Braska's Final Aeon NSGNSNO Delay Lock strategy - Final Fantasy X

What is Delay Lock? It's building up and then endlessly maintaining Delay on both Yu Pagodas. This can be done because Silver Hourglasses increase turn delay proportionally, adding 50% if they successfully inflict Slow. However, to repeatedly inflict Slow with them, we also need to be curing the Slow status using Remedies; curing Slow status does not reduce delay, so with the right setup we can juuuuust manage to get a loop going that keeps the Pagodas trapped. The maximum amount of delay they can have is capped to 255 ticks, so we do still need to periodically throw more Silver Hourglasses to maintain it, but even just throwing it at 170 ticks of delay is enough to stabilize it back up completely - that's 85 ticks of turn delay, which is just a little under 5 turns of Braska's Final Aeon (he takes turns in 18 tick intervals).

Why do we want to Delay Lock in the first place? Because this allows us to actually tank and stay in the fight extremely long during the deadly second phase. No Pagoda turns means no Power Wave, and no Power Wave means they cannot build his overdrive or remove Zombie, Poison, or most importantly, Power Break, from the boss. Then, by using Stoneproof, HP boosts and Auto-Potion, we can make an entire party of characters capable of living through sword swipes. Best of all, we can set up the Delay Lock in the first phase during which there are no full party attacks at all, so we can't die. Meaning we have a long time and a ton of chances to set this up.

Now in order for Delay Lock to be successful, you really need some luck, of course. You need to slot yourself in as close after the Pagoda's turn as possible, then Rikku needs to be out for at least 3 BFA turns in a row and if she gets hit, the Delay Lock will dissipate before it can stabilize. Likewise, you REALLY want BFA to be using Jecht Beam here, or at least to be hyperfocusing one character, because you need turns with your other characters as well to be throwing Remedies inbetween each Silver Hourglass and if they get delayed too much, you lose precious ticks. Still, especially when both Pagodas are still up, you can be very daring. There's not much yet to lose after all.

The start of this fight went absolutely beautifully with Rikku not getting hit for quite a long time and then setting up the first Delay Lock extremely early due to luck, but then I went way too lax and let its delay run back out - I still would've had to throw at least 4 more Hourglasses when I stopped to actually cap delay. After setting it back up I struggled heavily to stunlock the second Pagoda both through bad plays and bad luck, wasting eons of time. Though at times I also had very good luck as I made some mistakes that could have been punished very heavily, but weren't. And then that second phase happened... oh BFA, why must you be such a Big Fucking Asshole sometimes.

Still, messy though this fight was, it still shows some level of resilience in this strategy. BFA can choose to sword swipe you 4 or 5 times in a row and you're still just fine. That being said, in another (failed) attempt he literally spammed sword swipes even harder (yes, in the first half of Phase 2 of course, 40% chance to use it be damned), and the pagodas' delay did in fact run out.

Weapons:
- Everyone has Alchemy / Zombiestrike / Sensor / First Strike, or parts of it.

Armor:
- Tidus/Yuna: Stoneproof, Auto-Potion, HP +30%, Defense +20%
- Wakka/Kimahri: Stoneproof, Auto-Potion, HP +30%, Auto-Phoenix
- Auron: Stoneproof, Auto-Potion, Auto-Protect, Auto-Phoenix
- Rikku (initial): Stoneproof, Auto-Haste, HP +30%, Auto-Phoenix
- Rikku (after Delay Lock): Stoneproof, Auto-Potion, HP +30%, HP +20%

00:00 - Initial Setup (get people into Haste, Protect, double HP)
12:21 - Planning and executing Delay Lock on Pagoda A
22:00 - Delay on Pagoda A runs out
25:00 - Setting Delay Lock back up on Pagoda A
31:29 - Start of numerous failed attempts at Delay Locking Pagoda B
1:03:51 - Planning and executing the successful Delay Lock on Pagoda B
1:07:22 - Power Break on
1:24:39 - Phase 2 Begin
1:36:42 - Final Phase Begin
1:42:47 - Killing Blow