Yan - Powerful Monster

[thien_tai_xxx]

This is Yan chalenge FAQ, this may help you defeat FF IX 's Powerful Monster
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1 - About the Enemy
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Finding the Island
------------------
There's only one place to challenge the Yans. Vile Island is to the
South-West of the Iifa Tree. To make things more annoying there's
only two ways to get on it - both of them by air.

The easier of the two methods is to play the game until you get
control of Garland's/Kuja's Airship the Invincible. You gain
command of this airship at the start of disc four.

The second way is a Flying Chocobo. Play Chocobo Hot and Cold,
collect and dig up enough chocographs for Choco to evolve into a
golden chocobo. You won't be able to collect enough Chocograph
Pieces for Choco the evolve until you have control of Regent
Cid's airship The Hilda Garde 3.

You'd be mistaken for thinking you can land the Hilda Garde 3 here.
The Hilda Garde can only land on grassy areas which Vile Island does
not have.

Island Treasures
----------------
I'm not covering this in detail since this is mainly side quest
stuff and other FAQ's such as Yee Seng Fu's Side Quest FAQ cover
these in depth.

If you've gotten a gold chocobo you'll be able to find Chocograph
number 23 (Fairy Island) here.
This treasure chest contains: 33 x Potions
15 x Annoyntment
1 x Holy Mitre
1 x Dark Matter Card

In the forest on Vile Island you'll encounter a special kind of Yan.
He'll ask you if you've met his friends before running away. If
you've met his eight friends around the world and met their demands
the special Yan will stop running away and ask for a Diamond. If
you give him this he will give you 50 AP and a Rosetta Ring for
your troubles.

Meet Your Foe
-------------
Below is information about the Yan
Level: 72 EXP: 42,672
HP: 19,465 AP: 2
MP: 3,378 Gil: 4,436

Status Immunities: Berserk, Silence

Attacks: Comet, Virus Powder, Float, Aera, Snort
Weak Against: Shadow
Items Stolen: Ore, Elixer
Items Won: Hi-Potion, Phoenix Down
Blue Magic Learned: Auto-Life

What makes it so tough?
-----------------------
First of all his attacks. Although it rarely uses Aera magic all
other moves are quite common. He pummels you with Comet almost
every turn usually causing heavy damage to a single team member.
(Usually anywhere between 1000 and the full 9999 damage). When he's
not using Comet he'll probably be using Virus Powder, which damages
for about 2000HP and inflicts the Virus status (In my opinion this
is a helper. I'll discuss this later). In addition to doing big
attacks he has high speed. Sometimes he can do two or three
attacks in a row.

But what makes him toughest by far is his counter-attack. Unless
the attacked Yan is under the influence of sleep status ANY
attack on him whatsoever (even if it misses) will immediately
follow with his Float magic or the dangerous Snort attack. This
counter will literally Snort the attacker out of the battle. The
character snorted will not gain any battle EXP/AP similar to the
Virus status. Losing any member from battle is bad because it
leaves the remaining fighters to take up all the damaging attacks
dished out by the Yans.

What makes it worth it?
-----------------------
Why put yourself in this sort of punishment?
ANSWER: EXP and Elixers.

A single Yan doesn't offer the most EXP per defeat (The Chimera
offers more). But unlike Chimera's which only appear singley, Yans
can appear in groups of twos and threes as well.
SO that's 3 x 42,672 = 128,016 EXP!!!
And that's without the Level Up Ability on!
This amount of EXP makes it easy to level up to the maximum Lv99.

Also, the only other way to get Elixers other than treasure chests
and winning them from bosses is to steal elixers off the Yans.

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2 - Ability Strategies
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Overall Suggestions
-------------------
By the time you have reached Vile Island you should have learned at
least half of all your abilities and be around about level 50 (If
not, you better if you want to stand a chance against them.)

Since no-one has unlimited magic stones for equipping you have to
ration out abilites. Remember, choosing abilities is totally up to
you and the following are only sugguestions. The following
abilities are highly recommended.

*Auto-Life
*Auto-Regen
*Auto-Potion
*HP +10%/HP +20%
*Gamble Defence

These three are recommended but not nescessary.

*Auto-Haste
*Antibody (I know this Guards against Poison/Venom but I also
believe this reduces chances of the Virus status but I
don't know for sure.)
*Insomniac (See Quinas Battle Strategy to see why)

Individual Character Sugguestions
=================================
Since everyone has a slightly different variety in abilities here's
some sugguestions for individual character abilites.

Zidane Tribal
-------------
Mug, Bandit, Master Thief, Counter, Eye 4 Eye, Protect Girls,
High Tide.

Princess Garnet/Dagger
----------------------
Half MP, Boost, Concentrate, Chemist.

Vivi Ornitier
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Half MP, Return Magic

Adelbert Steiner
----------------
Chemist, Cover, Counter, Eye 4 Eye, Alert.

Eiko Carol
----------
Half MP, Boost, Concentrate, Guardian Mog.

Freya Crescent
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High Jump, Initiative, Restore HP, High Tide, Chemist.

Quina Quen
----------
Half MP, Millionaire, Absorb MP, Counter

Amarant Coral
-------------
Return Magic, Counter, Cover, Eye 4 Eye, Restore HP, Power Up.

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3 - Battle Strategies
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Battle Overview
---------------
If you're around the Lv50 mentioned earlier each character should
have at least 2500HP or more. This should be enough to survive
Virus Powder. Damage caused by Comet seems very random (usually
1000+ damage). Cross your fingers and be prepared to heal.

Yans have the advantage if ANY team member is KO'ed. Revived
characters have low HP they will die again if the Yan decides to
attack them. Don't wait for Auto-Regen to heal them, have someone
heal characters who are critically injured as soon as possible.

If you're manually healing your party avoid using Potions unless
the character has the Chemist ability. Healing 150HP is nice but
it just doesn't hack it against two attacks of about 1000-3000HP
each. Use healing magics or Hi-Potions to restore HP.

When battling Yans, concentrate on a single Yan. Attacking all
three at once results in three seperate counter-attacks. A real
time-waster.

Don't bother trying to drain the Yan's MP. He has too much and even
if he did run out of MP he still has Snort and Virus Powder.

Instant death attacks are very handy in these battles. But be aware
that if you miss, (which is quite often for death attacks) there's
a fair chance that you'll be snorted away.

If you're going to use special attacks go for maximum damage. Two
hits of 9999 will kill him.

Above all be prepared to lose at least one character from the
battle. By dying or removal from battle it doesn't matter.

Individual Character Strategies
===============================
Each character has their own set of commands and so also need their
own set of strategies. Below are tips for fighting the Yans for
each individual character.

Zidane Tribal
-------------
The hero of the game will be in every single battle with the Yans
(Since you cannot switch the leader). This is a bit of a downer
since Zidane's range of attacks are a bit poor.

If you plan to use Zidane to steal items from the Yans have the
Mug ability equipped - If you're going to be thrown out of battle
for stealing might as well hurt him some.

If you plan to use him as an attacker power up Zidane's Thievery
attack by using the Steal command lots (Each successful steal
increases thievery damage by 14~15HP). After stealing hundreds of
times Thievery will eventually reach the full 9999HP damage.