How do I beat mission 22?

Questions like this type are difficult to answer without a knowledge of how you play, your character capability levels and your inventory of weapons and accessories.

This Mission will be an encounter with an Ambling Bellows flanked by two Hoplite.

Before beginning the struggle, check the opponent Datalog entries.

Complete entries from prior battles they show (a) The Ambling Bellows has a status immunity against Poison and weaknesses against Lightning, Ice and Earthquake magics and (b) The Hoplite is the same weaknesses except for Ice magic. If your Datalog entries information are incomplete, use Libra in the battle so that the automatic battle management system can make the optimum choices for action.

Notes say that the Ambling Bellows can call allies and will deliver devestating physical attacks. They say that it is susceptable to Deshell and Pain . For the Hoplite, observations are that it susceptable to Daze and vulnerable to Lightening magic.

If special mention of a fact is made in the notes in the Datalog, particularally significant strengths and weaknesses of the fiend are being mentioned.

So, defense against physical attacks and offense based on a lightning magical attack (and ice in the case of the Ambling Bellows) is advised.

Defensive accessories can be used to protect against physical attack (for example, Black Belts, if you have them) as a Level 1 item or they can be upgraded if the defense needs to be increased.

Offensive Shaman, Magician and Sorceror Accessories can be equipped to increase the strength of your magic attacks. If you have 'magic strike" capabilities, the Power Wristband, Brawler's Wristband and Warrior's Wristband accessories can also be useful here. Consider them for use in this battle.

For any battle, always try to generate a pre emptive attack. In this battle it will be possible to get a premptive start by teasing the two Hoplite to come toward you and then running away. Watch their actions and that of the Ambling Bellows until you see a pattern wherein you can accost one of the Hoplite from the back or from the side as it turns away from your position while outside the field of view of the Ambling Bellows as you charge in (If you try and miss, press [Start] followed by [Select] to be able to try again immediately with no penalty).

Assuming the battle starts with a pre emptive strike, the first priority is the Ambling Bellows. Attack it full out using something like a COM/RAV/RAV Paradigm. As it finishes the initial strike, switch to a second attack paradigm. This could be something like RAV/RAV/RAV or RAV/COM/RAV. The switch will enable another fully-charged up attack to occur with minimum delay (The paradigm switching time is less than the recharge time for the first attack). Keep pounding away on the Ambling Bellows until it goes down or until you need some healing.

To heal a MED/SEN/MED paradigm or a MED/MED/MED paradigm my be useful. After healing you may wish to cast Haste and Protect on you team by using the Synergist capabilities and/or to cast Slow and DeShell on the opposition by using the Sabatour capabilities. If your team is well healed and strong enough, SYN/SYN/SYN and SAB/SAB/SAB can be applied to produce good results rather quickly.

If the Ambling Bellows still lives, attack him full force again until he goes down. After that take on the Hoplite one at a time. After the Ambling Bellows is gone they are rather easy to eliminate.

After you have fought a few battles with these type of foes, helpful conclusions can be drawn. One thing is that if you attack and kill Hoplite first, it gets you nowhere. The Ambling Bellows will replace the about as fast as you eliminate them. A way of accumulating more CP but not a short way to end the battle. A second thing is that striking one of these mechanical beings with an ordinary (non magic strike equipped) weapon does very little damage. So, don't bother.

That is it. These ideas should help you to decide how to try to win the battle of interest.