Upon her finally joining your party, Red will immediately become tremendously useful. Her ability to passively gather more gold and loot through her Roguery skills is tremendously useful, and it’ll make your late game Alchemy life a great deal easier. In fact, she’s even the proud owner of one of the most reliable and highly damaging skills in the entire game; not bad for a character that looks like they’ve been directly copied from DQ7. We’re not about to call her the most malleable of characters, in fact her builds are similar to Morrie in that they’re restricted to two main options, but that doesn’t mean the following aren’t powerful in their own right.
Utility Red
- (Fans) – 100 Points
- (Roguery) – 52 Points
- (Fisticuffs) – 7 Points
You’re probably aware by now that we like to make a ‘utility’ type build for every character. In this, they’re designed to bring as much value to the party as possible, be it through defensive or offensive contributions. They’re also designed to be taken advantage of at the approximate level in which players approach the late game; we can’t expect everyone to grind like crazy, so it’s good to have options that everybody can understand. Much like her character however, Red isn’t too concerned with the party itself, but we can extract quite a few benefits with this particular build.
Damage is always going to be a big part of things here, and we’ve chosen to focus on Fans to focus this in the ‘all’ damage direction. By taking these all the way to 100, Red will unlock the Butterfly Bop skill, which is a Fan attack that deals 150-200% damage to all targets for a measly 5 MP, and it even reacts to Tension levels. This makes her the ideal candidate for mashing through late game random battles, and whilst she isn’t going to light up the world when it comes to single target damage, she can always rely on Dosh Toss from the Roguery tree at level 27, especially since we’ve taken her up to level 52 there, which unlocks Fortune Fleecer for 50-250% extra gold from battles. Both of these make her formidable in almost any battle, but she’s not exactly fantastic from a defensive perspective, so it’s worth grabbing Defending Champion from the Fisticuffs tree for that massive 90% damage reduction, which will come in very handy for those completing the post game.
Build Features
- Focusing on Fans, this build will grant tremendous damage to the entire enemy party, making it great for grinding through dungeons or farming for gold and loot.
- Speaking of gold and loot, taking 52 points in Roguery will ensure that more gold is gained, and Red has the base level of thievery going on.
- These points in Roguery will also grant her Dosh Toss, which has the potential to deal approx. 500 damage per throw, should you choose the maximum throw of 2500g.
- Here, and indeed in all of her builds, 7 points should be taken in Fisticuffs. This grants Defending Champion, which reduces the damage taken by an incredible 90%, which is invaluable when facing late game challenges.
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Thief Red
- (Roguery) – 81 Points
- (Whips) – 55 Points
- (Fisticuffs) – 7 Points
On balance, we have to be honest and say that this is by far our favourite Red build. The ultimate build, which is detailed below, does also contain all of the benefits, but for the time period in which Red joins the team we consider this ideal. It has enough points to get the full benefits of her resource gathering in the Roguery section, and gives her a few options for dealing enough damage not to be completely irrelevant.
The two main benefits here are that Red will access both gold gathering skills, and both thieving skills in the Roguery tree. This means that every battle has the possibility of providing you with a great deal of spoils, and goes a little way to make up for the absolutely atrocious drop rate in Dragon Quest 8. Technically speaking, gathering money and using Dosh Toss will allow you to deal great damage, however we’ve also opted for 55 points in whips, which unlocks both Twin Dragon Lash and Lashings of Lashings, which are powerful single and multi target attacks, both of which combine well with some great late game whip models. Per our first build, it’s possible to choose Fans for the huge group damage, but the 100 point requirement, combined with the 81 in Roguery, does make it very expensive and will require some significant levelling of Red.
Build Features
- This build is focused on unlocking all of Red’s Roguery abilities, which will see her gather high amounts of gold from every battle, and give her a good chance of getting items in each too. This offsets the awful drop rates in DQ8 quite nicely, bringing them up to a relatively normal level.
- Whips will grant Red a great single target damage skill in the form of Twin Dragon Lash, whilst also giving her a group option through Lashings of Lashings. Unfortunately these do not target ‘all’ enemies like Fans, but they’re still very powerful when combined with good whip models in the late game.
- Alternate damage options aside, this will gather the most gold and as such, will make it easier to abuse the power of Dosh Toss.
- The 7 points in Fisticuffs is retained, because that 90% damage reduction is just too good in the late and post game.
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Ultimate Red Build
- (Fans) – 100 Points
- (Roguery) – 81 Points
- (Whips) – 68 Points
- (Fisticuffs) – 7 Points
As per usual around these parts, when an ‘Ultimate’ build mainly consists of the other two smushed together, we’ll detail exactly why we haven’t chosen any of their other options. In the case of Red, we’ve already identified that Fans, Whips and Roguery are all excellent choices. These provide all types of damage and along with a small investment into Fisticuffs, enough utility and defence to see her cope with any circumstance. The question then, is why we don’t bother with either Knives or any additional points in Fisticuffs?
Firstly, Knives are just… Meh. Sure, Red will gain access to Swords which does mean that some of the best weapons become available to her, but she can’t really do much with them. Other than this, relying upon infliction rates and instant death is a fool’s errand. Sure you could potentially farm some Metal Slimes, but there are much better options out there for doing this, and you’re missing out on the power available in either Whips or Fans by investing there. Fisticuffs are a similar story; there are better, earlier options available for a Thin Air user, and these really do not approach the power of the ultimate Fan ability, or the utility provided by lesser investment into Whips.
Build Features
- Red’s Ultimate build essentially just wraps her two main options into one, avoiding the superfluous Fisticuffs and weak Knives.
- Fans will provide her with the fantastic all targeting skill, Butterfly Bop, which makes defeating entire enemy parties quick and easy.
- Whips will provide a better single target option through Twin Dragon Lash, and access to some great late game pons.
- Dosh Toss, combined with the gold gathering Roguery skills, will mean Red can deal huge damage regardless of her equipment. Plus, she will also access both of the thief skills, which will help the team gather loot for those awkward late game Alchemy recipes.
- 7 points in Fisticuffs is as essential as ever, and gives Red access to Defending Champion, which reduces incoming damage by a whopping 90%.
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Categories: Dragon Quest VIII