Crestfallen Studios

So I went down to the pits.
And I headed into the reaches.
I tangled with the red-skinned demon fellow without too much difficulty.

And THEN.
Oh, THEN.
I met GHARON.
I've been trying to kill the bastard for the past two hours.
I lost count of how many times I've died, but it's certainly more than a baker's dozen.

Can someone -please- offer me a viable strategy on beating this guy?
I was originally of the impression that my stats were pretty downright good.
I have yet to actually -miss- an item throughout all six episodes, according the guides.
Yet here I am, getting repeatedly bitchslapped in the face.
My Trascendant sword auras are all level 5, just one level below max.
I've equipped flows to guard against the status effects he normally uses that really cripple me (XL Seep, Blind, etc), and am using Aionsluh, just because its my favorite.

But I've been so busy trying to keep my people ALIVE that I rarely have time to actually ATTACK with anyone.
I've tried using Lexus' wellspring ability, tried switching out party members, tried everything I can think of.

Should I max out my swords?
I still have some heart stones I could absorb, but I can't imagine ten extra hit points making much of a difference.

Any help is appreciated.

Edit: I noticed in Jabbo's FAQ it notes the stats for Midian and Sacrifa as they "level up"...? Sacrifa has been in my party since the very beginning of the game, and Midian only out of a few battles, yet I've never seen any of their stats improve, besides new abilities whenever I'd find a blade or aura for them. Was this "leveling" feature removed from the episode, or...?

Defend before he uses End of the way, thats all I can think of.

Tried it all too many times.
It still does close to 200 damage, though it varies, sometimes only doing around 135, and normally Rhue and Lexus are the only ones left standing.
From there I try to use Sacrifice 2 with Rhue to get everyone on their feet again, then attempt to patch my wounds before he starts tearing me apart again.

More often than not it ends in disaster.

use guardian angel, that'll help. His only weakness is piercing attacks, I dunno if you can use that to your advantage, and the only status ailment you really have a chance of giving him is XL sleep. If Rhue is scarred, just pray you get Soul's Despair.(5% chance)

Tried guardian angel, by the time I get the XL, the rest of my team already has a million different ailments and I'm stuck trying to throw panacea across all of them.
When I do get it off, people are either dead or dying from the healing I could have been giving them in the meantime.
And I believe I ended up not getting the scarred stone.

And Rhue is normally the last one down as it is, so even if Guardian Angel kicks in and I use Sacrifice 2 to get everyone back up in hurry, they don't have enough hp to survive Gharon's weaker hit-all attack that halves all my stats.

There's really no way to improve the HP of Midian or Sacrifa? The -slightest- bit of extra hitpoints would help -so- much. Mainly because the wouldn't die immediately even when defending from The End of The Way.

Hmm...could always spend some time training, and maybe Sacrifa and Midian will level up (I find a good spot to level up is the cave just before the Reaches entrance, against the Minotaur looking guys especially.)
And I never got Guardian Angel 2, so I'm not sure if that'll help more. Apart from that, good luck

Hmm, did your characters level up at all? You might have that character leveling bug, if so check the bugs forum for an answer. Just defend before he uses End of the Way. Use Illuminati if it's level 6 or whatever weapon draws the most XL. Midian should use Lojin(sword 7), sacrifa should be drawing so he can use heavy mend plus revive. Rhue should attack and maybe stock some XL once in a while for healing/reviving/curing status elements. If your using Slade Lexus or Sorya just have them attack and use there best skills.

I use Rhue, Midian, Sacrifa, Lexus. If you have Lexus you can give her some XL and maybe execute Rhue/Lexus combination attack. Usually gives 500-700 damage I think...

I knew it.

No, my characters had not leveled up once.
I already went to the Bug forum and downloaded Jabbo's fix.
Gharon is a wuss now.

So I've finally gotten all three endings.

...
I think I'm going to need a moment to myself.

Since when could you level up in The Way?! You couldn't in all the previous games, it basically revolved around becoming stronger with notch items. @_@

Because managing notch items for 5 characters would be insanely tedious and would require almost every map be coated in notch items for everyone.

Yeah, there were a lot of Notch items just for this episode for one character. Maybe if Lun wanted peoples stats to increase more drasticly this episode he could have made Notch items that give higher rewards. A heart stone that gives 6 or 9 HP instead of 3. Doesn't matter that much I guess. Not like you need to absorb everything or even 70% of the items to beat the game or it's harder challenges. More challenging that way anyhow.

My characters never leved up but I didn't realize they were supposed to...I just thought they sucked....

Same here... omg... Never once saw them level up.

when I wnet through Miain levled 6 times... of cours eI absorbsd about 95% of the notch items. (the end of the forest is best place for this)

I found the beginning of the forest best for this actually. You can race through these enemies much faster, maximizing CTP and AB gained.