SMT5: Vengeance [CoV] - Zeus Rematch (Low Level, No Fusion/Demon Modification, Hard)

This battle was fought after beating Sraosha. I also completed the Lighting the Way sidequest before this fight to get max Chakra Drops. The additional EXP from the Demeter questline also pushed me from level 61 to 62.

Rules:
1. Hard difficulty, New Game.
2. No fusion or using essences to alter the skillsets of demons.
3. Essences used for Nahobino's resistances may only be Proto-fiend essences, purchasable from the Cadaver's Hollow, or be from recruitable demons at or below the Nahobino's level.
4. No resistance-altering passives on Nahobino.
5. EXP gain is limited to forced battles, Main Quest completion, and abscesses, minimized when possible. Additionally, abscess completion will be delayed as long as possible.
6. No Balms, Incenses, Sutras, Gospels, Grimoires, use of petrified demon statues, Omagatoki: Luck, or stat-boosting Miracles.
7. The Demon Haunt may not be used for stat boosts or items.
8. No use of the Skill Manifestation miracle.
9. Guest party members or demons may not be used when their level exceeds that of the Nahobino.
10. No Dampeners, Block skills, Tetrakarn, Makarakarn, Attack Mirrors, Magic Mirrors, or Luminescent Mirage. (BROKEN)
11. No Taunt/Fierce Roar.
12. No Enhanced Summon.

Even in the late game, when we've abandoned many of the rules of this challenge, the Zeus rematch is still fairly tough. Just like the Zeus+Odin fight, the beginning of this fight operates on an A and B turn cycle, with A turns consisting of Brave Blade, Attack, and Panta Spane, and B turns consisting primarily of Maziodyne and occasionally Attack+Keraunos, Keraunos being an extremely powerful single target Phys-Elec skill that is virtually guaranteed to one-shot anyone. However, unlike the Zeus+Odin fight, if he gets crits on his A turn, he will often use his extra actions for Maziodyne instead of Attack. Because of this and other factors, we simply cannot do the same demon swapping shenanigans we did the last time we fought Zeus. Not only that, but after doing some damage to him, Zeus will start using Madness Glint, which is a lot stronger in this fight than it was in the previous one, and he will usually follow it up with Impaler's Animus, which is then followed up by an Impaler's Animus boosted Maziodyne, which is followed up by another Maziodyne the first time he does this combo, which is absolutely ridiculous. In addition to that, by the time he starts using Madness Glint, the turn cycle pretty much becomes irrelevant.

It's also worth noting that you really should not use Debilitate or Rasetsu Feast on him, because that will make him use Dekunda and then Impaler's Animus, followed by the Maziodyne combo, which is just too strong for us to deal with.

Zeus is a lot like Tiamat in that I really don't think we can feasibly survive his bullshit without barrier items and skills. The fundamental issue with that is that even a single demon death can snowball into a loss due to the fact that you have to both revive AND reapply buffs (and heal if you used a Revival Bead instead of a Balm of Life or Samarecarm) because demons without max buffs will probably die.

The Impaler's Animus into double Maziodyne combo is much like Tiamat's Annihilation Ray, you can survive it by having Nahobino and Kin-Ki in the party and returning everyone else to stock, but doing so puts you in a horrible position for the next turn, so we must instead violate the no Dampeners rule for this fight so that we can survive. This also retroactively made me choose to use stuff like Attack and Magic Mirrors in the earlier phases.

It only gets worse when you get him to below half health, as he now starts following up Impaler's Maziodynes with Keraunos or even Panta Spane. You may want to put up a Phys Dampener just in case, because Impaler's Maziodyne into Panta Spane will probably kill you. Fortunately, he often just uses Luster Candy instead of Impaler's Animus.

By the time you get his health really low, Zeus will pretty much do anything he wants. He will especially use Keraunos and Panta Spane a ton. Our only real hope here is Omnipotent Succession, some attack items, and especially lots and lots of luck.

Despite all of this, we have some good tools at our disposal. This fight is Panagia Tao's first real tango, and while she's no Panagia Yoko, having 2 Luster Candy users is good. Most importantly, Gogmagog's Phys null makes Panta Spane much less of a threat, and Zeus may even target him with Brave Blade or Attack.

Overall, this is a lot easier than the Vanilla SMT5 version, as you can tell by this video being 15 minutes shorter than Bucketgetter's Vanilla SMT5 one despite me being several levels lower. It's probably even a bit easier than the Zeus+Odin Taito fight, tbh, at least with the approach I took to it.