SMT IV - Uriel and Raphael (Low Level, Master Difficulty, No Fusion)

Challenge run rules broken:
None.

Uriel and Raphael are definitely the easiest of the DLC bosses, but together they're still tougher than almost all of the bosses in the main game. They must be fought in succession and Raphael has a good deal of tricks up his sleeve to make the battle difficult.

Uriel: This is very easy for a DLC boss, partially since he only really has a few moves that he uses. His exclusive elemental attack is Lightning of God, which pierces resistances, nulls, and drains. However, a single demon that repels electric will still end his turn. His other attack is Kannuki Throw, which is a bit of an odd one because it's a multi-target physical attack can hit anywhere between 1 and 15 times. He can get lucky with it and kill a demon or two, but it's much less of a problem if at least one member of the team nulls or repels physical; in this battle, Flynn is wearing the Nibelengun armor to deal with that. His only other move here is Tarukaja, but that's really nothing to worry about with two Fang Breaker users that don't often miss with buffs applied. I believe he also has Tetracoerce, which removes Tetrakarn, but he still can't get past an innate repel physical or Nibelengun. I would assume that he also has Dekaja/Dekunda/Silent Prayer, but he won't use them if you don't go past +2/-2 and that many buffs aren’t really that necessary to survive anyway. In all, this is pretty straightforward for a DLC boss.

Raphael: Right after finishing off Uriel, you’re immediately thrown into a new battle with no time to heal up, so it's a good thing that Uriel is easy. Raphael has more than a few gimmicks, and some luck is definitely required to beat him without access to fusion. Tornado of God is his elemental move, so a repel force demon is required to counter that (it's fortunate that Mishaguji has Acid Breath and Fuu-Ki has Fog Breath so they're still useful beyond their innate resistances). Stigmata Strike is a physical move that has a 250% of branding an opponent, which means they cannot heal until it wears off. 250% only really matters if you use it against a boss, I think; the important thing is that it will always cause brand status if it hits Flynn's team. Serpent of Sheol is another nasty move; it drains a decent amount of HP from the entire team and a ton of MP as well, so Great Chakras are necessary to keep the demons useful. He also uses Rakukaja a lot and has Dekaja and Dekunda. Unlike Uriel, he seems to use these whenever he wants to rather than when specific thresholds are crossed, which makes him much more difficult to deal with.

Even with the aforementioned skills, what really makes Raphael a pain is Diarahan. He has 7404 HP, which is quite a lot considering that his use of Rakukaja and Dekaja. I'm not quite sure if Raphael uses Diarahan at specific intervals or what, but Flynn's damage output is low enough that the best bet at winning is to hope to use the brand status against him so Diarahan will only heal him for 1 HP. I brought in Girimekhala with the hope that he would use Stigmata Strike on either him or Flynn, which would then reflect and brand Raphael. I was very fortunate that he was branded both times he used Diarahan, and this was only my first attempt. I'm not really sure how often that happens, so it might be better to use Tetrakarn, although he might stop using physical attacks if Tetrakarn is up. I also probably should have had the High Fire Pleroma accessory on Flynn, but I think that I may have had a different accessory equipped. I probably could have defeated him before he used Diarahan a second time if Flynn were wearing it.

As a side note, I am also doing each DLC battle on a separate save file to conserve healing items that might otherwise be difficult to find, specifically Bead Chains, Great Chakras, Bead of Lifes, and Summon Stones. I probably could replenish them by doing some quests and scouring the three Tokyos for treasure, but that's too much of a pain.