Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom - The Prince's Edition

ALERT! Use this as a reference guide. After completing all of these and going through a few again I'm realizing that some of the boss affinities and weaknesses change each time you replay a challenge. I'll try to update with the alternatives when I learn of them. Please comment with any alternative you find that I don't have listed! Thank you.

This achievement is tough but completely doable if you're willing to put in the time to find great weapons/gear.
- I'll lay out tips and strategies for all challenges past 10. The first ten are relatively easy and can be S-ranked even if your characters are around lvl 100-125 and you're just fighting like normal.
- For most challenges past that you will need to have Legendary (Gold) gear and utilize the Wizard's Compendium, the Martial Method (MM) found from earlier DLC quests given by the Conductor rabbit.

General tips:
- Don't even try past challenge 10 without being lvl 150. Keep replaying floors 80-100 of the Labyrinth to get much better equipment until you get to 150.
- Buy 100+ of every MP and HP restoring item. You will be restoring your MP after pretty much every spell so don't run out.
- Never block, always dodge. Especially at challenges 23+. Even blocking, you'll get 1 shotted at times so ignore that mechanic.
- DO NOT try to tank hits when casting spells. If you know you're going to be hit, DODGE.
- Always fill MP for your mage completely before each fight.
- Always have Genie Juice food active on all 3 party members for all fights. Cook tons of it.
- Change weapon-switching to Manual so you only stay equipped with the weapon that increases the elemental dmg you want for that battle. Zing isn't important in these high-level fights so don't worry about being at 100%.
- For most mob rounds with lots of enemies, BBH (Baby Black Holes from Gizmo Supremo MM) on two characters and using an elemental or high-crit melee weapon works fantastic.
- When using Wizard's Compendium, you can pause the game in between button presses to make sure you hit what you want. I wouldn't advise this on early Slogs as it's a waste of time but on the last 5-7 challenges it can be highly useful.

Equipment:
- To S-rank the last 5 challenges you'll probably need several weapons at least in the 800+ power range. Always have one equipped that increases the needed element if possible.
- Bawbee Wand is awesome! It can be crafted after you beat like 15?ish challenges. It boosts your power to insane levels when you absorb Higgledies. The only time this is super useful is when you get a Golden Awakening orb which automatically absorbs all Higgledies, but when it happens it's amazing.
- Rings that Massively increase the needed element.
- Armor/boots that either increase the element or physical/magical dmg as needed.
- Armor/Necklaces that leave you with 1HP after a big hit are very useful for the last 5-10 challenges.

Higgledies:
- Since you won't be actively using Higgledy skills, you'll want to focus on their passives. You might want to change up the non-healers I list below to help with physical dmg instead of magical should you be using Ding Dong Dell instead of Wizard's Compendium for certain challenges.
This is my favorite setup:
Limmerick the Loving - Heals, lengthens Awakened state, increases Higgledy passive heals
Ubgub the Enlightened - Increases Mag ATK, Crit up when Awakened
Hibber-Gibber the Hopeful - Heals, lengthens Awakened state
Frumious the Flammable - Heals, ATK much stronger when Awakened

Spells and Martial Methods:
--- Max the following spells ---
Evan: Fireball [Fire], Water Balloon [Water], Sunrise [Light], Astra [Light AOE].
Leander: Sundown [Dark], Spark Spike [Wind], Stone Slinger [Non-elemental], Water Balloon [Water], Evenstar [Dark AOE].
--- Max the Wizard's Compendium as you complete Challenges and unlock these skills ---
Evan/Leander: Spell Strengthener 2 & 3, both Faster Caster skills, and all of the Magician's Apprentice tree, then Stout Heart lastly.
--- Max the Gizmo Supremo MM by completing the Labyrinth and grab these skills ---
Bracken: Ordnance Pack, Black Hole Boost, Event Horizon and the entire Decisive Devices skill tree.
Roland (only use this on mob-centric challenges. If a challenge is mostly bosses, reset the tree and use the setup for Bracken): Ordnance Pack, Black Hole Boost, Event Horizon, the entire Turret Tech tree, and Decisive Devices, Impactotron 2.0, Superheavy Element.
--- Max out Ding Dong Dell MM and grab the following skills ---
Roland: Dragonfly's Flight, Eagle's Dive, all of Wolf's Paw tree, Viper's Trance, Cobra's Stupor.
--- Max Martha's Methods as you complete Challenges and unlock these skills ---
Tani/Roland/etc : all the Bomb, Boom! skill tree, the first 2 Ball, Ball, Ball! skills, and the top 3 skills in the Come On, Come On! tree

Tactic Tweaker:
- Spoils settings: roll with Rare Materials on left and bottom options to help Ingots drop, Kit on right. Top doesn't matter since you should be at 150 and you'll be flush with cash from selling equipment found in Labyrinth so experience/money aren't important.
- Arts of War: Untouchability, Dynamism, Brutality\Eagle-Eyedness lvl 3 (if you're using Higgledy Bombs for mobs off in the sky change Brutality to EE)
- Monster Affinities and Elements & Ailments (Resistances) will be listed below for each battle.

Ingot Farming for Legendary gear crafting:
Challenge 2 is great for farming Bronze ingots
Challenge 7 was my favorite for Pure Bronze & Refined Bronze
Challenge 13 for Silver
Challenge 14 for Pure Silver & Refined Silver
Challenge 20 for Gold & Refined Gold

I'LL LAY OUT EACH ROUND LIKE SO:
Round #: Monster Affinities - Elements and Ailments (Resistances) - Strategy

BBH = Baby Black Hole from Gizmo Supremo MM
HB = Higgledy Bombs from Martha's Methods MM
Imp = Impactotron from Gizmo Supremo MM
WC = Wizard's Compendium

Challenge 11
Round 1: Natural - Fire,Light - BBH,HB
Round 2: Natural - Dark,Confusion - Evan Sunrise
Round 3: Natural - N/A - Leander Spark Spike

Challenge 12
1: Fairy, slimy, reptilian - Darkness,Nix - BBH,Imp,HB, Light spells or weapons
2: Fairy, slimy - Darkness - BBH,HB, Light-based melee
3: Natural - Darkness/Poison - Evan Fireball

Challenge 13 (this and challenge 14 are easiest to farm Silver and Refined Silver ingots which are required to make some of the most useful gear)
1: N/A - N/A - BBH,Imp, Water melee
2: Solid - N/A - Evan Water Balloon
3: Solid - N/A - Leander Sundown/Evan Water Balloon depending on weakness

Challenge 14 (my record here is 00:40:52 so it's super fast to farm. This one also has Pure Silver if you're looking for that)
1: Solid - N/A - Fireball/Spark Spike (check podium for vulnerability)
2: Solid - Fire - Sunrise/Sundown
3: Solid - Fire - Sunrise/Water Bubble

Challenge 15
1: Reptilian, Slimy, Fairy - Darkness - Sunrise, focus on Inkywriggle only
2: Slimy, Fairy - Darkness - Sunrise, focus on Rotwobbler only
3: Reptilian - Darkness,Fire - Sunrise

Challenge 16
1: Slimy, Reptilian - Light,Confusion - BBH,HB, Dark melee
2: Fairy - Light,Confusion - Sundown
3: Fairy - Light,Confusion - The tips say he's weak to Dark but I found that Stone Slinger does far more dmg to him and has the ability to stunlock him occasionally

Challenge 17
1: Solid - Dark - BBH,HB, Light melee
2: Fairy - Fire,Dark - Sunrise
3: Natural - Wind - Fireball

Challenge 18
1: Reptilian - Light or Dark - BBH,Imp,HB + High crit melee for mobs, Sunrise for Windwyrm dragons.
2: Reptilian - N/A - Dark melee, use Ding Dong Dell MM to do massive dmg
3: Reptilian - Water - Fireball

Challenge 19
1: Natural - Fire,Light - BBH,Imp,HB, High crit melee,ranged
2: Fairy, Slimy - Fire,Light,Dark,Water,Wind - BBH,HB, High crit melee,ranged
3: Solid - Dark - BBH,Imp,HB + Torch Turrets,Plasma Pods with Roland's Gizmo, High crit melee with dmg boost vs Solid foes AND/OR multi-target spells like Hail of Arrows, Astra

Challenge 20 (Easiest/Fastest challenge to grind for Gold/RG/PS Ingots. When decked with good gear this can be completed in under 2 mins)
1: Reptilian - N/A - Water Balloon/Fireball
2: Solid - Fire - Sunrise
3: Slimy - Light - Sunrise/Fireball

Challenge 21
1: Natural - Light - BBH,Imp,HB for mobs, Leander Spark Spike for Thogg's
2: Reptilian - Fire - Sundown
3: Natural - Wind - Sunrise

Challenge 22
1: Slimy - Light - Spark Spike
2: Brutal - N/A - Stone Slinger (This guy is technically weak to Dark but he can jump to you quickly and 1 shot you. Sundown requires you to be at Medium distance which is dangerous here. SS does tons of dmg to him anyways so keep him at bay and hurl those boulders)
3: Reptilian - Wind,Fire - Spark Spike/Stone Slinger

Challenge 23
1: Brutal - Wind/Water - BBH,Imp,HB,Torch Turrets,Plasma Pods, High-crit melee,ranged
2: Brutal - N/A - Fireball
3: Fairy - Light - Fireball (Don't cast when he's close, when he leaps, or when he's raging [every attack is too fast when he's steaming so just dodge until it wears off]. Learn his moves and only cast when it's safe)

Challenge 24
1: Natural - Wind - Sundown (Stringers seem much stronger than Strengtheners for this spell so aim for mostly those when WC casting)
2: Solid - Dark - Sunrise (A combination of Stringers + Strengtheners is excellent here)
3: Solid - Dark - Sundown/Stone Slinger (Dodge a lot, use Sundown when he's knocked down or he's targeting another character, otherwise I'd advise using SS to be safe)

Challenge 25 (this may be the "easiest" one to farm Pure Gold Ingots)
1: Fairy - Wind - Sunrise (see round 3 of challenge 23 for Wyvern boss tips)
2: Solid - Dark - BBH,Imp,HB,TorchTurrets,Plasma Pods, Fireball
3: Natural - Dark OR Light - Water Bubble (same as Sundown, mostly choose Stingers over Strengtheners)

Challenge 26
1: Natural - Light,Fire - BBH,HB,melee for mobs, Sunrise for Manticores
2: Solid - Dark - BBH,Imp,HB or Imp is strong here against the dudes off on the clouds, or use non-WC Water Bubble with Evan as it has a big AOE
3: Slimy - Light - Fireball
4: Brutal - N/A - Spark Spike

Challenge 27 (If you don't already have a super powerful Light-based and/or Dark-based sword, you should grind and craft the Godhead Sword or Slithy Sword for this challenge since magic is mostly ineffective against Cetus. Craft whichever you have ingots for. When you reach Round 4 and check the podium you'll see that Cetus will either be weak to Light or Dark. This is random. Hope that it's in your favor or have a great Light and Dark so you're covered either way.)
1: Fairy,Slimy - Fire - BBH,Imp, Sunrise
2: Solid - Fire - Spark Spike
3: Fairy - Fire - Spark Spike/Stone Slinger (see round 3 of challenge 23 for Wyvern boss tips)
4: Reptilian - Fire - Light-based/Dard-based melee with Ding Dong Dell MM.
(This can be one of the toughest fights in the game if you're not prepared. It can also be incredibly easy if you're good at dodging for DDD and have a great sword/ring combo. Cetus will try to summon multiple other bosses to annoy you. You can avoid this entirely if you use Roland's Swathe Cutter when he starts to charge up to summon. If they do wind up spawning, I advise ignoring them, or better yet, using their attacks to dodge and get more Ding Dong Dell combos started on Cetus)

Challenge 28 (This is the first challenge where I noticed that you could have a completely different boss on rounds 2 & 3. There may be even more of them I'm not aware of yet.)
1: Fairy - Dark/Light,Water,Wind,Fire - BBH,HB, Light melee or Sunrise against the tougher Fairies
2: Reptilian - N/A - Have Evan/Leander with only Water Ballon equipped, and Roland with a Water sword, using DDD.
2 alt: Brutal - Fire - Sundown OR Evenstar, see which you prefer. If you use Evenstar just know that you'll run out of MP faster so make sure to switch to your Gizmo character with extra restoratives to stretch out your MP items.
3: Fairy - Light - You could try Sundown/Evenstar here, but again, I find Stone Slinger to work better. You can stay at a safer distance to cast.
You could also roll with Slithy Sword and DDD on Roland but it's riskier.
3 alt: Fairy - Light - Waterball/water melee DDD (Same guy, just a different weakness. Again, this guy has very high DEF and MDEF so I would personally roll with Bawbee Wand and wait for a Golden Ball but Water melee DDD can work also, just slower)
4: Natural - N/A - Sunrise

Challenge 29
1: Fairy - N/A - Black Hole is useless here since these Elementals aren't affected by it. Use constant Higgledy Bombs and Hail of Arrows with Tani. Have Leander and Evan as backup; unequip all their spells but Evenstar and Astra so they only use those ones which have huge area of effects.
2: Mumshroom
Natural - Confusion,Poison,Sleep - Fireball/Water Bubble (check vulnerability), this one is much easier than Gloomshroom. Just keep your distance and nail it with spells it's weak against.
2 alt: Gloomshroom
Natural - Confusion,Poison,Sleep - Fireball/Water Bubble (check vulnerability), equip elemental weapons on other characters, only use items when playable character has Gizmo with increased restorative items. This boss can heal itself when it goes underground if you don't destroy the correct feeler it puts out in time. It's random which one it is so try to kill them quickly. If you hit the right one the boss will pop out and be stunned for a bit.
3: Natural - Wind, Light - Weak to Dark/Water/Fire, check the podium. He hits hard but either DDD with strong elemental melee or Sundown/Water Bubble/Fireball will make short work of him. The second he starts summoning tornadoes or light beams you need to dodge roll across the map. Those spells will double or triple hit you making your 1HP equipment useless.
4: Fairy - Light/Dark - Sunrise, Confusion on weapons for your teammates works great here. Boss will be stunned while confused and you can wail on it. Be careful of it's Light-based homing orb and try to dodge. It can easily 1-shot you so having a necklace or armor to keep you at 1HP is fantastic.

Challenge 30
1: Slimy - Fire,Dark,Water,Wind - This one can be tough since "each elemental slime can only be defeated by it's own element", according to the podium. However, just use BBH and a non-elemental weapon and Impactotrons and this will be a breeze. Watch your health though, if these little buggers all hit you quickly in succession they'll KO you pretty quick.
2: Fairy - Wind - Fireball/Sundown/Stone Slinger as usual, or DDD with elemental melee. If you have the ingots to craft the Bawbee wand then hope for a Golden Awakening orb and you'll destroy it in like 30 seconds. His DEF isn't quite as high as some other bosses so even without an orb he shouldn't take more than 4 mins.
3: Slimy, Solid - Light - Spark Spike/Sundown(or Evenstar) If it's a Dark weakness I'd reco Evenstar for this one. Jelly Queen is slow and stays put a lot meaning you will very rarely miss and that spell hits like a truck against this dude.
Hit this octo hard when he tries to summon to stun him for a good while. He may freeze your other characters a lot. Use items to cure them so they don't die from other hits. His summoned creature is Solid-type and isn't too difficult.
4: Floating Rock Golem (forgot his name)
Solid - Fire - Sunrise/Water Balloon (He stuns you with most hits so try hard to dodge even though the projectiles are quick.
4 alt: BL-Iterator (robot)
Solid - N/A - Sunrise/Water Balloon (This dude is FAR easier to beat than the Rock Golem. Just use spells and he'll be dead in no time)
5: Nature - Light/Dark - Spark Spike/Water Balloon (Stay away from your teammates here. The boss's light beams can instakill all of you at the same time if you're too close to each other.