I advanced Vanille and Hope's Sentinel roles to just the first stage, granting them the ability Provoke and the ability to be in Sentinel roles; this was to serve for damage reduction from Wicked Whirl. I don't have a "cheap upgrades" restriction this time, although it should be noted no Dark Matters or Trapezohedrons were used.

Mission 64: Vercingetorix

Party: Vanille / Hope / Snow

Equipment/stats:
Vanille: 10445 HP, 1111 Str, 1468 Mag
Malboro Wand Lv. 15
Diamond Bangle *
Diamond Bangle *
Diamond Bangle *

Hope: 8625 HP, 922 Str, 1662 Mag
Skycutter Lv. 10
Diamond Bangle *
Diamond Bangle *
Diamond Bangle *

Snow: 12700 HP, 1257 Str, 972 Mag
Solaris Lv. 13
Diamond Bangle *
Diamond Bangle *
Diamond Bangle *

Paradigms: (Vanille / Hope / Snow)
Sab / Med / Sen -- Attrition (default)
Sab / Med / Sen -- Attrition
Med / Syn / Sen -- Protection
Med / Syn / Sen -- Protection
Med / Med / Sen -- Combat Clinic
Sen / Sen / Sen -- Tortoise

There are four stages to this battle, characterized by the number of wings Vercingetorix has:
Stage 1: 2 wings
Stage 2: 4 wings
Stage 3: 6 wings
Stage 4: 8 wings

For each stage, here are the attacks he will use:
Stage 1: Physical attack, Wind Shear
Stage 2: Physical attack, Wind Shear, Putrescence
Stage 3: Physical attack, Wind Shear, Putrescence, Wicked Whirl (once)
Stage 4: Physical attack, Wind Shear, (double) Putrescence, Wicked Whirl (twice)

Stage 1 is the initial stage. Stage 2 starts when Vercingetorix has roughly 90% HP. Stage 3 starts when Vercingetorix has roughly 60% HP. Stage 4 starts when Vercingetorix has roughly 30% HP. Each transition is marked by Impenetrable Aura (though he will use Impenetrable Aura in the middle of each stage to restore HP).

Basic strategy for each stage:

Stage 1: Manually cast Poisonx5 and repeat the command until Poison sticks. When it does, go to Protection and cast Cura/Curaja depending on HP. After Impenetrable Aura, focus on getting Poison inflicted before dispelling Bravery. You don't really need to worry about dying here, but you do need to worry about getting Poison inflicted quickly since he is very quick to retreat into Impenetrable Aura.

Stage 2: The same as stage 1, except he will be out longer before retreating to Impenetrable Aura.

Stage 3: Prioritize dispelling Bravery, Faith, and Protect before worrying about Poison. If Wicked Whirl is his first move out of Impenetrable Aura and he targets either Hope or Vanille, you're dead. (Thus, try to time paradigm shifts so that Snow provokes Vercingetorix before any actions.) Keep HP up before Wicked Whirl. When Wicked Whirl happens, shift to Tortoise to absorb all the blows; the affected characters should be left with yellow HP. (If you're lucky, Snow will have been distanced from Vanille and Hope and so they will take no damage!) After Wicked Whirl, you can focus on getting Poison inflicted if it isn't already before doing anything else. If anyone enters red, use Combat Clinic to heal more efficiently.

Stage 4: Dispel all four buffs, then get Poison inflicted quickly. When he uses his first Wicked Whirl, summon. Try to (re-)inflict Poison before going into gestalt. Stall for as long as you can by waiting until just before the current time unit expires before using Chain Cannons. If all goes well, Vercingetorix will die before gestalt finishes. Otherwise, you have to get lucky dealing with an aggressive Vercingetorix...

Target time: 25:43
Min 5-star battle duration: 17:23
Actual battle duration: 14:23
Score: 14080 (5 stars)

(I'm not fully sure I'm satisfied with this. Thoughts?)

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