Blame

The premise

What is the most agonizing run devised in the depths of the interdimensional rift, and sealed in the void alongside many evil spirits? It is known as Quadzerk, or #blame. After registering with #blame you will be assigned four Berserkers. There is no relief from Berserker, it is your one and only job for all characters through the entire run. The mind numbing tedium of this run is what is truly feared, as in some version the player will need to hit the level cap to stand a chance of muscling past NED.

World 1

Note: the levels here are suggested minimums based on a playthrough of the PR. Due to the random nature of axe damage calculation and targeting in certain versions, you may wish to exceed these levels if you're struggling.

Liquid Flame (Lv. 17)

Grinding the Wild Nakks outside of Karnak is a good way to prepare for this as well as acquire money for equipment.

Byblos (Lv.24)

Remember that Lvl 5 Death is a threat in the Library if you go through at 25, but otherwise you should be able to power through Drain counters.

Sandworm (Lv.30)

Sandworm is one of the most random and version specific bosses in this run. You can beat him as low as level 30 if RNG works favorably, but it may be desirable to level up as high as 40 if you're struggling. Make sure to get everyone a Death Sickle and use them for this fight. The Mobile and old PC versions will be significantly easier, as Sandworm is considered to be in the front row and will thus take more damage and the Zerks always target the front hole.

Soul Cannon (Lv.30)

All of Soul Cannon's attacks deal percentage based damage, so you should remove all armor pieces in order to minimize equip weight and maximize speed. You cannot survive a second Wave Cannon, so the extra speed makes a huge difference.

Purobolos (Lv.31)

This boss can be difficult. The Mage Masher can silence them, but only for a short time. Your best bet is to use the Death Sickles as the instant death proc will quickly deplete their MP from using Arise, until eventually they run out and can no longer revive.

World 2

Barrier Tower

Make sure to pick up a set of Reflect Rings from the Reflect Knights. The 6th floor has the highest encounter rate for this enemy, so search there for them. This is one of the only defenses you have versus magic attacks in this run, so you will definitely want access to them for many fights going forward.

Atomos (Lv.35)

Nothing terribly special about this fight, you should be able to axe him up good.

Crystals (Lv.35)

The Crystals suffer from a weakness to instant death attacks, so the Death Sickles will take care of them with ease.

Exdeath - Castle (Lv.36)

Equipping the Reflect Rings will help you immensely in this battle. Exdeath has a tendency to cast Reverse Polarity, which can mess up your damage output and cause you to lose the race, so if you're getting unlucky with that, you can try pre-changing your party's formation anticipating he'll fix it for you.

World 3

Pyramid

Depending on your version, you have a few tasks here.

SNES/PSX: Don't bother getting the Chicken Knife, as the game will softlock from the random Flee proc of the knife. However, you DO want to get the Thornlet and Gaia Hammer from the Pyramid so you can exploit the Magic Underflow glitch that's only present in this version.

Other versions: It's time to go get the Chicken Knife from Moore. If you are on the PR, you can use the bug in this version to get 2 Chicken Knives which will help immensely. The Thornlet and Gaia Hammer are not needed for these versions.

Phantom Village

You'll need to get your Black Chocobo from the Phantom Village to access the desert area for grinding, and while there, grab the Thief Knife and pick up a set of Hermes Sandals as soon as you're able.

SNES/PSX: Buy 3 more Gaia's Hammers for future use with the Magic Underflow glitch. At this point, you'll need to steal some Thornlets from the Lamia Queen using the Thief Knife. You have 1 from the Pyramid and you'll want to steal at least 2 more. The Thornlet is a rare steal, and your best place to find them is in the Pyramid on the 1st floor as it makes up 70% of the formations there. Whether or not you want to steal a third Thornlet is going to depend on your patience; because Lenna's magic stat is naturally higher than everyone else's, she requires both the Thornlet and the Titan's Gloves (a rare steal from Azulmagia) to take advantage of Magic Underflow.

Omniscient (Lv.39)

While totally an optional fight, this is one of the greatest challenges in the Quad Zerker run. Omniscient counters all physical attacks using Return, which resets the battle. With an improperly geared party, this can result in an infinite loop since every attack from your characters will trigger this counter. That said, he CAN be defeated. Omniscient can only harm you with magic attacks, so equipping the Reflect Rings instantly negates any and all possible offense from the mage. The secret to defeating him lies in the Mage Masher weapon. The Mage Masher has a 33% chance to cast Silence, and Silence will prevent Omniscient from casting Return, thus allowing a window for damage to be dealt to him.

A single Berserker is sufficient to climb the other tower, so you should bring 3 Zerks here. One of them needs to equip a Mage Masher. If you're on PR, you have access to 2 Chicken Knives if you used the bug, otherwise, use whatever your two strongest weapons are (in this scenario, you may need more levels to make up for the difference in damage depending on version). Since this is yet another battle where speed matters and defense is irrelevant due to the Reflect Rings, take off all the helms, shields, and body armors, but leave the rings equipped. At level 39, a fully powered up Chicken Knife should deal around 2,000 damage. The ideal sequence you need is as follows:

Battle Sequence‎
R1-1: Mage Masher user attacks, inflicts Silence‎
R1-2: Other 2 attack
R2: All 3 get an attack in
R3-1: Mage Masher user attacks, inflicts Silence
R3-2: Other 2 attack
R4: All 3 get an attack in

Essentially, you need a sequence that lines up such that your Mage Masher user attacks first and triggers the 33% chance of Silence, and then manages to trigger the 33% chance of Silence at the beginning of the third round of attacks. Each casting of Silence should give your main damage dealers time for 2 attacks before it wears off. As the initial ATB order can vary slightly each time the battle restarts, and there's an element of chance on the Silence procs, it may take a few hours of auto-battling, but eventually you should be able to hit this sequence of attacks which will do enough damage to kill Omniscient.

Defeating Omniscient unlocks access to Istory Falls, which while not necessary to the run, does grant you a second Aegis Shield and the Titan Axe, both very useful rewards for your patience.

Preparing for the Rift - Bahamut's Desert

If you've been putting off grinding, it's time to start. The battles from here on out will be tougher and this is one of the best places to level up, so you should aim to get each party member to at least level 50. This isn't too bad to do, and because you're grinding on the world map, it's easy to heal with Tents. If you stick to the northern part of the desert, you can avoid the Landcrawler enemy and its annoying Maelstrom attack.