecting allies near death, and according to the speaker, this job also shines in later games. The speaker praises the Monk's party-wide attack as handy for scattering weak enemies without using MP.

In Saronia, the minister was controlling the king and trying to have the prince killed. But the king stabs himself with a knife to protect his son. Against Garuda, who reveals its true form, they used the new Dragoon job and won with auto-battle. The king dies, and Alus inherits the kingdom. The party receives a new airship that is much faster than the Enterprise.

According to Doga, a disciple of an ancient great archmage, his fellow disciple Xande is using the power of the crystals to cause earthquakes and shroud the world in darkness. From here, the story centers on stopping Xande with help from Unei, the other disciple. The speaker reflects that the four, who had "just been wandering around aimlessly," finally have a purpose for their journey.

The party goes to retrieve an item to break down the entrance to Xande's stronghold and fights Hecatoncheir. They used the Dark Knight, who can wield powerful katanas, and the speaker says that if you beat it before it uses Quake, you win.

Afterward, Doga and Unei challenge the party to a fight. They say that creating the key to break the seal requires the power born from this battle. The speaker is surprised: "That's a thing?" They used the Dark Knight against Doga (12,800 HP) as well. The speaker rates it as a job that can deal stable damage unless the enemy resists darkness. However, nearly every boss from here on resists all elements, so this is the last place the Dark Knight can be put to good use. "Let's enjoy it while it's still fresh," the speaker says. Since Doga only uses single-target attacks, reviving an ally every turn was enough to handle it.

The next fight, Unei (11,800 HP), has a wide range of actions, including Haste and Reflect. Because the party-wide Blizzard attack is troublesome, the speaker said they would "pray harder than usual" and won by repeatedly reviving. The two die, and the party receives the Eureka Key from Doga and the Syrcus Key from Unei.

At the Earth Crystal, the party fights Titan (20,000 HP). Since it resists all elements, jobs that use elemental weapons are poorly suited. So the speaker chose the Knight, which is non-elemental and easy to use. Moreover, since reviving every time someone got hit was a hassle, they deliberately petrified the third and fourth characters, using them as decoys against single-target attacks. They defeated it while staying wary of its party-wide Quake.

Scylla (25,000 HP) in Eureka also resists all elements, so they fought it with the Knight. Since it only uses single-target attacks, the speaker says any job might have worked. From around here, boss HP skyrockets, and more enemies can't be beaten by brute force alone, they say. After finishing the exploration of Eureka, the party can change to the Ninja, the strongest job.

Upon entering Xande's stronghold, the party falls into a trap, surrounded by evil dragons and unable to move. Doga's spirit appears, declares that only five hearts of light can break the evil dragons' curse, and goes to call for help. Princess Sara, Cid, Desch (who was alive), Alus (who inherited the throne), and the cheerful old men who had believed themselves to be the Warriors of Light appear one after another to save the four. In the fight against Xande, they attacked with the Ninja's shuriken and defeated him.

However, the Cloud of Darkness, summoned by Xande, appears. The being that emerged 1,000 years ago from a flood of light has now returned to the world through the flood of darkness Xande caused, it is said. The party falls once, but Doga and Unei share their souls with them and revive them. Just as the Warriors of Darkness held back the flood of light 1,000 years ago, now it is their turn to hold back the flood of darkness, the speaker says.

In the World of Darkness, the party first defeats four bosses. The Two-Headed Dragon (65,000 HP) only uses normal attacks, and the speaker calls it "an appetizer of a boss." They beat it with seven shuriken.

Cerberus (60,000 HP) uses magic attacks, so they used a Light Curtain to reflect magic once. A party-wide attack comes on the second turn, but you just need to beat it before then. For Echidna (70,000 HP), they likewise used a Light Curtain and won with the reflected damage and seven shuriken. Because the first character tends to act first thanks to their speed, the speaker explains that this strategy has favorable odds.

The most troublesome was Ahriman (75,000 HP). It always opens with Meteor, and beating it with shuriken before then is also difficult. There's no chance of winning without surviving Meteor. This is where the Viking came in. It has the trait of greatly reducing damage taken only when near death at 25% HP or less, and the level 8 first character used this to reduce Meteor to 1 damage. After that, it's just a matter of reviving the Ninjas and praying they throw their shuriken. They also used the Bard, but its explanation was saved for the final boss fight.

The final boss, the Cloud of Darkness, has 120,000 HP, making for a long fight. The keys are the Bard and the near-death first character. According to the speaker, the Bard's songs always activate first. By buffing the near-death first character with Pig or a Turtle Shell, even the Particle Beam can be reduced to 1 damage. Since Pig's effect is short, they used the Turtle Shell on the first character. After that, it's just a matter of reviving the Ninjas and praying they act first and throw their shuriken.

The problem is the turn when the Turtle Shell's effect wears off. Since it can't be reapplied until the effect ends, there is a brief moment of vulnerability. The speaker timed a revival of the Bard to this moment, using the song that acts first to protect the party and get through the Particle Beam. At that point, the first character had 4 HP left and would die as things stood. So they healed within the range that keeps the character near death. The near-death state applies at 32 HP or less, and the Bard's healing song restores just the right amount, they say. Having thus established a safe action pattern, they repeated it, whittling it down little by little, and defeated the Cloud of Darkness.

Finally, a narration about light, darkness, and people's hopes plays, followed by the ending. The speaker reflects that the game, with its grand scale spanning multiple worlds and its adventure using a variety of jobs, was full of fun from beginning to end. They then shared their thoughts on the experience of gaining experience for the first time only because the story required it, saying, "Growing up is surprisingly lonely, isn't it," and closed the video.