Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance: Solo/Low Level/Hard

This is my blind challenge run of SMT Vengeance doing the Creation route (Vengeance route may be done if enough people want it or I am in the mood to do another we'll see the latter part of this run burnt me out so much and I still have my Persona 2 Challenge run that got stopped because of this game dropping). Death Count: 893 Save File Hours: 432 Actual Hours: Lol Rules: 1. All Battles must be fought Solo. 2. Can't use Demons for any benefit such as Items by level up/Demon Haunt. 3. Essences/Fixed Balms/Aogami Talks are allowed but no abusing. 4. Random Encounters ARE allowed but must be kept to an absolute minimum, only to be used with a purpose such as abscesses or gaining an essence, not to just get raw exp (Shiva has a level requirement I need to meet anyway). 5. Mitama DLC is banned. 6. Fiends must be beaten (Extra challenge). 7. True Ending Must be achieved. 8. No NG+ Allowed. 9. Hard Difficulty. I'm going to try something different and time stamp each fight here then use a pinned comment to explain strategies for the fights themselves and anything else needed. Something to note is I actually cut out most of the abscess fights I did as they were really easy and the footage totalled over 12 hours so I scrapped some to make it condensed a bit more, so sometimes I jump up a level or 2 between a fight that will be either a main quest giving me exp or an off screen abscess being beaten. An exception to the rule is Shiva since I must level up in order to access his battle and for Transcendent Lucifer since he has been heavily buffed from the original game and is physically not possible Solo now without balms in the True Ending of the Creation route I allowed the use of demons for balm farming just for his fight, don't like it? fight me lol. This was a blind run not having played the original and knowing nothing of the game itself so I was learning as I went along but I chose to run magic for most of the game and knowing how weak I would be I opted to choose a 70/30 stat spread between Vitality/Magic eventually growing more to 60/40 then 50/50 as the run progressed depending on how much I could tank. Since I did not want to fight random encounters my source of Macca would come from Relic farming, Search spots and Chest loot then selling what I didn't need while trying to get useful items grabbing as many as I could of the infinitely obtainable ones and savouring anything that was limited which may be needed in fights where I was in a tight spot. I avoided most abscesses till Shiva except mainly the ones with Masteries of Elements and the ones giving me access to more slots for Nahobino and more selection of the Essence Skills and only really did a quest if it gave me a rare item that would help with a fight or a balm or was a requirement for the true ending. I had to be very careful in what Essences I'd use as some were only available once. Some were re-obtainable via save scumming a fight once till it dropped again but ones I got the most use out of such as Horus Essence were mostly bought from shops or found in the chests. The basis for most fights was have the element they are weak to in order to generate a 1/2 press turn for myself, have a debuff/buff which became Inflaming Divinity for most of the game, have a heal skill or substitute with healing items usually worked instead then throw in a ton of passives I could obtain to boost my survivability with resists, boon boosts, restores to keep sustainable and then find a good Essence to equip to combat said encounter. Some fights look simple but took a ton of farming and prep work to become that simple and some had a ton of rng that I had to brute force through in order to win without levelling more. As always feel free to ask any questions about a fight in particular or anything you're confused about in the comments and I'll do my best to answer it! Just in case there was something that didn't get mentioned or I overlooked something important but I'll try to make sure anything worth noting has been! Timestamps for fights (Strategies in pinned): Tutorial - 0:00 Hydra - 4:23 Eligor - 22:52 Nuwa - 32:04 Lamia + Anzus and Lahmu - 44:33 Matador - 51:57 Loup Garou - 1:05:31 Fionn - 1:18:28 Daisoujou - 1:31:09 Hell Biker - 1:50:14 Lahmu Rematch - 2:01:49 Yakumo - 2:30:13 Surt - 2:48:56 Horus - 3:03:36 Ishtar - 3:09:54 Chernobog - 3:22:20 Arioch - 3:32:25 Abdiel - 3:44:54 Amanozako - 3:56:32 Yatagarasu Abscess - 4:08:17 White Rider - 4:16:37 Red Rider - 4:20:48 Black Rider - 4:26:53 Pale Rider - 4:29:53 Seth - 4:34:43 Khonsu - 4:45:16 Fionn Rematch - 4:52:00 Asura + Mithras - 5:01:07 Amon - 5:10:14 Zeus - 5:21:16 Mother Harlot - 5:37:28 Vasuki - 5:43:28 Odin - 5:55:43 Zaou Gongen - 6:06:58 Khonsu Ra - 6:17:49 Trumpeter - 6:29:47 Metatron - 6:35:07 Angel Heralds - 6:42:49 Shiva Superboss - 6:47:47 Nahobino Abdiel - 7:25:28 Nahobino Tsukuyomi - 7:34:30 Transcendent Lucifer - 7:52:22 Thanks for watching! ♡