Toss a Wire To Your Squirrel: Let's Play Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard!

Crosspeice · Sat Jun 19, 2021 12:14 am

Part 6: The Hills Have Blindsides

Part 6: The Eyes Have Blindsides

Woodland Ruins

We went through a lot on this floor, so it's time to leave it behind and head on.

Alright, now that I'm ready _{and at a safe distance}, check this out!

Now yer speakin' me language!

That is looking the painful.

It is! Oh god, it's like I'm undead, ohohohoho!

Meh, I've had worse.

If you want to fight a Raflesia, then you'd best kill it quick before it quickly kills you. Freeze is only brought out if Pollen isn't used, so it's not as common, and also isn't AS deadly. I can only attempt this because of all my Fire power.

There's honestly no need to be in a rush to kill it, as its drops don't give that much of a headstart.

Neat.

There's one last room on 3F to visit, but you best be prepared.

St-St-Stalkers on both sides...

Good for not immediately running away, I guess.

We could kill these cunts nah, but, uh, I dinnae wanna!

You just head straight down to get these two chests, nothing to worry about. Oh, how do you get back out of this room? Well I've never tried it, so I'll just say it's impossible and move on!

Generally some FOE trap rooms are one way and basically scream "use a Warp Wire" to get out. Granted you could fight your way out, but good luck doing that with EO2 FOEs, let alone red ones!

Holly can carry that with one arm... of course.

Phew... thanks! You're a strong bunch...! The desk was my daughter's, but it's too small for her now. We bought her a new one. I couldn't lift it myself, so I didn't know what to do. My husband is out looking for ingredients in the Labyrinth. Good thing you showed up!

Is it true you've already made it to the 4th floor? Wow, that was really fast! I've been hearing more people in the shop talk about you. You're an amazing guild! I'm proud just to know you! Oh, I mean... sorry! I shouldn't say things like that. Umm, I've got some cleaning to do... feel free to look around the shop!

You've got me all blushing here, but I still need to know of all the secondhand bookstores around here!

sleepy but thats normal

Hm...? You look tired. Are you all okay? You may know your way around the Labyrinth, but that won't help if you get exhausted. Don't hesitate to return here and rest at the inn, or to come see us if necessary. But it's best not to get injured in the first place.

Just don't get hit and you'll win every time.

But I dunno... I've seen my share of guilds, and yeh don't seem like much to me. Find that floating castle and maybe I'll change my tune! Haw haw!

I wonder what guild has been talking about us?

A girl with a sword from the Ed-whatever guild, she said we were very honourable for taking on all these quests. And then she tried to fight me.

Yeah... this quest should be right up yer alley. There's a well-loved family in this Duchy, and their gran isn't doing so well these days. She's a kind old bird. Lost her man a few years back--he was popular in the corps in his day. Every time I saw them, they put a song in this wicked old heart of mine. I don't think she's long for this world, and her family wants to give her a memento of gramps. They tell me there's a certain flower he gave her when he proposed. Thing is, I've looked it up, and it only grows in the Labyrinth. They say it's on the 5th floor. A soothing, pale flower... think yeh could fetch it for the old girl's sake? We're all counting on yeh!

Is the game giving these quests a floor early so they add some difficulty with you forgetting about them by the time you reach that point?

Another issue with EO2 quests. The distribution timing kind of sucks and is all over the place. From EO3 onwards this mostly ceased to be an issue.

I just want an adventure already.

Hmmhmm!

There's no need to report here every time you return to town. Although... part of my job is to advise explorers like you, I suppose. Well, here's a tidbit for you, then. It's obvious, but most explorers tend to forget it. Are you aware that each enemy in the Labyrinth has a specific affinity? Swords, axes, arrows, spells... if you find an enemy's weakness you can do even greater damage. Combat in the forest will be much easier once you use your mind as well as your weapons... that's all the advice I have for you. Never underestimate the Labyrinth.

Too bad the games don't exactly keep track of weaknesses until 4. You just have to go off of damage number comparisons. And I guess be on the lookout for Analysis activating if you have an Alchemist.

I've seen better.

That's what we're researching! Ugh, how many damn Yggdrasil Labyrinths are there, and why does one of them have "space cop" scribbled next to it?!

I've only been inside with the guard corps protecting me, but I was struck by its beauty. High Lagaard has its own charms, of course, but it's nothing like the forest interior. Even before my time, the forest has protected High Lagaard. It's almost a guardian to this nation. Perhaps you'll find the land of the gods at its peak, rather than a mere floating castle. I'll be interested to see the outcome.

Grabbing my dingaling when I'm alone in the forest.

See it's funny because it's one of seven thousand words for penis.

Sleep Bell, requires 1 Bell Fruit - Item, Lv1 Slumber, stuns non-red FOEs within 3 rings for 4 turns
Lure Bell, requires 1 Bell Fruit - Item, Lv1 Luring, non-red FOEs within 3 rings will move to the user and be stunned for 4 turns
Wood Bow, requires 1 Bug Wing and 1 Bent Twig, ATK+27 - An everyday bow made of the forest's branches. Required for The item trade I
Targe, requires 2 Bug Wing and 1 Hard Root, DEF+9 - Shield that protects the user's shoulder joints.

I know the color red causes issues with image compression but seeing basically instances of red words look like they're being smudged out is oof.

I can't even blame the bad font like last game!

I'll put it on the show floor today, so please have a look. It's my father's masterpiece! Oh, yes! I left the reward with Cass, so you can collect it at the Stickleback Bar. If I need anything else, I'll leave a request for you all on the notice board!

Maybe I should get a bow, I could look pretty- oh... a squirrel.

There you are! Where the hell have you been? Come on, you've got some food to gather.

Nope.

What do you mean, "nope"?!

I have this new guild I'm working for. Who actually pay me. And maybe even like me.

WHAT?! You are blood bound to serve me. Don't you walk away!

Make me.

What- but- you- GAHHHH!

Well, well, well, if it isn't the consequences of your actions.

...shut up, sis.

Ah, excellent, thank you for being the in-between, have a glass on me. ...everything okay?

...you know what? Yeah. It is.

Hey there! Great work! Sorry to give yeh all the runaround. I've heard the whole story! Ahh, quit yer whining and take the reward! Haw!

Oh, uh, if you want me to help with this I can-

Woah now, sit down and have a brew! Put your feet up for a change, that's what the rest of the guild is for.

Yeh must know what the score is by now. Yes, another request from Sitoth Trading. I don't want to muck up the details of the quest, so yeh should ask around over there.

Need one of them Pure Vests, uh, definitely fer someone pure like me.

Wonderful! I'm still trying to get used to asking strangers to do our work... I'm glad that you're so eager to help us. Oh, right! The materials we need. That's 1 Metal Hull and 5 Bug Shells. Just like last time, once you have them, just sell them to me. Oh! A customer! Sorry, I have to go, I'm counting on you! Welcome, sir...!

Evenin', I'm here to peruse your axes again.

"Now?" Have we met before?

Who cares about that, I want that amazing medicine he has. Where did you even get that?!

Now we shouldn't rush, perhaps the sword is more useful. Though taking a look at it, it seems pretty rubbi-

Here's the money, thanks for the sword!

Who saw that coming?~

It's an honor to meet any members of Edda. Have a pleasant journey!

The guard leaves the area with a smile, happy merely to have met you. You, too, elect to return to your journey through the Labyrinth.

I finally remembered to go back to this guy now that we have the ca$h. Don't buy the sword, it's garbage.

Well, it's a slight improvement, but the Boar Spear we get FOR FREE on THE NEXT FLOOR is much better.

You'd have to be an idiot to think the weapon is a better deal!

Meanwhile, this heals all status for all allies and isn't available to buy until 27F, what the fuck. If anyone asks why I like this game so much, it's because there's dumb shit like this popping up constantly. How did no one notice this??? Anyway, back to your regular exploration.

For the record, Therica BXes are distributed through quest rewards and chests so this isn't the only time you get one before post-game. It's just 27F is when they become farmable.

That is the cheatings! Only bugs can flying!

The airborne beasts rests its wings atop the high rubble towering before you. The rubble is stacked high and seems impossible to climb over. It is natural, you reflect, that the forest denizens can reach areas that you cannot. If you are to continue, you must understand this well and pay attention to your surroundings. You hold your breath as you leave, so as not to alert the monster to your presence.

Slaveimp

HP: 152
STR: 17
VIT: 17
TEC: 17
AGI: 17
LUC: 17
Level: 16
Exp: 0

Skills
Flight: Uses the Arms. Deals 50% Cut+Fire damage 4-5 times at a 50/50 chance, respectively. Has a 95% accuracy modifier and a 100% speed modifier.
Heal: Uses the Head. Heals an ally by 110HP. Has a 100% speed modifier.
Aura: Uses the Head. Increases damage dealt by all allies by 150% for 5 turns. Has an 80% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

100%

125%

100%

Disable Vulnerabilities

50%

25%

50%

35%

25%

Drops
Glue Hide: 20% chance, sells for 126en
1 required for Sherwani - Clothing, DEF+20, VIT+1 - sells for 420en

Gum Hide: 95% chance, sells for 11en.
1 required for Wing Leaf - Clothing, DEF+13, HP+5 - sells for 200en
1 required for Sherwani - Clothing, DEF+20, VIT+1 - sells for 420en
2 required for Bullwhip - Whip, ATK+32 - sells for 260en
2 required for Hide Aspis - Shield, DEF+12 - sells for 325en
2 required for Rough Hat - Headgear, DEF+8, TP+8 - sells for 120en
3 required for Hide Plate - Heavy Armor, DEF+22 - sells for 310en
5 required for Iron Glove - Gloves, DEF+10, VIT+1

Conditional: None

New to the series is Flying FOEs, ones that come in a cool blue and patrol around places you can't reach. This is a bad introduction to them since Slaveimps are absolutely pathetic, they're comparable to Redhorns, who we don't have much issue with anymore. Flight also does pathetic damage and they won't use their other skills until a later time, there's a reason they're so weak after all. We could fight them now, but we'll do so later and they're easy to dodge, so I don't see the point. Getting through the floor will be more difficult, so I'd rather save the TP.

Oh hey, here's a new mechanic. FOE types. You saw orange and red FOEs before but the color didn't mean much other than signifying power. Here these signify different ways they can trip you up on the field. Flying FOEs can ignore walls entirely making them pretty tricky to get past if you aren't paying attention to the map.

Slaveimps are absolutely pathetic and you could kill one right now with most parties. Not much of a reason to do so unfortunately due to the lack of EXP, so it's just less of a hassle to avoid them.

Now normally EO2 FOEs are to be avoided until you are heavily ready to take them on. That's not the case with flying FOEs for whatever reason. All Flying FOEs can easily be taken on when you come across them with a lot less prepwork. I'm assuming it was because they thought it was easier to get caught out by them so they made those FOEs weaker to give more of a fighting chance.

Looking closely, you can see that he's a soldier of High Lagaard.

That's quite the load you've got. Must make it hard to fight the monsters.

I-I-It's not heavy at all!

Yer legs are shakin', noodle arms.

After you tell him your tale, he nods in understanding.

Supplies, huh...? Well, the men are stationed in the southern area of this floor.

After thanking the solder, you considered your next move. You have the opportunity to complete the quest by going to the southern area.

Another instance of "wrong way, idiot", but to prove how 2cool4school I am, I will explore the entire floor with the load even if it's a pain in the ass.

What the FUCK is that?

Oh, too scary for the mean vampire?

Evil Eye

HP: 130
STR: 17
VIT: 14
TEC: 9
AGI: 12
LUC: 12
Level: 13
Exp: 506

Skills
Glare: Uses the Head. Attempts to inflict Paralysis on a single target. Has an 25% base infliction chance and a 100% speed modifier
Tackle: Uses the Head. Deals 200% Bash damage to a single target. Has a 50% accuracy modifier and a 100% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

100%

100%

Disable Vulnerabilities

100%

0%

100%

100%

Drops
Glue Quill: 30% chance, sells for 16en.
1 required for Short Bow - Bow, ATK+34 - sells for 270en
1 required for Rough Hat - Headgear, DEF+8, TP+8 - sells for 120en
2 required for Warhammer - Stave, ATK+41, HP+10 - sells for 370en
3 required for Hide Armor - Light Armor, DEF+23 - sells for 500en
5 required for Plume Boot - Footwear, DEF+11, AGI+2 - sells for 350en

Conditional: Kill with non-physical damage
Gem Eye: 70% chance, sells for 27en
1 required for Carp Sword - Sword, ATK+43 - sells for 440en

Man, this game was great before these fucks showed up. Evil Eyes are less annoying when you encounter them with other enemies, since they have a guaranteed blindside otherwise and have a 50/50 chance of pasting someone into the ground with Tackle. Hey, don't we have a quest where we fail if we finish a battle with a dead party member? When they're under half health they have a chance of using Glare, but that's the least threatening thing they can do, they're always ready to make you waste a Nectar or be the number one priority to take down. Fuck these things!!!

Ahaha! Believe it or not, this is actually the less dangerous formation to encounter these monsters in. You see, here's a mechanic that wasn't used in any other game, guaranteed blindsides for random encounters. Certain encounter formations are always flagged to start off the battle as a blindside, and there's absolutely no way to prevent it. The Survivalist's blindside passive? Useless! Fortunately these mostly get used for formations where there's only 1 monster in them but they can be a rude thing to run into.

Evil Eyes are a very rude introduction to the guaranteed blindside mechanic, because chances are, they'll kill someone with their free turn. Just look at their STR stat and how their skill deals double damage. And given how money isn't exactly free flowing right now, chances are you don't have a Nectar to revive someone who inevitably died to these things. Kill them first unless you want more blood spatters on the grass floor.

He is always so smiling when dead.

Thankfully we can leave the mole and revive Alastor to continue the quest, but UGH.

In here, quickly!

Bloody dinos! They were always so eager to interrupt me... lumberjack work.

Yes I think we get it by now.

That there is a Raptor, which is stronger than the Gashtor, which can still kick our ass, so we'll be waiting a bit longer to tackle this one, it'll chase you down though!

Thankfully an Evil Eye's regular attack is pretty manageable and we can take it out in one turn. It will not always be this easy.

4F A3 Take Point

Ambush Chance: 5%
Ambush Encounter:
100% Raflesia x1

Green Nut. 55% chance. Sells for 75en.
1 required for Blaze Oil - Item, Lv1 Blaze, imbues the target's regular attacks with Fire damage - sells for 250en, must be restocked
1 required for Freeze Oil - Item, Lv1 Frost, imbues the target's regular attacks with Ice damage - sells for 250en, must be restocked
1 required for Shock Oil - Item, Lv1 Shock, imbues the target's regular attacks with Volt damage - sells for 250en, must be restocked

Sour Fruit. 25% chance. Sells for 30en.
1 required for Ward Chime - Item, Lv2 Stalker, reduces danger values by 33% for 50 steps - sells for 200en
2 required for Guard Sole - Item, Lv2 Patrol, reduces damage tile damage by 40% for 50 steps - sells for 200en
3 required for Poison Gas - Item, Lv1 Poison, 15% base infliction chance, 20-30 damage - sells for 450en

Tiny Bloom. 20% chance. Sells for 25en.
1 required for Nectar - Medicine, revives the target to 10-16HP, TEC depending - sells for 500en
2 required for Theriaca A - Medicine, LV5 Unbind, removes all binds from the target - sells for 100en
3 required for Theriaca B - Medicine, LV8 Refresh, removes all ailments from the target - sells for 100en

Unlike last game, the gathering points you find on later floors to their introduction tend to be very similar, but also very boring. It's fine, I don't read them either!

Well that's annoying, but we're fine to face a Raflesia every now and then, we'll be seeing them as regular encounters soon enough.

FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK

Ah, the classic EO experience. Such beauty to my eyes.

And that was an optional part of the floor, and it seems they intended for you to take this path later since the encounters are pretty rough compared to the proper path.

Now to never use the Theriaca BX, just in case.

Short Bow, +0 speed, requires 1 Glue Quill and 2 Bug Nails.
Kodachi, ATK+37, requires 1 Red Shard and 3 Bug Nails - Katana that's as flexible as a short sword.
Rough Hat, DEF+8, TP+8, requires 1 Glue Quill and 2 Gum Hides, sells for 120en - A hat of layered beast fur for high defense.

Snails and bugs working together, oh the horror!

The bugging is very nice in the golding, do want.

Kingmai

HP: 96
STR: 12
VIT: 12
TEC: 12
AGI: 12
LUC: 12
Level: 11
Exp: 390

Skills
Mucus: Uses the Head. Attempts to inflict Arm and Leg Bind on a single target. Has a base 75% infliction chance and a 100% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

100%

75%

100%

150%

Disable Vulnerabilities

100%

100%

Drops
Metal Hull: 30% chance, sells for 11en.
1 required for Royal Claw - Claw, ATK+47 - sells for 420en
1 required for Pure Vest - Light Armor, DEF+17 - sells for 230en Required for The item trade II
3 required for Gladius - Sword, ATK+35 - sells for 280en
FIFTEEN required for Slice Whip - Whip, ATK+38, STR+2 - sells for 370en

Conditional: Kill with Ice damage
Iron Shell: 70% chance, sells for 22en
1 required for Kurodachi - Katana, ATK+46, Type: Ice - sells for 580en

Snail... II! Slightly annoying binds but there are way deadlier enemies on this floor that you need to prioritize. They can come in large packs with Woodmai but that also isn't a big deal, and you want to see it because it gives you a nice chunk of exp. It's nice to get a breather every now and then!

Not that notable. If you're coming from the later games where themed enemies working together is an actual game mechanic, that's not in this game. EO3 is the one that introduced that.

Accessories are good so we'll be making use of this later.

I will plunge you into the depths of health!

While Salve doesn't have much kick to it due to lack of healing multipliers on a War Magus, it's pure laziness on my part to grab it for less Cure usage. We'll be going for Warmight after this, we'll need it!

Normally I would advocate fer fightin' these fools, but even I cannae be fucked.

That's the spirit.

Ugggggh... this better wash off!

4F D2 Chop Point

Ambush Chance: 10%
Ambush Encounter:
100% Raflesia x1

Hard Root: 60% chance. Sells for 35en.
1 required for Targe - Shield, DEF+9 - sells for 150en
3 required for Horn Mace - Stave, ATK+45, HP+20 - sells for 440en

Bent Twig: 25% chance. Sells for 30en.
1 required for Wood Bow - Bow, ATK+27, +20 speed (+10) - sells for 170en Required for The item trade I
3 required for Slice Whip - Whip, ATK+38, STR+2 - sells for 370en
5 required for Beast Bow - Bow, ATK+39, STR+1, +5 speed (-5) - sells for 440en

Log: 15% chance. Sells for 150en.
Required for nothing.

Again, nothing exciting aside from a higher ambush chance, fuck that noise. Indeed, it seems this floor has been going pretty smoothly so far, we're nearly at the supply quest destination. I hope nothing will-

He is always so popularizing.

I am like TWO STEPS AWAY, would you kindly fuck off??? You better be carrying a lot of Nectars if you're using a War Magus, but at least Logan can quickly revive him, Survivalists are good for something at least.

Introducing guaranteed blindsides with enemies that can one shot you while also having the quest where you can't have anyone die take place on the same floor is such a glorious dick move.

Coming closer, you can make out footsteps and speech. You have found the band of guards that you sought! One of them spies you. Wiping the sweat from his brow, he begins to speak.

I heard a group of explorers signed up to bring us supplies. Please tell me that's you...

Here's yer damn food, I promise I dinnae take much.

We really must work on your people skills. It is all accounted for, I have... different preferences.

You tell him the story, and he gently smiles before relieving you of the goods.

I knew it! Thanks, guys. We can stay here much longer now that we've got these...

After receiving their gratitude, you walk away, relived to be free of your burden.

I wasn't sure how long I was gonna last... they were way too heavy.

Perhaps you should work on those noodle arms.

You're one to be talking, cannelloni boy!

...hmm, close enough. I'm more of a farfalle guy.

Greetings, I take it you're with the other lot?

Oh...! You must be Nidhogg, right? I heard that many guilds were sent to defeat Chimaera. But I must tell you, Beowulf has already ascended to the fifth floor to challenge it. You see... some time ago, they lost many of their comrades to the king of beasts. The remaining two decided to press on in the hopes of defeating the monster someday. But if they couldn't do it with five, I don't see how they'll manage with two...

The guard shakes his head worriedly.

Beowulf's leader, the one called Flausgul, is an amazing man. I only hope the worst is not about to befall him...

The guard looks up into the forest again anxiously. If you would challenge Chimaera, you must hurry and pursue Beowulf to the 5th floor.

Sounds pretteh serious. Let's go!

Pah, idiots, what's the point in throwing away your life for revenge? The dead don't care, they're dead.

Agreed, if you must do such a thing, at least have it be for the undead.

Please, Nidhogg... look after Beowulf...

The guard's voice is small and plaintive, and his gaze does not waver from the forest sky. You must hurry and pursue Beowulf to the 5th floor.

That's a good chunk of the floor done, but it's quite the journey from the 3rd floor, so we're pretty worn out.

Kurodachi, requires 1 Iron Shell and 7 Shell Warts.
Royal Claw, ATK+47, requires 1 Metal Hull - Made from modifying and sharpening a hard shell.
Gladius, ATK+35, requires 3 Metal Hulls - A simple short sword designed for piercing.
Pure Vest, Light Armor, DEF+17, requires 1 Metal Hull and 5 Bug Shells, sells for 230en - Clothes with hard plates woven inside. Required for The item trade II

We've unlocked our first claw for the upcoming Beast and they work pretty similarly to katanas, having high ATK, though very slightly slower and less accurate. They can definitely dish out damage if they want, but due to a wide variety of factors, cough Loyalty cough, it's a lot easier to use a Ronin and focus on the more defensive aspects of a Beast. Something to expand on later.

My father and I are both so grateful! I've already put it on the show floor, so please take a look. I left the reward with Cass, so you can claim it from him. Thank you sooo much. If I have another request, I hope you'll be the ones to help!

I heard that lot never leaves the place. The forest'll take them if they don't look out! The main thing though, is yer reward, right? Here yeh go, and thanks a lot!

Welcome back. How was the armor they worked up? Well, I s'pose you'll find out soon enough. Here you go! Thanks again!

Maybe you should put it on to stop dying all the time.

And deny my chance of death? Absolutely not!

There's still a chunk of 4F left, but we'll finish that up along with trying to find Chimaera next time.

Crosspeice · Sat Jun 19, 2021 12:16 am

Protector Overview

Protector

Can equip: Swords, Heavy Armor, Light Armor, Shields

How the mighty have fa- wait, this class is still good??? Well of course, just because the enemies don't overwhelm you with level advantage doesn't mean you should shirk on defense! Well you kinda can actually, this game rewards you using busted classes to wipe out strong bosses in a few turns, making support not a great option. Most of the skills from the previous game work as well in this one and some of the wonkier skills actually got better, making a Protector an incredibly useful member. HOWEVER, they are very SP hungry and aren't very useful in offensive teams, and mainly shine later on when enemies become very scary, almost required, even! They barely do anything aside from defend and they are no longer tied for the highest STR in the game, so they don't hit very hard, but when they shine, oh boy do they.

Wait, a good class that actually got buffed in the transition to EO2? Say it ain't so! Well for a given definition of good, as Protectors themselves didn't have too much to offer in 1 while at the same time being mandatory for a few key fights. Here, they're not even a lock for most parties since you have a ton of other defensive tools to facetank the things they were previously used for in this game. And offenses got heavily buffed in this game, allowing players to end fights before they would really need the defenses. Still, if you choose to go with a Protector, they're very capable of performing what's asked of them in their job description.

Oof that STR is a little hard to look at, but they have the second best stat average in the game, and since the best average is a meme class I'm scared to use, I think the Protector wins out overall. They have, of course, the best VIT and low TEC and AGI, but they also have great LUC, even if it only helps against low LUC enemies, as well as great HP. Their TP is middling which can be an issue on longer stints, since they're a bit useless if they can't defend, but they're usually fine in boss fights, where they matter the most. Overall, a very standard spread, but it's for the best.

Okay not everything about them got buffed. Their STR took a very hard hit, so Smite spamming isn't really a great thing to do in their downtime anymore. You could try buffing it up if you really want them to spam Smite again, but you're honestly better off using an actual damage dealer class instead. HP and VIT are fantastic stats to increase for them to make them basically ubertanks. And they'll also appreciate TP increases to be able to spam their defensives more often. TEC doesn't really do much for them aside from increasing their evasion against TEC-based attack slightly, and they're already fairly bulky enough to facetank a bunch of things instead of dodging them. LUC isn't an ideal stat to raise either for the same reason, as the evasion increase is miniscule. AGI is completely and utterly worthless to increase on them, as all of their important defensives have priority, making their low AGI a moot point.

Common Passive Unlocks

HP Up: Lv1: HP Regen; Lv3: Riskwall
TEC Up: Lv1: Refresh; Lv10: Antiall
VIT Up: Lv1: Fortify

A relatively even spread, aside from TEC Up, that is a massive pitfall going for Antiall, probably one of the biggest trap skills in the game. Anyway, it's good the requirements for everything else are pretty low due to how much SP you don't have to spread around, Refresh lets your Protector do something else with their life, depending on team composition, while Fortify isn't too useful but can be comboed with other good skills, so up to you. Don't think about STR Up, I know you want to, but it's too hard to bear, just invest in TP Up instead. And LUC Up will only help you avoid stuff better, not that useful. ...oh, AGI Up? LOL

Shields
Unlocks: Lv1: F. Guard, B. Guard; Lv3: Antifire, Anticold, Antivolt; Lv5: En Guarde; Lv7: 1 Guard; Lv10: Smite, Antiall
Passive

A lack of weapon mastery means the Protector should stick to its lane and it's alright as a passive. You'll want to max it out due to all the amazing skills on here, and 1 Guard, while Smite gives them SOMETHING to do. Overall, 10/10 would max again.

Unlike in EO1, this now covers all damage types, so it's now a very nice overall defensive boost. Unfortunately like EO1, it still doesn't boost Smite's damage, but you still have to max it out to unlock it.

Aegis
Prerequisites: HP Regen Lv5, Riskwall Lv5
Gives the user a chance to be automatically revived at 1HP. Does not activate if killed by Instant Death. Passive.

Oh hey this is back in another suspect scaling, this skill can be absolutely amazing if it works, but if it doesn't you've got dead SP and a dead Protector. If it does work and your Protector is the only one left at 1HP, then it's not very useful either. It has a much heavier investment compared to 1 and HP Regen is a terrible skill to fully invest in for this, so, sure, you'll actually be at 8HP when it works, happy now?! One level can offer results, but this game isn't as brutal that you'll go damn, if only the best defensive class in the game wasn't dying so much!

This skill was a questionable investment in 1, and it was stronger there. Here it's a bit weaker, and there's not much of a reason to take this I'd say. Really doesn't help you have to burn 5 SP on a really crappy skill to get this. Your Protector shouldn't be dying so much when they're a fairly beefy class, and this just provides a safety net for an area they're really unlikely to fail in. If you absolutely insist on picking it up, make sure it's one of the last things they learn.

En Guarde
Prerequisites: Shields Lv5
Chance of reducing incoming damage by 50%. Passive.

Now this is a little better, very easy to unlock, especially compared to last game, and due to Provoke and Fortify shenanigans this is something that you can reasonably activate often. 50% can be a lot later in the game and flipping a three sided coin each attack can add up pretty fast, honestly. It's not a must have skill and maxing it out is painful, but an early point can help massively improve survivability, you know, if you're lucky.

En Garde on the other hand got buffed. Now it provides an effective 20% increase to the Protector's HP. Not a bad pickup for later, especially since its unlock requirements are no longer as strict.

HP Regen
Prerequisites: HP Up Lv1
Unlocks: Lv5: Aegis
Restores the user's HP at the end of the turn. Passive.

?????????????????? If you want Aegis, yes, with gritted teeth. If you don't want Aegis, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

7 HP restored per turn. Not 7%, 7 HP. Well, this skill isn't quite as bad as it looks, as there are some applicaitons for it. It does stack with the War Magus' Regenall, and that 7 HP per turn is fairly strong in the earlygame! That's around 14% HP recovered per turn there, giving them a ton of bulk. And resting is now a viable option since it only takes away 5 levels, and can now be done at any time, so you can have your Protector dump this skill for more useful ones. Unless you really want Aegis I guess. Past the early-game, it's complete crap and the only reason to take this is to unlock Aegis, which isn't an amazing skill.

Riskwall
Prerequisites: HP Up Lv3
Unlocks: Lv5: Aegis
BUGGED: Lv2 of initial threshold is slightly worse, oh no!
Reduces all damage by a certain amount depending on user's HP. Passive.

A bit of levels into HP Up and you've got another great passive that is easy to max and when combined with Shields, gives you an 18% reduction before you've even started! And it gets better as you get deader! Admittedly the last threshold is kinda useless in most cases, but can let your Protector hang on just a little bit longer to receive that juicy Salve. Once you get your initial defenses up and before you spend 15 floors on the Anti skills, this is a good pick.

If you're wondering why that bug is there, that's actually related to a very deep rabbit hole I'll dive into later, as that sort of writeup is really not fit for a class overview.

This stacks multiplicatively with Shields, causing it so that a healthy Protector with max level Shield and Riskwall starts off with a 17.2% damage reduction, effectively increasing their HP by 20%. And as their HP gets lower, it can increase to to a whopping 35.2% damage reduction, effectively giving them a 54% increase to their HP! It's a very nice defensive boon that gives more and more as the Protector loses HP, making them harder to kill. Very easy skill to unlock and invest in, and a very worthwile pickup.

Smite
Prerequisites: Shields Lv10
A single target Shield attack that attempts to inflict Arm Bind. Shield skill with Bash damage, uses the Arms.

Ah this juicy skill is back and has some real nice numbers behind it, especially since shields offer more DEF this time around, letting you hit harder than ever! Ah, just kidding. Unfortunately Protectors have 32 less STR at level 70 than before so these numbers try to compensate but fail miserably. Still, your Protector literally has nothing better to do when they don't need to defend, so sure whatever, let me just go drink in the corner. Also the Arm Bind chance is alright with their higher LUC, but don't count on it.

Do not be fooled by that high damage modifier. The Protector's STR got utterly gutted in this game, and STR has a massive effect on damage, so Smite's damage output just tanks to terrible levels. And Shield DEF no longer has an impact on Smite's damage in this game, so that's another hit to its damage Smite got. Not a great investment unless you really have nothing else left for the Protector to take.

F. Guard/B. Guard
Prerequisites: Shields Lv1
Unlocks: Lv5: A. Guard
Reduces physical damage dealt to the front/back lines for the entire turn or if the user dies. Shield skill, uses the Arms.

My bread and butter is back! Though does that make one bread and the other butter? I'm referring to F. Guard, of course, I don't think I used B. Guard once, since there's barely any situations you might need it. F. Guard is just so easy to spam and it's even better than before as well as activating multiple times! That last part doesn't really matter, either the attack hits your entire party, which will activate this skill 3 times, or it'll hit the party randomly, so your back row could get pasted. In any case, this was amazing then and it's amazing now, you'll use this skill in basically every fight, max it asap! ...alright to give some credit, due to back row damage reduction, 30% in this case, it does make B. Guard pretty good, but you want 3 people up front to spread damage around, making defending 2 members, your Protector usually not one of them, not a compelling concept.

These skills were overshadowed by Defender in the previous game, but Defender is gone now, so these are now the Protector's bread and butter skills. These skills got some very heavy buffs. Not only are the damage multipliers stronger, the skills can now activate multiple times on the same character! However, the buffs in question also include making these skills RNG based. The multiple activations aren't guaranteed to proc, and every time they do proc the chances of them activating again go down. Still, F. Guard is a very powerful defensive, if not the most powerful defensive, and probably one that will be seeing the most use.

As for B. Guard, it's usefulness was shaky in 1, but it can be understood why it existed in that game. The back row wasn't targeted as often, but the defense increase it provided was nearly miniscule, so a skill to protect that row was understandable, even if it doesn't see use thanks to Defender. Here... well um, the back row got changed to reduce damage by 30%, and like in the other EO games, it's not targeted as often, so you really don't need this skill, as it's pretty redundant with the protection the game provides. B. Guard can easily be ignored without too much fuss in this game thanks to the buffs to the back row mechanics.

A. Guard
Prerequisites: F. Guard Lv5, B. Guard Lv5
Reduces physical damage dealt to the entire party for the entire turn or if the user dies. Shield skill, uses the Arms.

Defender... look at how they massacred my boy. What a great skill in the last game, no wonder it got the smack, A. Guard can be useful, but since it can't protect the entire party, or indeed some of the party if one member gets tagged multiple times, then it's not as effective as just maxing out F. Guard and leaving this and B. Guard to rot away, you are short on SP afterall. I'd say the skill barely justifies the investment, it can be useful, but Defender this is not.

RIP Defender. It got turned into All Guard, and honestly, it's not too great. It requires too much investment to snag, and it's significantly less reliable than F. Guard, and it can't even protect a full party from an AOE physical attack. F. Guard is pretty much their best skill that covers most situations just fine.

1 Guard
Prerequisites: Shields Lv7
Reduces physical damage dealt to a single target for the entire turn or if the user dies. Shield skill, uses the Arms.

Eh, another wonky skill that has its uses and drawbacks. It's difficult to have a single party member targetted 10 times, after all Protectors have the Provoke skill. Survivalist Baitstep? Snrk, yeah for sure man. It can be very useful in making sure a specific target survives the turn but what about everyone else? Why not use F. Guard? Or hell, A. Guard, they offer better overall protection, but there are situations when this is useful. It's not a big an investment as A. Guard, so maybe go for it, but it's a hard sell regardless.

For those of you that have played the later EO games, no this isn't a redirection skill. It's just damage reduction for one party member. Before you get any ideas, this doesn't work with a Loyalty Beast, as Loyalty has priority over Protector Shield skills for some unfathomable reason. I'd say this is a hard pass, as F. Guard covers more people while only having a tiny bit less damage reduction. And as insult to injury, maxing out F. Guard takes up less SP than maxing out 1 Guard.

Antifire/Anticold/Antivolt
Prerequisites: Shields Lv3
Reduces Fire/Ice/Volt damage dealt to the entire party for the entire turn or if the user dies. Shield skill, uses the Arms.

It's SP sink time! Compared to last game where you could leave all 3 anti elem skills at level 5 due to a very useful bug, boy you cannot do that this time. Now you can leave these skills at level 8 for most of the game since most elemental attacks you want to block are party wide and that's all good, but there are some attacks you need to max it out so you don't get completely pasted, especially if you want to heal your party as these skills are no longer bugged! You can max them and nullify all aspects of an attack, have it protect you as many times as you want AND you get healed to boot! You will spend half the game levelling these skills up, but they are some of the best skills in the game, so you have to, no further questions.

The Antielemental skills now nullify attacks and their secondary effects when they absorb damage, so feel free to max them out. Actually, you basically have to max them out, as they're very unreliable at protecting the entire party even at levels 8 and 9. However, you won't need these for the maingame too often, as not too many enemies have access to elemental attacks, and throwing down a Mist can be enough to deal with those if you really need the help. By post-game... mists are still really good for dealing with the usual culprits you'd want these skills for, so they're not actually must-haves for those specific portions of the game. Though obviously having these maxed by then is a huge help. For the main game you can focus on leveling F. Guard and max out these skills at your leisure on the way to post-game. Or ignore them entirely if you don't plan on tackling post-game, up to you.

Antiall
Prerequisites: Shields Lv10, TEC Up Lv10
Reduces elemental damage dealt to the entire party for the entire turn or if the user dies. Shield skill, uses the Arms.

Oh, uh, wow, that was a mighty fall, almost got whiplash. Antiall is an absolutely godawful skill due to two big reasons. Firstly, what the fuck are those prerequisites, WHY WHY WHY would you EVER max out TEC Up on a PROTECTOR????!!!! It does nothing for them, it's only good for Refresh since that has some utility, but you also need to max Shields as well? For a skill that doesn't protect the entire party from an attack. What the fuck were they thinking, there is never a case when you'd want this over using the proper Anti skill, since any enemy that has multiple elementals do so in a nice, standard pattern. Or you just block the scariest one and deal with the others. There is one very very late exception, but this skill will NOT SAVE YOU FROM THE NIGHT OH GOD anyway don't use this garbage, good grief.

Antiall is a terrible skill, skip it entirely. Sure you're saving some SP compared to maxing out the other 3 Antielemental skills which takes 33 SP in total compared to spending 25 SP to max out this skill. So you're basically saving 8 SP for a skill that can't even protect your entire party from an elemental AOE, which is what you'd want it for. You don't encounter too many elemental attacks from random encounters, and most FOEs and bosses in the game have access to only one element, so you're better off using the single Antielemental skills instead of Antiall even in those use cases. There's precisely one boss fight in the game where this skill would be genuinely useful, but said fight is very easy to get past and is not worth wasting a whole 25 SP for. (Note this is different from the one Cross is talking about, and in that fight this skill is abject garbage.)

Fortify
Prerequisites: VIT Up Lv1
Increases the user's physical defense for 5 turns. Buff skill, uses the Head.

Oh hey it's this skill again. It's alright, I used it a couple of times in the last game for a few specific, solitary, challenges, but it doesn't really offer much that F. Guard doesn't. It does have some use now that Provoke isn't bugged garbage. That skill also works like Fortify, so I guess if you stacked them you'd be a physical machine, but that works if they solely target you, which isn't always the case. Anyway, it's alright, but again most of these skills sound neat, but of course Protectors do not have SP to spare.

Now that a specific non-existant skill no longer completely and utterly overshadows this skill, is this worth taking? To be honest, not really, for the exact same problem it wasn't worth taking in 1. There are still other skills that make this one redunant. Two of them in fact, and the Protector is already super bulky in this game.

Provoke
Unlocks: Lv3: Parry
Increases the user's physical defense and chance of being targetted for 5 turns. Buff skill, uses the Head.

Ah now this is much better! Before, Provoke was only a multiplier to the relatively small chance of being targetted, since we don't know exactly how it all goes down, so it looks like it has barely any effect. Here, the results are obvious, past level 7, every single enemy is drawn to you. That could be good, but also very bad, so pick your battles wisely. This doesn't affect AOE attacks, but any single target attack will land right on your face. And that's fine due to Fortify basically being built into this skill, so it's advisable to max it to combine with Shields and Riskwall, and yes, you can combine this with Fortify and Parry to really make a tank, but of course 5 enemies could just wreck your face before you can do anything, so maybe don't do that. Big investment, but can provide big results.

Now that Provoke isn't bugged garbage, it's a great earlygame skill. To go briefly into how enemy aggro works in this game, most of the time the AI will tell the enemy to use "a standard targeting routine", which makes it so that the enemy has a large chance of targeting the party member with the highest current HP in the front row, a decent chance of targeting the party member with the highest current HP in the back row, and a small chance of going after someone random. The AI can also tell the enemy to go after a specific target, which overrides every aggro effect and completely ignores the effects of Provoke and Baitstep. However "standard targeting" routines will be overridden by Provoke's chances, and since it's a 100% aggro rate at levels 7 and above, it'll always redirect the enemy's fire in those cases. Well, not quite. There's an additional condition required for Provoke to work. The attack in question must be a single target attack. Splash target, random target, and other such attacks are entirely out of the question and ignore this skill. And you'll be seeing more of those as the game goes on, causing this to fall off past earlygame. But in the earlygame, you'll be seeing plenty of single target skills, so this can be a good way for the Protector to defend the rest of their party during that time. Oh and since Fortify is basically built into this skill despite having a weaker defense boost, there's little reason to take Fortify.

Note that targeting routines are decided at the start of the turn, so it'll take until next turn for Provoke's aggro effects to kick in. Comboing it with the Survivalist's 1st Turn is a complete waste since AI routines are decided before that skill activates as well.

Parry
Prerequisites: Provoke Lv3
Nullifies all physical damage for the entire turn or if the user dies. Buff skill, uses the Arms.

Now we're playing with power. In the right circumstances this skill is incredible, you effectively ignore all physical attacking enemies for a turn and let your team clean up, but of course outside of that situation it's not that great. Firstly this practically needs to be paired with Provoke, and of course it only works for physical damage. You also don't need to invest in it that much since, like with 1 Guard, there's no way you'll be attacked physically 20 times in one turn, also it, again, doesn't work for AOE attacks. Well, it will nullify one of the AOE hits I guess, but yeah situational, that's what makes it incredible.

This skill also makes Fortify redundant, since it nullifies physical damage entirely. However since it only protects the Protector, this means that this skill only really helps the party if you combo this with Provoke. And once Provoke starts falling off in usefulness, this skill does as well, since Protectors will likely want to move onto spamming F. Guard by then. If you do end up taking this skill, you don't need to max it out. A few SP or even only 1 point is fine, as even with Provoke active, Protectors shouldn't be targeted that often, and they have a decent amount of bulk to survive a few stray hits in the earlygame.

Refresh
Prerequisites: TEC Up Lv1
Removes ailments from a single target. Cannot dispel Petrify. Heal skill, uses the Head.

Well Protectors can't heal anymore, thank goodness, but they can now remove... most ailments. Since it's single target it's not as useful as it could be and your Protector should be using F. Guard or something instead but it can be something different. Obviously not necessary on a team with a Medic or War Magus, but if you don't feel immediately threatened and don't want to use a Theriaca B for some weird reason, sure why not.

Well, it's only 6 SP to take, but it being single target really makes it not super appealing. If you have a Medic or Gunner, you really don't need this skill. Also, Therica Bs basically do this skill's job better, as they cost no TP, no SP, and can actually cure Petrification. I mean this skill might be nice to have in emergency situations in case you run out or forget to pack Therica Bs, but even then I'd consider it a low priority grab.

Flee
Chance of escaping battle at start of turn. Can warp to previous floor if one was visited during the current trip. Coward skill, uses the Legs.

Huh. Okay. This skill is weird, but hey, guaranteed escape at max level I guess? The most important aspect is the warp part of this skill works even if an FOE corners you, which prevents any kind of escape otherwise. That's, uh, that's about it, it's pretty useless outside of max level since you can never rely on it, but escaping isn't hard to do and also getting cornered by FOEs is only done by casuals and LPers, so whatever, r-right?

This may seem redundant with EO2's naturally high escape rates, especially once you factor in Esc Up. However it does have a use in that it can rescue the party if they get cornered by FOEs, which can happen frequently in this game due to the revised FOE mechanics. Do note that the warp component has to activate for this skill to rescue you from such situations, as the escape rate is disabled there.

Painless
Nullifies all damage, ailments or binds for the rest of the turn. Does not affect buffs, debuffs or dispels. Force Skill, uses the Arms.

Oh hey the only skill without an image because, well, that's everything that it does. Painless is one of the best Force skills, since you can activate it every other turn if you fancy burning loads of Axcela IIs. You might need to to get past certain enemies with terrifying skills that will kill you if you don't PUSH THIS PANIC BUTTON RIGHT THE HELL NOW!!! So yeah, big fan, really easy to rely on and make you complacent.

One of the best Force skills in the entire game by far. Guaranteed invincibility for 1 turn is one of the most powerful effects in the game, especially if you're in the post-game. (And you can activate this more frequently if you stuff Axcelas down their throat.) By post-game, the Antielementals and this skill are the main selling points to take this class, and it makes for a fantastic panic button. Especially since this is one of the few ways to deal with some mechanics at certain post-game bosses.

Thankfully the Protector got through unscathed, might've become better actually, but it was already a great class last game. Sure it's weaker and some of its skills are wonky, but when you're not spending all your SP on the Anti skills, they have some great tools and make my life much less of a headache when you don't vote in a healer AGAIN CUT ME A BREAK ALREADY!

The Protector's overall usefulness thankfully did not get hammered into the ground like with the Landsknecht and the Survivalist, and I'd say they're simultaneously better and yet not really a must-have like in the last game. While the Protectors are overall a better class than they were in 1, they aren't a mandatory pickup like in 1 since you have more options to cover up your party's defensive holes. Though if you do choose to take one along, they can really be a huge boon to the party, increasing their survivability greatly.

Crosspeice · Sat Jun 19, 2021 12:19 am

Holly and Lavin: Sword or Axe

Holly and Lavin: Sword or Axe

Hmmmmmmm...

...

I'll take this Kalinga, please!

One Carp Sword, thank ye!

HMM?!

Oh, heh, nice little sword there. Reminds me of my younger days when I foolishly dabbled in such things. Now of course I stick to the much stronger axe.

Ugh, yeh cannae have fun with axes, I noo that from me... lumberjack days. Swords are teh way to go!

I understood like half of that, where's your accent from, Caledonia? And why did you hesitate saying lumberjack?

Well me family says we're from the sunkern islands of North Gaul, where we have a long tradition of fightin'- ah, wait, why am I tellin' yeh all this??? Stupid axehead with a pretteh face!

Oh, sorry to tell you, cute sword stooge, but I'm already taken!

Call meh cute again and I'll take yer head!

You wanna go?!

OCH, YE WANNA GO?!

Um...

What?!

My father says anything you break in the shop will be broken a second time on your head...

...

Wanna get a drink?

If yeh're payin', pretteh boy, then this cute stooge will oblige.

Alright, once we're drunk we'll prove who's better through combat, just how gran used to train me!

Now yer speakin' meh language!

RandomKesaranPasaran · Sat Jun 19, 2021 1:39 am

I forgot about the evil eyes completely and I'm not exactly sure as to how considering the quest here. Probably just got overshadowed by ladybugs summoning horrible death flowers made of hate and poison. EO2o sure is a game that loves its players alright.

Wonder when Lavin's going to get the bad news after bash damage conditionals rear their ugly head.

Araxxor · Sun Jul 04, 2021 7:59 am

Jank Odyssey Blast From the Past Edition: Etrian Odyssey I (Alternate Title: EO1 Survivalist is Broken)

So this Let's Play is a direct sequel to the Etrian Odyssey 1 LP. It was a pretty comprehensive LP with lots of explanations of various mechanics, but a few stuff slipped through the cracks. There were just some mechanics we had absolutely no details on, as there was absolutely no documentation of them anywhere, nor did we have the tools and knowledge to grab that information for ourselves. Until now.

I wasn't really planning on making this update as looking through EO1's remaining mechanics was more of a personal curiosity than anything I figured anyone would truly be that interested in. I was very wrong, and this update is not simply just going to list the explanations of the remaining mechanics that we didn't cover too well in the first LP. As horrific some of EO2's design decisions and coding can be, it had to have gotten those properties from somewhere. There's a reason why this is a Jank Odyssey update.

Critical Hit Rates

There was an assumption that LUC might've had an effect on critical hit rates in 1. We were wrong, it does not affect it at all. Critical hit rates are dead simple in 1. Player units have a 5% chance to crit, while enemy units have a 3% chance to crit. The Ronin's Crit Up passive added on +1% to +10% to the rate, getting up to a 15% crit rate at most. Yeah not that exciting.

However, this factoid does reveal one thing. Allow me to bring up a statement from the first LP.

Enemies can crit in this game, to thunderous applause, I assume, so having a high stat in this can be annoying, but we don't know the specifics to really assume. If LUC only effects item drops, then this stat is completely useless for an enemy.

As enemies can't get item drops from killing players in 1, and we just found out that LUC does absolutely nothing for crits as well, that means that LUC is a completely useless stat for enemies in EO1! At no point does it ever get checked or used for anything!

Preemptives and Blindsides

The mechanics are also simple here. The rammifications a bit less so, but we'll get to that in a moment.

When getting into a battle, the game first checks to see if the party gets a preemptive strike. If that chance fails, the game then rolls to see if the party is blindsided. And if that fails, the battle starts out on even footing.

The preemptive chance is determined purely by the average level of the party and the average level of the enemy formation. If the average party level is greater than or equal to Enemy Average Level + 10, the preemptive strike rate will be set to 5%. Otherwise it just gets set to 3%. The Survivalist's Ambush passive is added onto this rate, making it very good at giving you frequent preemptive attacks.

As for how blindsides work, enemies just have a 3% chance to blindside you, that's all. And given the roll can only take place after a failed preemptive check, that means the blindside rate is even smaller than that. But I want to bring your attention to another passive skill.

Aware
Prerequisites: Ambush LV2
Decreases the chance of being blindsided by enemies. Passive.

The description for this skill is a bit inaccurate. It doesn't affect the blindside chance directly. It instead has a chance to nullify a blindside if one happens. Of course given how blindsides are pretty rare, this means that this skill at level 10 effectively drops the chance of getting blindsided from 3% to a mere 2.1%! For a whopping 10 SP! That's a beyond terrible deal, and this skill should never be invested in, especially when Ambush effectively does the same thing, but better!

Gathering

A quick refresher on how gathering worked in 1.

Mugwort. 50% chance.
Hardwood. 30% chance.
Red Fruit. 10% chance.

This is the data from the B1F Chop point in that game. As you can see, the chances don't add up to 100%. So if you manage to hit that missing 10%, you end up getting nothing. Thankfully no gathering ambushes in this game at least. This is where the gathering skills come in.

The gathering skills worked as we thought, they're actually a multiplier applied to the item chances, so you can eliminate the chances to gather nothing altogether if the level of the gathering skill is high enough. However, this comes at a cost...

Mugwort. 60% chance.
Hardwood. 36% chance.
Red Fruit. 12% chance.

With a level 10 gathering skill, the rates become equal to what I listed above instead. Except this doesn't add up to 100% either, going up to 108% instead. So what happens to the excess 8%? This is where the bad news comes in. The game still only does a X out of 100 roll here, and more relevantly, the game checks the rates from common to rate instead of rare to common like with item drops. Yes that's right, this means that leveling the gathering skills too high makes it harder to gather rare items! So the rates would actually look like this instead:

Mugwort. 60% chance.
Hardwood. 36% chance.
Red Fruit. 4% chance.

Ouch. A level 10 gathering skill makes it more than twice as hard to snag the rare drop here. While leveling gathering skills does grant more gathering attempts, it also makes it harder to hunt for rare items! Fortunately the multipliers from these skills don't stack, only the gathering attempts given. The game only checks for the highest leveled gathering skill, so you thankfully can't screw yourself into common drops only with a gathering party.

Escape Rates

Strap yourselves in, because this one is a doozy!

There are actually 2 parts to this mechanic. For the first part, when a party member attempts to escape, they'll have a 30% chance to succeed. If they fail, +2% is added onto this chance. This affects the entire party, not just the party member that failed to escape, and there's no cap on how high this can get. However, if a party member fails this roll, that doesn't automatically mean they failed the escape attempt. The game actually gives them a second chance to escape. Sort of.

Now for the second part. The game then uses this formula to determine a secondary escape rate:

(Party's Total LUC / Party's Total Level) / 3

The result is then rounded down.

If the result is 0 or below, then the party member has a 0% chance to escape. (Automatic failure.)
If the result is 1, then the party member has a 33% chance to escape.
If the result is 2, then the party member has a 66% chance to escape.
If the result is 3 or above, then the party member has a 100% chance to escape. (Automatic success.)

So this secondary escape formula only works if your party's total LUC is 3x above their total level. If you somehow have 9 times more LUC than level, than escape attempts are guaranteed to succeed. Which only happens at the very beginning of the game. Here, let me show you the Suvivalist's level up table, which is the class that has the highest LUC in EO1.

Do you see the problem here? Even assuming you have a party of 5 Survivalists, you only get the guaranteed escape rates at level 1. The moment you level up to 2, you actually plumet straight down to the 33% escape rate tier, skipping the 66% tier entrely! You would need LUC boosts to hit the 66% chance. And then once you hit level 6, the secondary escape attempt will always fail! Fortunately the base 30% escape rate is rather generous, giving an 87.5% chance to flee on the first turn if everyone tries to run. Of course if you have less than a 5 man party, the escape rate goes from generous to very strict.

Yes this is the only other mechanic in the game LUC effects, and is why the Survivalist has the highest LUC stat in the game, so they can run away more easily. But as I've said, this only works at the very beginning of the game. Once your party hits level 5 or 6, it essentially ceases to function. Oh and LUC is not even checked for if an enemy tries to escape. They'll always succeed in their escape attempts, so LUC is still completely useless for enemies!

Oh but that's not all! I have one last thing I wish to ~~rake over the coals~~ point out. If you recall, the Survivalist had a skill in the first game that boosted escape rates.

Escape
Prerequisites: Quicken LV3
Increases the party's escape rate for 5 turns and increases DEF past level 4. Buff skill, uses the Legs.

You may be wondering if this affects the initial 30% escape rate or the essentially non-functional secondary roll. I'm sad to say it only affects the latter and has absolutely no effect on the former RNG roll. Considering that LUC essentially goes defunct at level 6, and you need to be level 11 to max this skill out ASAP, it should go without saying that this skill is beyond worthless, as it cannot function past the first few floors of the game. Aside from the paltry defense buff, which barely reduces damage.

I have no idea what the fuck even happened here. With this skill or with this... entire mechanic really. I guess it's true what they say about the apple not falling too far from the tree. EO2 had to have gotten its eldritch properties from somewhere, after all.

RandomKesaranPasaran · Sun Jul 04, 2021 3:52 pm

ahahaha what the fuck getting worse at gathering because you got better at gathering

also double ahahaha what the fuck that secondary portion of the evade formula

EO jank!

Crosspeice · Mon Aug 09, 2021 5:49 pm

Part 7: Running From Raptors

Part 7: Running From Raptors

Woodland Ruins

Time for the hardest part of the earlygame, reaching the checkpoint on 5F before running out of TP. It's gonna be a close one.

Any steps forward can be meaningful progress. More experience, and more knowledge of the map can make your next trips go further and faster.

Battings, nine o'clock.

Are you doing this on purpose?

Was the triple backflip dodge really necessary?

Apparently this game didn't get the memo that encounters should be reduced around FOEs, I had three within 15 steps of each other.

I actually went and checked the game maps, and it turns out the whole "encounter rates tend to be lower in FOE infested areas" originated with EO3. In the first 2 games, FOE patrol zones tend to be just as dangerous as the rest of the floor. Interesting how many series staples truly got established in that entry.

It's a weird bias you can have in these games, I didn't notice it at all in EO1. If I didn't get an encounter I was like of course I didn't, but if I did get an encounter then I like that's unlucky. Never crossed my mind I was just wrong lmao.

All these years later, and sometimes EO1 and EO2's collective jank still surprise me.

Neat.

Neat!

Neet!

Okay enough of that.

This corridor patrolled by a Raptor has class exclusive shortcuts, so better have them or you're trapped!

Or a Warp Wire.

But it is immediately apparent that doing so will be no simple task. A monstrous, grey spider whose web is strong as steel waits for you there... the metallic strands are spun far and wide. You wonder if there's any way through. After each member tries, your landsknecht steps forth valiantly. The spider has fled, but you are powerless to cut its steely web and move forward! The landsknecht raises a sharp blade and brings it down with a wild cry. The tough fibers are chopped in two, and the nest begins to fall apart! Thanks to your landsknecht, you push through the brush and reach the passage beyond.

Indeed game, only a Landsknecht is strong enough to cut a steel web.

We're really keeping up the pretense of landsknechts being physically stronger than ronin, huh?

I know the class gating is done for gameplay reasons, but the flavor text they went with to justify these can get pretty

The spoils for you.

Was nae issue for the strongest in yer guild!

Hmm?!

Don't drop your book in the fireplace.

More defense is always a good thing. ...Man, it feels so surreal to say that after several Etrian Odyssey games of armor being pure crap.

Just as you are about to take your first step, a rabbit darts past your legs into the path. You gape in horror as the leaves attack the rabbit, devouring its meat in an instant! It seems the plants are not only carnivorous, but vicious as well. You blanch after the gruesome sight, but your war magus steps forward fearlessly. The war magus produces a vial and applies the purple liquid from it to your bodies. It seems the salve will mask your scent, making it safe to walk down the path! You will have to suppress your gag reflex, but you may now continue down the hidden path.

Always felt to me like the whole "war magi are dark arts witches/wizards" thing was underutilized, both in this game and its remake.

All yours, friend.

Uh, thanks, it suits me. Do you always carry a vial of that stuff around? It's very useful in repelling people.

This is most unrefining!

While the smell is a pain, I also wouldn't mind having more of this stuff.

+12 DEF on a piece of non-body armor? What is this!? And a 3 TP increase to boot, geez!

The future is now, old man.

The other two hidden paths require a Protector and a Ronin, so we'll be back when we have the 5F and 6F party. Hopefully we can get there without wasting more Nectars...

Checkpoints are always on floors 3 and 5 of a given stratum, but it's much appreciated after how 1 starved you of shortcuts sometimes. Also lets you reach the boss a lot more easily instead of having to wade through all 5 floors of a stratum.

Anythin'?

Weird trees that kathy might like, nothing interesting for the map.

Thank god we're nearly done, I'll be hearing Logan's yelps in my sleep.

You just need the plushy bed like mine.

What a terrifying presence that could kill me ten times over, hohohohoho!

Ah, sweet sanctuary. There's a little bit of 4F we skipped because we're out of TP with basically everyone, but getting here is so nice.

Seems to be all anyone is talking about now...

One of my guests told me about it, and I know they'd never lie. It gave me a real scale to hear about all those different types of monsters mixed together! Are you sure you'll be okay? Don't overdo it... you can't explore if you're dead!

He always sounds so disappointed!

can't imagine why

How are things going? I'd say your careers are taking off nicely. The inn's owner came by here the other day for a scheduled checkup on her daughter. She told me you were some of the better explorers staying with her. But you should still be careful and look after yourselves.

It's a new sword... made of a super-dense metal... urrgh...

No issue for me, the strongest in our guild.

Hrm, I'm pretty sure I could've kicked it in position.

As our endless healed fractures show, you overestimate my leg strength.

Wait, no! Oh... I'm sorry... you didn't have to... I-I didn't mean for you to... w-well, thank you very much for helping me. I didn't have any idea how to move that thing. *sigh* I shouldn't do this to customers, or they'll never come back... I'm really sorry! W-Well, I'll be cleaning up, but just call me if you need something!

Boar Spear, requires 5 Red Shards and 5 Aragonite - Sword, +15 speed.

Btw, most swords have +20 speed, so equipping this is making Holly slower, but it really isn't that big a deal. When the bad weapons come up, I'll definitely mention them.

Gotta love those pointless differences.

Be careful, though. I hear there's quite the beastie up on that floor. This one lot nearly got wiped out by the thing, before they were saved by another guild. And I'll tell yeh, they knew what they were about. The fiend was just too strong. If yeh're planning to go up against it, be careful. I don't like to hear about guilds dying!

Hmmmmmmm?!

...yes, yes, it's your turn to join the party.

Ah, what a debut we will have!

We will be requiring the slashy woman, but your turn will be aftering.

The guards are actually being nice and talking to me! Usually they'd ignore me or call me names...

Oh goody a depressing backstory.

I got this request from one of the Duke's guards. Quite the gentleman, that lad. He waxed eloquent about all this guild had done for him... and judging by his description, he can only have meant yeh. The young guard over at the Duke's Palace can tell yeh more about the job. Get going!

Oh hey, Gerson was drinking with that guy earlier.

Who?

Yeh want to hear the details anyway, eh? I knew yeh wouldn't be satisfied... all right... there's a geezer lives far from the main ciy, name of Chapman. More commonly known around Lagaard as Braggart Chap. His story is that he was an explorer once, but no one believes it. Insists that there's a spring that collects the moon's tears. Swears up and down he saw it. Nice story, sure, but this is Braggart Chap. I doubt the man's been as far as the 5th floor. But if yeh're going to chase tall takes, I won't stop yeh. Just don't get your hopes up.

i hope they're in twisted, gnarled shapes

Guh! You're as stealthy as death itself, ohohohoho!

Apparently, the trees in the Labyrinth have been withering abnormally. He wants yeh to find the cause. I dunno much about it, but it sounds pretty serious. Check in at the hospital to get more details. G'luck!

Not well enough for this one.

Hrmmm...

They say you've even reached the 5th floor. If so, take even more caution than before. There's a fierce monster at the 5th floor's end. Don't take it lightly, or you'll regret it. That's all the advice I have for you. Never underestimate the Labyrinth.

It must be someone from the guard corps. Please wait here.

I found him! Or, well, he found me, he initiated the conversation! Does that make us friends?!

I dinnae think that's hoo it works.

Huh? Don't you remember me? Oh... I guess we all look the same with our helmets on, haha. I'm one of the guys you brought those supplies to in the Labyrinth... remember? Yeah, exactly! Well, I've got another favor to ask of you. The roads of High Lagaard are decorated with a beautiful mineral called Amazonite. Some roads are in need of repair, and we were going to fix the, but we don't have any Amazonite left. It's usually no problem to get some more, but we're pretty busy now, so could you help out? All you have to do is Mine at an item point in the Labyrinth. Once you collect five chunks of Amazonite, just take them to Cass at the bar. If you don't have any questions, I'll get back to work now. Hope to see you soon!

Beware of that place, I've heard too many stories of explorers losing their lives there. I'm sure you'll be all right. Just... use extreme caution.

If it's about the quest, I'm terribly sorry, but could you come back tonight? It's a personal request, so it wouldn't be fair to go over it while I'm on my rounds. Now then, I have work to do. I hope to see you later.

Huh. I know the Labyrinth had time-gated stuff, but I didn't realize NPCs in town did so too. Seems... odd, given that an inn rest is completely effortless compared to in the Labyrinth where an inn rest would be more effort to get to. Not surprised the rest of the series mostly didn't use this mechanic again.

Fine with me, I never sleep, hohohohoho.

you were definitely snoring when you were hanging in the rafters

It's called meditating! Ahem.

We've been getting strange reports from explorers and guards about the matter... have you seen it, too? Parts of the Labyrinth are withering away unnaturally. I hope I'm overthinking it, but I'm afraid I'm not. There must be some reason behind it. No one's too worried about it yet, but it could lead to some very serious circumstances. I'll turn over whatever data you collect to the Northern Academy. Oh, I guess I should explain that they're an organization of healers across this hemisphere. But to get the ball rolling, I need you to verify a few specific instances for proof. There are currently clusters of trees on the 5th and 6th floors that are withering away. I think samples from three areas should be sufficient to begin. Oh, just to let you know, this request has nothing to do with the hospital or the Grand Duchy. I don't want to spread rumors without evidence to back them up. Please keep this a secret. Once you have the samples, can you turn them in at the bar? I'm counting on you!

And with that Derek has probably more dialogue than most EO1 patrons. There's 5 spots to observe trees between 4F and 8F and you get a nice chunk of cash for finding more than you're supposed to, so we'll have this quest for a fair while. And with the lengthy town visit, get used to these, we've got to get a new team ready to explore 5F!

Hindi, requires 7 Long Pins and 7 Bug Wings.

We need Eleanore for a shortcut so she's back up to par, though since it hasn't been long she's just going for Kienzan/Midareba. I did go a little overboard with Lily's Front Guard, she can only use it 3 times, but there's really not much for Protectors to go for this early and it'll be great for FOEs and Bosses if you're going for short, nuking fights. kathy has her eternal point in Revive and is gonna max Healer to make Cure and Salve cheap and powerful! Since I have item drop cheats I'll ignore Scavenge, but would highly advise you grab it early, it's literally free money.

If you can't cheat (or just choose not to), absolutely grab Scavenge if you can. It's broken as hell in this game and makes things so much easier and much less of a headache.

Ah, you've returned before they did to pick me up. Hmmhmmhmm.

I even took the scenic route.

Four, five... yes, that's all of them. I'm still shocked yeh knew that guard so well. Can't forget yer reward of course. I'll be counting on yeh!

Exciting quests!

Some of the flavor text can be pretty interesting, but wow I absolutely do not miss doing quests in original EO2.

A Sudden Gust of Wind that Calls for Death

You look almost disappointed.

Well I don't mind getting a little more injured!

less work for me at least

Gashtor

HP: 300
STR: 17
VIT: 17
TEC: 17
AGI: 17
LUC: 17
Level: 9
Exp: 0

Skills
Fangs: Uses the Head. Deals 150% Cut damage to a single target and attempts to inflict Paralysis. Has a 50% base infliction chance, a 100% accuracy modifier and a 150% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

100%

125%

100%

100%

Disable Vulnerabilities

25%

10%

25%

50%

10%

Drops
None

Conditional: None

I guess we should easily crush this FOE while we have an incredibly powerful team. If you know what to spec for, then you can get very powerful very quickly, I'm just spreading out skills just for some variety. Two healers might seem overkill, but Alastor is much faster with those heals, and can do other things, whereas kathy will remain in the back row for probably the entire LP. It also means we can't die.

Atlus wouldn't solve the "if you know what to spec for, you can get powerful very quickly" problem until...what, EOU? I think that's the earliest instance of them realizing that significant TP cost increases at important skill levels would discourage rushing the most powerful skills, at least somewhat.

Gashtors are basically the starter FOE. Strong enough to destroy you on the first fight, but later on when you're more powerful, they're pretty manageable. Is generally the standard pattern for FOEs in the EO series, though going toe to toe with most other EO2 FOEs requires more effort to pull off compared to other EO games.

HIYAH! Nice to cross off a revenge, now when we get to the next stratum, I can cross off a lot more!

I don't want to knowing how many there are.

The danger to travellers is no more, and all may pass this point without fear. Your quest is complete. When you have the time, go to the bar and report your work!

By the way, once you complete this quest, that Gashtor is permanently dead. It's one of the few FOEs that never respawns.

The guards were chuffed to see how strong yeh were! The Explorers Guild isn't just here to explore that Labyrinth, yeh know. Sometimes yeh'll have to pitch in and help around town, so come see me now and again, eh? Ahh, yes, the reward. Here yeh go, and I'll be counting on yer help again soon!

they're a little bitter, but mix in some cocoa powder and it goes down a treat.

4F B4 Mine Point

Ambush Chance: 10%
Ambush Encounter:
40% Raflesia x1, Hypnowl x1
40% Hypnowl x3
20% Raflesia x1

Amazonite: 60% chance. Sells for 30en.
1 required for Iron Glove - Gloves, DEF+10, VIT+1 - sells for 380en
1 required for Bird Stare - Accessory, Sleep Resist Up 50% - sells for 800en
1 required for Venom Ring - Accessory, Poison Resist Up 50% - sells for 800en
1 required for Leg Guard - Accessory, Leg Bind Resist Up 50% - sells for 800en
3 required for Matchlock - Gun, ATK+46, STR+3 - sells for 530en
7 required for Warabide - Katana, ATK+39, STR+2, -5 speed - sells for 450en
5 required for Paint the town blue

Aragonite: 25% chance. Sells for 35en.
1 required for Luck Beads - Accessory, LUC+10 - sells for 200en
5 required for Boar Spear - Sword, ATK+37, STR+2, +15 speed - sells for 350en
7 required for Tshirovha - Axe, ATK+39, STR+2 - sells for 410en

Garnet: 15% chance. Sells for 100en.
1 required for Power Ring - Accessory, STR+5 - sells for 200en
1 required for Apt Piece - Accessory, TEC+5 - sells for 200en

There's one last floor to this stratum, but there's a couple things to finish on 4F. This is the only gathering point on this floor that ambushes you with Hypnowls, which are found next floor. Bit annoying, but it's nice and close to the Pole.

Dodging dinos already, what an adventure, heh.

This FOE is such a pain to actually get around from this side that I considered just killing it.

I'm pretty sure that's a behavior some EO players have. Puzzle or just walking around them is too much of a pain in the ass, so just kill the FOE to save themselves the trouble. Which can work in most EO games but uh, due to how strong EO2 FOEs are, that's almost always a bad idea in this game unless the FOE in question is a flying one.

Wah, that light magic burns!

It's just a healing paste...

You look around and find that one of the trees nearby has turned grey. Upon closer inspection, it seems almost as if it's turned to stone. Just then, kathy lets out an astonished cry.

ahh. they're fucked. awesome.

The affliction has spread! Many of the trees around you have changed color. You now remember the quest you accepted at the hospital. You agreed to investigate the abnormalities found on trees within the Labyrinth. You note down your current coordinates, and leave the area of strange trees.

Hey, get behind me, don't get close to those weird things!

i just wanna stroke them...

There are five tripwires lain, and all but one will set off the trap. It's a simple snare, but a difficult one to see through. As you give up on the trap, one by one, your ronin waits for a chance to step in. Once the way is clear, the ronin sits in a meditative position and closes both eyes. ...... The ronin's blade lashes out, slicing one of the tripwires! Before you can blink, the blade is back in its sheath, and the trap lies exposed to all. Thanks to your ronin, the trap has been destroyed, and you may proceed down the trail.

Wowzings, how did you know which was the ones?

You'd be surprised how many books I've read feature this as a puzzle.

Creepity creep.

Oh no, five Annettes.

A 50% Arm Bind resistance can be very helpful for your big, physical attackers, or even some insurance for your Protector, so we'll store this for later, most accessories are worth keeping!

You can also stack multiples for complete immunity. Granted Arm Bind resistance isn't really needed right now.

Suddenly, arrows from all directions, piercing the ground near your feet! It seems that the hidden passage is riddled with traps. As you contemplate how to pass the traps, your protector pushes you aside and steps forward. The arrows become little more than a nuisance against the protector's raised shield. You may now follow the protector and pass the forest wall.

I'll take the lead!

Makes a change...

And that's all the class shortcuts we'll be encountering for a while. They can be a little fun, but it is a pain being a member down if you decide not to grind one of each class in the game, you can see why we never see these after this game. And later ones have way worse requirements! But hey, that's all of 4F done, that was quick.

Good grief +12 DEF on a mere shield, and this early on, are you all seeing this!?

Horn Mace, requires 7 Red Shards and 3 Hard Roots - Stave, -3 speed.

Slice Whip, requires 15 Metal Hulls and 3 Bent Twigs.

And +20 HP this early that you can fit into your weapon slot! (And most staff users don't care too much about the Staff's attack power all too much.) Good grief, they're just piling on the defensive options!

We're up and onward now, completely done with 4F!

new floor, new cuties.

Well to each their own, but it is quite fun finding new denizens on new floors.

Heh, the great adventures start here. Though, are we forgetting anything?

Got the Warp Wire, so don't think so.

We should be very fining with this party!

...what do you mean they already left???

That's what my nose is telling me, let's kick 'em when they get back.

Ahem, so I was only planning on having Eleanore back in the party for the 4F shortcut, she was gonna tag out with Juthro and then we'd explore the new floor from there. Except I completely forgot and she'll be in the party for the entire floor. Whoops! As an apology to Prexot for forgetting their character, Juthro will be in the boss fight, and will be doing the stratum clean up and 6F as planned. Anyway, we have a new monster.

Cube Gel

HP: 114
STR: 13
VIT: 14
TEC: 13
AGI: 15
LUC: 14
Level: 14
Exp: 427

Skills
Acid: Uses the Arms. Deals 75% Untyped damage to a single target, healing the user by 50% of the damage dealt. Has a 90% accuracy modifier and a 100% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

50%

200%

200%

Disable Vulnerabilities

150%

150%

Drops
Gel Core: 25% chance, sells for 13en.
2 required for Warhammer - Stave, ATK+41, HP+10, -3 speed - sells for 370en
2 required for Hell Claw - Claw, ATK+61, Type: Fire - sells for 1,210en
5 required for Tabarzin - Axe, ATK+46, Type: Fire - sells for 560en

Conditional: Kill with Stab damage
Fiber Hide: 80% chance, sells for 25en
1 required for Plume Boot - Footwear, DEF+11, AGI+2 - sells for 350en

Aw yeah, freakin elemental weak enemy baby. Even with the physical reduction, Acid doesn't heal enough for it to actually stall you. You'll also have some kind of elemental damage, surely, making these a complete non issue.

In EO2U, gel enemies in general got reworked to focus on "uses nasty skills on death" as a gimmick. Cube gels, if I remember right, threw out a physical damage debuff on death, which is...yeah, pretty nasty.

Ah, Gels. They're kind of weird and annoying. Resists all physicals and can restore their own HP, but they don't have much HP. Also any elemental and ailment will shut it down. So odd.

5F D1 Take Point

Ambush Chance: 10%
Ambush Encounter:
40% Hypnowl x3
40% Raflesia x1, Hypnowl x1
20% Raflesia x1

Tiny Bloom. 50% chance. Sells for 25en.
1 required for Nectar - Medicine, revives the target to 10-16HP, TEC depending - sells for 500en
2 required for Theriaca A - Medicine, LV5 Unbind, removes all binds from the target - sells for 100en
3 required for Theriaca B - Medicine, LV8 Refresh, removes all ailments from the target - sells for 100en

Sour Fruit. 25% chance. Sells for 30en.
1 required for Ward Chime - Item, Lv2 Stalker, reduces danger values by 33% for 50 steps - sells for 200en
2 required for Guard Sole - Item, Lv2 Patrol, reduces damage tile damage by 40% for 50 steps - sells for 200en
3 required for Poison Gas - Item, Lv1 Poison, 15% base infliction chance, 20-30 damage - sells for 450en

Green Nut. 15% chance. Sells for 75en.
1 required for Blaze Oil - Item, Lv1 Blaze, imbues the target's regular attacks with Fire damage - sells for 250en, must be restocked
1 required for Freeze Oil - Item, Lv1 Frost, imbues the target's regular attacks with Ice damage - sells for 250en, must be restocked
1 required for Shock Oil - Item, Lv1 Shock, imbues the target's regular attacks with Volt damage - sells for 250en, must be restocked

And now you can see that throughout a stratum a gathering point will barely change and just gets worse to gather at the higher you go due to nastier encounters. Close to the pole, but it doesn't matter, the first one you find in a stratum is the one you'll go to whenever you need it.

Who?

you stop that

Hypnowl

HP: 108
STR: 13
VIT: 14
TEC: 21
AGI: 14
LUC: 14
Level: 15
Exp: 571

Skills
Powder: Uses the Head. Attempts to inflict Sleep on the entire party. Has an 80% base infliction chance and a 100% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

100%

150%

100%

150%

100%

100%

Disable Vulnerabilities

100%

0%

100%

100%

Drops
Feather: 25% chance, sells for 13en.
1 required for Volcanic - Gun, ATK+43 - sells for 370en
1 required for Bird Stare - Accessory, Sleep Resist Up 50% - sells for 800en
2 required for Hide Plate - Heavy Armor, DEF+22 - sells for 310en
5 required for Sensui - Katana, ATK+55, STR+2 - sells for 1,020en
7 required for Carp Sword - Sword, ATK+43 - sells for 440en
10 required for Beast Bow - Bow, ATK+39, STR+1 - sells for 440en

Conditional: None

Gah, these fuckers. If we're finding a Petaloid-like enemy this early and they were a massive pain, you can imagine this is an even bigger pain with some stronger monsters around. Definitely need to be taken out asap but thankfully they are pretty fragile. If you want consistency, you can equip your Gunner or Medic with a Bird Stare, but we won't need to use those kinda strats... yet.

These got shuffled into the 2nd Stratum in EO2U for fairly good reason, I think.

Ahahaha what the hell? Hey say hi to Petaloids in owl form! AOE 80% base infliction rate, what the shit. Yeah easily one of the most dangerous enemies in this stratum due to how they let other enemies pound you down so easily! Also Torpor doesn't work on these enemies if you were using that strategy, so don't try that. Use Poison instead if you have that.

Guess it didn't get much from just suckling on your shield.

He gives a start as you approach, then smiles and addresses you.

No need to be afraid, though you never know what could be lurking, hohohoho.

Please do not giving him sheer heart attack.

Ah! A group of explorers, I see! What are you after?

You fill him in on the details of your task, and the guard expresses his bewilderment.

A flower? But... this floor is filled with flowers.

No way.

Oh! Maybe I know the one you mean. I think it's in the southeast region of this floor.

You thank the guard and return to your search.

The guard is another "wrong way, idiot", but this is an immediate dead end so it's not a big deal to ignore him.

This item can be handy for the upcoming boss fight.

The thin, grey trees are twisted in a way that seem to call out to you. You think back to the doctor's words and take an instinctive step back. What could this disturbing tableau mean? You note down the coordinates of the strange trees and leave the area.

no hope for them

Thankfully the Raptor does not come into the room.

Hmm... hmhmhm. Am I might be sinking?

You're not that short!

Looking carefully at your surroundings, you notice something odd on the ground. ...it's moss! Even through your thick-soled boots, it was evident how soft the ground was. But why would moss be growing in a place like this...? As you ponder this question, you see water seep to the surface, creating a small pond. The moonlight's glow hits the water, making it seem like a thing alive... Suddenly, you remember the quest you undertook in the bar. The tear of the moon that Braggart Chap asked about... you feel certain that the "moon's tear" he spoke of is this very water. You decide to coax the water into a container and stow it in your bag.

Now that was a sight to behold, heh.

I've seen fancier.

Map design is my passion.

Zzzzz... oof! Hey, what gives, I was dreamin' about a world without doors!

Now ain't this a winning combination. Thankfully no blindside, but that was just a regular hit that did a massive chunk to my tankiest unit. Anyone hit by Tackle while asleep will fucking die.

Case in point for Hypnowls being dicks, encounter formations like these! Hope you have Nectars!

Thankfully with two healers we'll be just fine.

5F B7 Mine Point

Ambush Chance: 5%
Ambush Encounter:
100% Raflesia

Aragonite: 40% chance. Sells for 35en.
1 required for Luck Beads - Accessory, LUC+10 - sells for 200en
5 required for Boar Spear - Sword, ATK+37, STR+2, +15 speed - sells for 350en
7 required for Tshirovha - Axe, ATK+39, STR+2 - sells for 410en

Garnet: 35% chance. Sells for 100en.
1 required for Power Ring - Accessory, STR+5 - sells for 200en
1 required for Apt Piece - Accessory, TEC+5 - sells for 200en

Amazonite: 25% chance. Sells for 30en.
1 required for Iron Glove - Gloves, DEF+10, VIT+1 - sells for 380en
1 required for Bird Stare - Accessory, Sleep Resist Up 50% - sells for 800en
1 required for Venom Ring - Accessory, Poison Resist Up 50% - sells for 800en
1 required for Leg Guard - Accessory, Leg Bind Resist Up 50% - sells for 800en
3 required for Matchlock - Gun, ATK+46, STR+3 - sells for 530en
7 required for Warabide - Katana, ATK+39, STR+2, -5 speed - sells for 450en
5 required for Paint the town blue

Don't get distracted by this amazing gathering point, look to the left!

ah, this is heavier than i...

I got it, I got it.

Nice +50HP a floor before we unlock it. That's nearly double our HP right now, way more than new armour could reduce by.

What is with all these defensive increases, holy shit!?

Got nothing to worry about when you're behind me, heh.

As much as I would love to be slowly whittled away by these things, I'll be more willing to fight 5 stacks when we have party wide attacks.

Another one of these blasted things.

I cannot imagining dragging Lily through one of these.

i could always put her to sleep

I see you raising your stave! It won't get past my shield!

With how thin Sleep Gas is, I don't see any other way.

We're about halfway through the floor, no need forcing the push to the end, there's a deceptive amount to go.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm trying to fix it...

Hmm, you're lucky I'm so forgiving.

Well to make it up, want to beat up the horror amalgamation coming up soon?

Bitchin'.

Back alrea--what?! Yeh got the moon's tear? Is this a joke? Blimey... I guess even Braggart Chap tells the truth sometimes. ...haw! I was so surprised, I nearly forgot yer reward. I'll be sure to pass the word onto old Chapman!

I don't really think much of paralysis, in either the player or enemy hands, but if you know it's coming, this is a nice way of trying to prevent it.

Volcanic, requires 1 Feather - Gun, +3 speed

This is the first gun with a positive speed modifier, but since most guns with negative modifiers are just +1 instead, having +3 isn't a big deal.

Warhammer, requires 2 Gel Cores and 2 Glue Quills - Stave, ATK+41, HP+10, -3 speed
Plume Boot, requires 1 Fibre Hide and 5 Glue Quills - Footwear, DEF+11, AGI+2, sells for 350en - Feather-covered boots that increase defense.
Hide Plate, requires 2 Feathers and 3 Gum Hides - Heavy Armor, DEF+22, sells for 310en - Armor made from layered beast fur.
Bird Stare, requires 1 Feather and 1 Amazonite - Accessory, Sleep Resist Up 50%, sells for 800en - A necklace that guards against drowsiness.

Definitely want some of these later, since there are... other enemies aside from Hypnowl that sleep ya.

And good morning, next time there's a first stratum to clean up, shouldn't take too long I hope.

Crosspeice · Mon Aug 09, 2021 5:49 pm

Dark Hunter Overview

Dark Hunter

Can equip: Swords, Whips, Light Armor, Clothing

How the fallen have mightied. Dark Hunters were perfectly fine last game, they had some utility, though they preferred swords to dish out more damage. Since they were a mediocre class, Atlus decided they needed a buff, and boy did they get it! Dark Hunters are one of the best classes in the game, they have great utility in both weapons, you can go swords or whips with little issue, though I would recommend sticking to one, and they have great ways to make bosses easy as hell and very sad. They step on the Hexer's toes, which is dangerous to do in this game, so some aspects like binds and poison aren't as useful, and they're not amazing in regular battles, having ZERO attacks that are multi-target. But some of the skills of this class are just incredible and they fit into most teams super well.

So you've seen a few classes that got mega nerfed. How about mega buffed!? And boy oh boy, Dark Hunters went from a rather okay class to completely and utterly broken! It's another textbook case of EO2's wild class balancing, as while you have utterly terrible classes, you also have completely bonkers classes on the other end of the spectrum.

Oh hey this seems familiar, because this was basically their same stat line from before, they were pretty balanced overall, like the Landy, so there wasn't much to fix. Their TEC took a massive hit though, they had the second highest before, even if they never used it, but have slightly higher HP and TP, so overall I'm very happy with it.

Common Passive Unlocks

STR Up: Lv5: Ecstacy
TEC Up: Lv1: Unbind

Oh now this is nice to see, barely any requirements aside from ones you were gonna do anyway. One point into TEC Up for Unbind is a fair trade, though it depends if you need that skill, since Dark Hunters usually have a lot to do. Unbind leads into some nice passives, so it can be worth it for one point of TEC. You want to max out STR and Ecstasy is practically a requirement for Whip builds, so yes please! While Swords don't take much advantage of binds, they can still use Dominate so it just means they're doing other things afterwards that's not Ecstasy. AGI and VIT Up can be useful since they like both of them, and LUC Up has some fringe use of very slightly increasing bind and ailment chances, not much though. Since they have good HP and TP, can be worth making them better, but you have a fair bit of freedom in what you want to focus on.

Since they're a damage dealing class, STR Up is always a good investment to take. Some of their skills can get rather pricey, so they'll appreciate TP Up later down the line. While all classes will appreciate more durability, Dark Hunters will get a lot of mileage out of HP Up if you intend on making heavy use of their Bait skills. VIT Up can be another nice way to beef them up to take hits so they can deal counter damage. TEC doesn't really do much for them, so you can ignore that one.

I'd say AGI isn't great for them either since they're already a super fast class with Swords and especially Whips providing massive speed boosts. LUC boost could be handy since thier LUC is terrible and it has a decent amount of influence on infliction rates. But don't bother taking LUC if you're trying to boost up their defenses against ailments, as they have skills that are far more effective at dealing with those.

Whips/Swords
Whips Unlocks: Lv1: Viper; Lv2: Shackles; Lv3: Cuffs; Lv4: Gags; Lv6: Climax; Lv8: Ecstacy, Bait, Magibait
Swords Unlocks: Lv1: Hypnos; Lv2: Nerve; Lv3: Mirage; Lv4: Drain; Lv6: Petrify; Lv8: Bait, Magibait
Passive

Another mediocre weapon investment, but as always which one to choose? Well, both, because the bait skills are fucking amazing, but which to focus on? Whips has the best overall use, but Swords makes a good case for itself too. If you're using a Hexer then it's probably best to go swords since they work better with poison and binds, but oh no you're slightly less useful than the most busted class in the series, how terrible. Ecstasy and Climax are amazing but also require some setup, meaning you're relying on the other skills at the start of a fight, so you don't do the big unga bunga damage until later, unless you have Dominate ready to go.

Swords are mostly unique, though Hypnos is godawful compared to the Hexer's version, Paralysis is never great, Mirage has bad numbers, but Drain and Petrify are pretty top tier. So it's relatively even, depends on your party setup and what your want your Dark Hunter to do, they're incredibly flexible and even their bad skills still work wonders if there's no alternative, since they have alright stats and don't purely rely on damage like other, worse, classes. Even at their worst, Dark Hunters can still help in a variety of ways.

Whips and Swords were on equal footing in 1, though Swords edged out Whips a bit since they dealt more damage. Here it's all about the Whips! Whips are so goddamn broken in this game, with having access to Ecstasy and Climax. Not only that, binds also got changed big time. They were easier to land on bosses in 1, but bosses would use different body parts instead of wasting turns using skills from a bound body part. Not so in this game onwards. Everyone will gleefully waste their turns trying to use skills from a body part that's bound, so binds got hugely buffed in that aspect and are basically on par with ailments in being hard disables. However FOEs and bosses are overall more resistant to binds to make up for that. But landing one basically gains your party a lot of momentum. Swords aren't bad and a Dark Hunter can still contribute heavily with them, but they are considerably less effective than using a Whip.

Antisick/Antibind
Prerequisites: Unbind Lv3
Increases user's resistance to ailments/binds. Passive.

Neat. Little more SP to invest for my liking, but still neat. Since allies have a 100% resistance to everything, lowering it to 20% for the infliction formula will help a crapton. It depends if you think you need it, usually you can rely on Theriacas to just get you out of the jam immediately and most of the time it's not the end of the world if your party does get tagged, but having someone who will very rarely get tagged to then help everyone else is very nice. Still, because it's just neat to have in most cases, investing in TEC Up, then Unbind, then 5 points into these makes it not a stunning investment, but Dark Hunters will have some SP to spare. Just some. Up to you if you invest in one or the other, binds can be deadly, but also not, while ailments are usually annoying but nothing too dangerous.

If you're playing the Japanese version of the game, do not take these skills! While they do work on the Dark Hunter, they also affect your enemies, making disabling them way harder!

Anyways, they're very nice defensive pickups since the Dark Hunter's LUC is pretty bad, opening them up to getting disabled. Oh and remember tha ailment resistance affects everything that aren't binds. So Instant Death and Stuns are affected as well. Though you won't be seeing too much of the latter in this game, as only 2 enemy skills in the entire game can Stun. How much you take in these is up to you. Maxing them out might be a bit dicey, but a few points in them should be alright. I'd say if you had to invest in only one, to pick up Antisick, as binds aren't typically game ending, but ailments are far more dangerous and capable of leading to a party wipe since they're capable of hard disabling your party and preventing them from doing anything at all, while you can still use items and other such actions while bound.

Viper
Prerequisites: Whips Lv1
A single target Whip attack that attempts to inflict Poison. Whip skill with Cut damage, uses the Arms.

Alright, first attack and it's... eh. Now this is pretty amazing early game since you can be dishing out like 160 damage by level 4 but after that it's not that impressive. It'll be the main whip skill you use when Ecstasy and Climax aren't around because if you land the poison it'll do the most overall damage, but otherwise it's kinda whatever. Still, it's a short and sweet skill to invest in that fails horrendously in stacking up to the Hexer's Poison, but such is life as an inflicter in EO2.

Ooh, talk about a massive buff. This skill only being 5 levels gives a much more compelling reason to pick it up. This is gonna be one of the Dark Hunter's bread and butter skills, as you can be dealing double damage for 6 SP and 8 TP, so by level 4 they can hit randoms really hard in the earlygame. Unfortunately that's about the best they'll be contributing to those, as they don't really have access to AOEs and the such, but hey, that's what your other party members are for!

Shackles/Cuffs/Gag
Prerequisites: Whips Lv2/Lv3/Lv4
A single target Whip attack that attempts to inflict Leg/Arm/Head Bind. Whip skill with Cut damage, uses the Arms.

There's a lot of binds to go around in this game, 3 classes have access to the full set and depending on team comp you can either use them in tandem or stick to just one set. Dark Hunter is in the middle of infliction rates but also does damage as well. It's mostly negligible since the whole reason you're using these is to shut something down, and that's very useful for specific enemies. Like always, Leg binds aren't that important, while Head and Arm usually depends on physical or magical attacks, so if you're gonna invest in these skills... you'd use a Hexer, BUT the latter two are usually safer bets. Of course you don't want to max all 3 skills, that's a huge waste of SP, but they do have their uses. Since you have a lot more options in this game, it's entirely possible for even a Whip DH to skip them entirely, especially since Dominate is just... so fucking good.

Dark Hunters don't really have the SP to max out everything here easily, so I suggest only going with 1 or 2 binding skills, if you go with them at all. Dominate completely overshadows these skills and Viper is already good for damage, but if you wish to be less cheesy, I recommend taking Gag or Cuffs as Shackles isn't too great. Don't worry too much about overlapping with a Hexer, as disables are hard to land on the big enemies, and multiple attempts at landing a disable are always good.

Ecstasy
Prerequisites: Whips Lv8, STR Up Lv5
A single target Whip attack that deals significant damage to fully bound enemies. Whip skill with Cut damage, uses the Arms.

Alright, now we're talking, at face value this skill seems as bad as it was last game, since fully binding an enemy is no mean feat, however Dominate makes that requirement a breeze, you should never use this skill without it. After all, what else is your DH gonna do when an enemy is fully bound? Viper? Of course this requires having Dominate in a fight, which can make bosses a bit too easy, while also being ridiculous overkill for regular enemies, so it might not mesh with certain playstyles. You've gotta make sure you wanna use this as well, since it's quite an investment, not just the SP, but also your Force. It's definitely worth it though, goddamn this skill is good. In the right circumstances.

This skill was garbage in EO1 since it was basically unusable due to how hard it was to fully bind an enemy. Now, Dominate exists and it's one of the most broken skills in the entire game since you can nuke an enemy for 750% damage afterwards! The baits have higher damage potential, but a fully bound enemy won't do much, and that's the perfect time to hit them with Ecstasy!

Climax
Prerequisites: Whips Lv6
A single target Whip attack that inflicts Instant Death if an enemy is below HP threshold, healing user by remaining HP. Will always miss if enemy is above HP threshold. If enemy is immune to Instant Death but under HP threshold, deals regular damage. Whip skill with Cut damage, uses the Arms.

Phew, that's a lot of specifics, but that's because this skill is so fucking dumb. Any enemy that isn't IMMUNE to Instant Death has, in essence, less than half health at max level. What a ridiculously easy requirement, but of course it's only useful on certain enemies. Firstly, most bosses are immune to Instant Death, probably because of this skill, while regular enemies are usually dead from a full assault if they're just above half health. Therefore this skill works best, and amazingly so, on the 2 bosses not immune to ID, as well as E V E R Y FOE. Yep, if you've got this skill, every FOE has effectively less than half health, which is RIDICULOUS! Not that it's too amazing, FOEs don't give exp, again, probably because of this skill, and there's no reason to fight them once you've gotten their drops, but still, I'm just nitpicking, god this skill is fucking insane.

The accuracy modifier is only for the regular attack the Dark Hunter uses if you use this against an immune enemy. For the instant death component, it can't miss ever once the enemy falls under the proper conditions.

And here's yet another broken skill! Climax is basically an FOE deleter since it basically makes FOE fights half as long. There's only one FOE it doesn't work on, and it's a fairly easy to deal with quest enemy. And FOEs in this game are possibly some of the strongest FOEs in the entire series, so being able to cut down the fight length is way more helpful than it would be in any other EO game. Heck it can allow you to bypass some FOE roadblocks more easily, and it makes farming their drops a lot easier.

It's a great skill, and you should max it out. Not to mention it can make farming certain bosses really easy, considering that killing bosses gives you massive benefits in this game. Do be warned, this skill doesn't really allow you to take on the FOEs in the first place. If they can crush your party long before you get them to half HP, this skill won't be able to do a damn thing, so it doesn't let you punch way above your weight class.

Hypnos/Nerve
Prerequisites: Swords Lv1/Lv2
A single target Sword attack that attempts to inflict Sleep/Paralysis. Sword skill with Cut damage, uses the Arms.

That was some cool whips, so let's see what swords have to offer. Torpor is such an insane skill that Hypnos has little use unless you're not using a Hexer. Like, Sleep is nice, but only one target isn't great. Paralysis also isn't great since it doesn't really do much, I've never been a fan of it and was one of the few sword skills I didn't use last game. Like they can be useful and using ailments is the whole reason for going swords, but if only they were more impressive. Still, the damage is good and the extra tag is nice, something you can use early game at least, especially if you get a good Sleep off and waste an enemy's turn.

In EO1, ailment resistance was coded as 1 stat, so there was very little reason to ever invest in a disable that wasn't the best one. Now every single ailment has their own resistance stat, so there's actual reasons to invest in multiple disable skills. However if you plan on having your Dark Hunter really contribute to random encounters, I highly suggest having them invest in Petrify for that and spam that. Though that's not going to work so well in big fights, so that's what these skills are for. These are gonna be the Sword Dark Hunter's bread and butter skills against FOEs and Bosses (assuming they're not spamming the baits anyway.)

As for which one to go for, Sleep is more of a hard disable, but will wear off the instant the target takes damage. But Paralysis isn't entirely reliable, though it's far more likely to last longer on average. I'd recommend investing in Nerve for big fights, as the damage amp component from Sleep can't be easily capitalized in this game either, while making it so an FOE or boss has a chance of losing half of their turns on average is a more enticing benefit. Wait a few more games for sleep bombing to be more viable.

Mirage
Prerequisites: Swords Lv3
A single target Sword attack that attempts to inflict Panic. Sword skill with Cut damage, uses the Arms.

Alright, Mirage is usually different since Panic is quite the good ailment to just hand over to the player, so I'm sure it- ...oh no. It's one of THOSE skills, a level 5 skill that scales like a level 10 skill but stops halfway for no reason. Well Panic is useful but not with that infliction chance, damage is trash, everything about this skill is trash. Nothing else to do but completely ignore it.

Confusion in 1 was a rather powerful, but dicey ailment to use. Not only was it hard to inflict, it sometimes made enemies more dangerous as they could be attacking more often with Confusion active on them. From this game onwards, skills start to get vastly more powerful than regular attacks, so the downside of Confusion causing enemies to attack you barely starts to matter, so it's an ailment that's always a strong one to land. Unfortunately, this skill is complete and utter crap, so it's not really worth using this no matter how powerful Confusion is. Unfortunately, outside of the Hexer's Force Skill, this is literally the only way in the entire game to inflict Confusion. So uh, that ailment might as well not exist for players. Talk about a heavy nerf!

Drain
Prerequisites: Swords Lv4
A single target Sword attack that heals the user by damage dealt. Sword skill with Cut damage, uses the Arms.

Now here's a level 5 skill that scales PROPERLY, Drain is great for your frontline DH, it really adds to their survivability and is a great skill to just spam with little issue. Quick to invest in and while it doesn't do amazing damage, it's a nice tool for most of the game, especially giving your Medic or War Magus less headaches in earlygame healing. Nothing too fancy, but it gets the job goddamn done fuck yeah.

This skill can be nice to spam to give the Dark Hunter some more survivability at the cost of dealing less damage and not being able to lock down their enemies. It'll make the DH less of a priority target for healing, which can take some stress off of your healers or whoever is thinking of tossing a Medica to a given party member. Whichever basic Sword attack you take is up to you, but most aside from Mirage aren't bad choices.

Petrify
Prerequisites: Swords Lv6
A single target Sword attack that attempts to inflict Petrify. Sword skill with Cut damage, uses the Arms.

Now here's the main event, Petrify is the same as last game, so enemies hit by it will stick around for the rest of the battle, but it still has amazing utility, and not a bad infliction rate for what it does. It also has some cool power behind it, so even if you don't land it, it's still one of the strongest hits a Sword DH can do. Otherwise it's mostly useless in Boss and FOE battles and might be a bit much for various regular enemies, but landing one is still a great feeling, might as well, right?

This is pretty much gonna be the Dark Hunter's best basic attack skill to spam in normal battles, as Petrification can be great crowd control. A chance to instantly take out random encounters can help greatly, especially if your party is hurting for AOEs or other disables. However, unlike Climax, this skill isn't too great against FOEs and bosses, as FOEs are heavily resistant to this, and almost every single boss is immune to Petrification. Use Hypnos or Nerve against those instead.

Bait/Magibait
Prerequisites: Whips Lv8, Swords Lv8
Counterattacks physical/magical damage dealt to the user and those adjacent to user. Will still occur even if incoming attack is blocked. Whip or Sword skill with Cut damage, uses the Arms.

Holy SHIT this skill got one of the biggest buffs in the series. Before it was Sword locked, only had the physical version and the adjacent counter did around half damage on average. These skills require a higher investment, sure, but are also incredibly powerful if you know what's coming. Obviously you need to max them to make them at all useful and position your DH in the middle of a front row of 3, but if you get 3 counters, that's 1200% damage in one turn jesus fucking christ.

Also they still work even if an Anti skill or Painless blocks them, letting you do offense AND defense in one turn? Just incredible. But of course it's most effective against the right enemies, most magical attacks are party wide, but physical ones are a little harder to come by. And of course you need to survive the hit, but at least you don't need to take the attack to fully counter it. Even if you only use one weapon, you have to invest in the other mastery for these, they're just too good.

By far the best skills in the Dark Hunter's skillset, whether you go with Whips or Swords. And this skill isn't particularly unreliable as long as you know how the enemy works. As long as you plant your Dark Hunter in the middle of the front row with a 3/2 formation, even a single hit towards the front row will cause a 400% damage counterattack! Which is significantly more than any of the basic attacks in the Whip or Sword branches. You'll definitely want to grab these eventually, as the Dark Hunter can just utterly shred any poor enemy that activates multiple counters. And you'll be seeing plenty of AOEs as you get farther into the game, so these skills just get more powerful as the game goes on.

Unbind
Prerequisites: TEC Up Lv1
Unlocks: Lv3: Antisick, Antibind
Removes binds from a single target. Heal skill, uses the Head.

Hello again Unbound but called differently for some reason. Like with the Landy this skill is barely useful, you've seen the DH's kit, they have better things to be doing, but I guess you can use it. It's better to just go to Antisick/Antibind and more or less ignore this skill, but maybe if your Arm is bound it could be good? Oh shit, then it'd just be Arm Heal! NOOOOOOOOO!!!

If you do take this skill, 3 points at most is all I would put into here for the same reasons I listed under Unbound for the Landsknecht. Dark Hunters are pretty fast, so they can be a fast unbinder I suppose, though Therica As would be a better investment that doesn't require you to spend SP or TP.

Racket
Lures non-red FOEs in a certain radius to tile used and stuns them for a set duration. Field skill.

Uh, okay, these skills are sometimes helpful but using the items instead of wasting SP is generally preferable, especially since you never want to invest in these skills too much, so it's a lot of TP initially for not much result. You do want to avoid FOEs in this game so there's definitely utility, but I don't think it's worth it, I will show all the ways to avoid FOEs, I don't wanna fight them either!

There are parts of the game where FOE luring is required, but you can do that with items, and Dark Hunters themselves will never be required to do that. There is one part in the first stratum where this could be helpful, but outside of that particular situation you can probably just use the item instead.

Dominate
Inflicts Head, Arm and Leg Bind on a single target. Force skill, uses the Arms.

So here's like half the reason to use a Dark Hunter. This is one of the best offensive Force skills in the game, mainly because it will always work. Because of its insane infliction rate, only <1% resistances can avoid this, and there are none, lowest is 3%, so this skill will always, ALWAYS fully bind an opponent. Combined with all the other offensive tools in this game, this lets you get off some incredible strategies, and it's useful in regular boss and FOE fights to give you a breather for a few turns. Like all Force skills, you can't fire them often without plenty of Axcela IIs but this is one that you should really think about for lategame and postgame use. Of course it ties into Ecstasy beautifully and even Climax so you can take down FOEs with little trouble.

Oh hey, say hello to one of the best Force skills in the entire game, if not the best one! While the 1% speed modifier basically ensures the Dark Hunter will move last when casting this skill, Dominate basically ensures any poor enemy that gets hit with this won't be doing anything for a turn since disables can't be recovered from on the turn they're inflicted, and possibly longer depending on how long the binds stay on for. The higher the enemy's level is, the longer it takes for them to recover from a disable on average, so this skill gets even more powerful as the game goes on! If you combo this with a Survivalist's 1st Turn, you can guarantee 2 turns of lockdown since the enemy won't be able to do anything on the turn the Dark Hunter casts this, though this comes at the cost of putting a Survivalist in your party. This skill is also why people prefer to use Whip Dark Hunters.

While Sword Dark Hunters can still use this Force skill, an enemy that's locked down will highly be unlikely to attack while they're tied up, making the Baits rather useless while that's going on. With Whip Dark Hunters, you can nuke them down with Ecstasy, but Sword Dark Hunters have no such powerful skill to abuse, basically leaving those variants of Dark Hunters twiddling their thumbs while the enemy is tied down. And Axcelas make this skill flat out broken, essentially keeping an enemy locked down forever whenever all the binds fall off. Do keep in mind it's best to cast this when an enemy has no binds on them, as it won't override previous binds and the longer a bind stays on, the higher chance it has of wearing off.

Man that was fun to talk about, Dark Hunters got ridiculously buffed compared to last game and it shows with how nutty some of their skills are. Sure, some of them aren't great, but I really wouldn't call any of them outright bad. Uh, okay, Mirage is bad because it's missing 5 levels, but that's really it. It pales in comparison to Hexers in some aspects, but they're the most broken class in the series, oh no, how could this class be slightly worse in some aspects! There's always room for a Dark Hunter and they can focus on specific skills that make them incredible under the right circumstances, but circumstances can be made pretty easily, so it's really not a big deal.

Several absurd buffs to this class took them from rather mediocre to outright broken. It's not too hard to slot one in your party, and they're easily the 2nd most broken class in the entire game. The 1st is the Hexer, but we'll talk about them later.

Crosspeice · Mon Aug 09, 2021 6:11 pm

Not dead, just lazy, so let's kick things back into high gear by voting on who will be fighting Chimera!

Firstly because I'm a stupid moron with an ugly face and a big butt, Juthro will be partaking in this fight guaranteed and will be spamming Bravery, most likely.

You're welcome.

But otherwise,

Vote for three others

, the top 4 voted will join him though this won't affect who will be exploring the 2nd stratum, big fights are separate votes to those. Also since it's still pretty early and most of our guild can still only do one thing, I won't list their specifics, it's early enough that you're free to vote for anyone, with how many ways you can upend this game and make it incredibly easy, I always have an out in case I get a less than average party.

RandomKesaranPasaran · Mon Aug 09, 2021 9:18 pm

uh Aleks, Hart, and kathy, I guess.

AweStriker · Tue Aug 10, 2021 4:32 pm

I already forget the names of almost everyone in the cast, so howsabout our Dark Hunter, Protector, and Survivalist?

Crosspeice · Tue Aug 10, 2021 11:34 pm

Hey, they're in the third post! A valuable resource in my effort to unintentionally flanderize them by the end of the LP.

JamieTheD · Wed Aug 11, 2021 9:09 am

Logan, Aleksandra, and Alastor. In Soviet Odyssey, you defeat bo-

Actually, I have no idea how that ancient meme would work in this case, but whatever, Aleksandra's good, we want more.

Mihoshi · Wed Aug 11, 2021 6:07 pm

Corinth, kathy & Holly

Crosspeice · Thu Aug 12, 2021 12:31 pm

Voting is closed!

Corinth: 4
Lily: 3
kathy: 3
Sonia: 2
Hart: 2
Holly: 2
Aleks: 2
Logan: 2
Alastor: 1

Well that's a pretty even spread for 4th place, so I used a site to roll a d5, and it gave me a 2, so Hart will be joining Corinth, Lily, kathy and Juthro to take on the first boss! What the hell is this team...

JamieTheD · Fri Aug 13, 2021 11:17 pm

Ahhh, the joys of voting on teams. It will so often create utter chaos. XP

Crosspeice · Sun Sep 05, 2021 12:08 am

Part 8: Cheesing the First

Part 8: Cheesing the First

Woodland Ruins

Alright, rest of 5F to go, though it won't take long to get back to where we were.

Nice.

please don't talk, it makes the bleeding worse

If you didn't fancy gathering ambushes or ladybird summons, then 5F is when you actually properly fight Raflesia on occasion, so you better have a strat for it. The strat is we're stronger than those previous times and now it's not massively dangerous.

Right, so a proper run down on these things now that the party is at level. They're kind of tanky assholes and can smack your entire party with damage. Consider these a check on your party's strength. If you can't handle these, you won't like the boss fight one bit.

After you.

Well there's nothing behind this door, so I do not see what the fuss is about.

You just got lucky...

At least you're always covering our backsides.

You'll notice there's an FOE behind me, and if you've been mapping properly you could see how not to get pinned by it.

Ooh, this looks like one of my book covers!

Looking carefully, you can see small flowers, of a soothing pale hue. They remind you of the quest you agreed to at the bar. The old lady, and the memento of her late husband. This could be the flower that Cass told you about. It's your choice to pluck the flower or walk away.

A flower as beautiful as your neck- er, eyes.

my lack of sun gives me a pale view on life.

As you crouch down to reach for the flowers, monsters appear from within the bush! It seems to be a chance encounter, but no less deadly for that!

What fun. We also don't want to hang around in this battle for too long.

Ahaha, a forced blindside. Good thing these things don't do much other than force sleep, otherwise the dreams these things'll give you will turn into nightmares.

Gah! Did you just bonk my head???

well i gave you a remedy but a quick smack gets the blood pumping again.

A forced encounter of three enemies that can keep you locked down for multiple turns is in the path of an FOE. Thanks, game.

EO2 is probably the most mean spirited games in the entire franchise, and this is only scratching the surface.

Ugh, shortcuts are just doors that you can't see.

I am beginning to wondering if this is a childhood traumer.

5F E6 Chop Point

Ambush Chance: 5%
Ambush Encounter:
100% Raflesia x1

Bent Twig: 45% chance. Sells for 30en.
1 required for Wood Bow - Bow, ATK+27, +20 speed - sells for 170en Required for The item trade I
3 required for Slice Whip - Whip, ATK+38, STR+2 - sells for 370en
5 required for Beast Bow - Bow, ATK+39, STR+1, +5 speed - sells for 440en

Log: 35% chance. Sells for 150en.
Required for nothing.

Hard Root: 20% chance. Sells for 35en.
1 required for Targe - Shield, DEF+9 - sells for 150en
3 required for Horn Mace - Stave, ATK+45, HP+20 - sells for 440en

Another equipment we unlock next floor, that's neat. If only I bothered with gloves...

Nearly got out of a treasure area without an encounter, but that never happens. Little scary but remember that Sleep overrides Poison, so that's nice. Getting hit by a Raflesia while asleep is not.

Bit of a nasty formation there if you don't get things under control right away.

Getting hit by a lot of things while asleep is generally not pleasant.

You look around carefully and notice spots of blood on the forest floor. The trail of blood continues down a path to the north, ending at a turn to the east. A wounded explorer may be there... You ponder whether to follow the trail of blood and see if anyone is stranded at its end.

Puppy!

Hey, hey, don't run off where I can't protect you. Unless there's a door down there, in which case you're on your own.

you're not very good at this protecting thing.

You don't wanna know what I've been through. Those cute monsters... the amount of flour on my books...

Let's not be letting her get too far away.

Oh, but childhood trauma is the most interesting. It neatly explains your entire character.

The black beast Kurogane, always at his master's side, is here with blood-matted fur. Though he's on the verge of collapse, the beast remains on its feet, gazing westward.

Ah! kathy, help puppy!

hmm, that's a lot of blood. most i can do is dull the pain.

When he notices you, he extends his hand, revealing a parchment in his mouth. It turns out to be a map of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth. It must have been Beowulf's... The charted territory ends abruptly at the nearby hall. Its muzzle free of parchment, the beast gazes into the forest and gives a yelp. It is a bark filled with the sadness of losing something precious... That is how you come to grasp the fate that has befallen Guild Beowulf. The place where the map ends is the Chimaera's lair...

Well, we must avenge the young lad, but it will not bring him back.

It is a shame we were not quickened.

Dunno if we could've stopped him, my shield can only do so much.

Ah, the guild that helps you in the 1st Stratum being wiped out. A proud tradition, and by "tradition" I mean "EO3 did it again in a really convoluted way and then EO4 dropped it."

Definitely want to unlock this! We'll see what's through that bottom left door in a moment, but let's check out the boss room, just as soon as I fix a couple of things... bloody wolves can't draw that well.

Ohohoho, delightfully devilish.

I can just about be seeing it. Is this something you've foughten before, Ele- Ello- Ellana?

Close enough, dear, but, hmmm... never seen it before in my life!

then how did you reach the next stratum?

I was on the edge of death, don't remember!

Helpful. Back to town we go then.

3 Sour Fruit and 1 Huge Petal required for Poison Gas - Lv1 Poison, 15% base infliction chance, 20-30 damage
5 Gel Cores and 1 Red Horn required for Tabarzin
7 Feathers and 1 Gem Eye required for Carp Sword - ATK+43 - One-handed sword that tapers to a point.
1 Huge Petal required for Wildflower - Beast Armor, DEF+38, sells for 450en - Defensive necklace made from a giant petal.
3 Huge Petals and 2 Gum Hides required for Hide Aspis - Shield, DEF+12, sells for 325en - Small shield reinforced with beast hide.

Now you might notice the next boss has a conditional for killing it with poison damage and you unlock the gas just beforehand, so no brainer right? Well no, as you can see the gas items are completely useless because, damage aside, you have a 3% chance of landing it before LUC barely affects it. Dunno why they bothered making them so bad.

Gas items suck so much ass in this game. And that poison damage is pitiful. I know that items shouldn't be too powerful, otherwise they obsolete skills and give no reason to spend SP in them, but come on! They don't have to be this pathetic! As it stands they're just ways to get conditional drops if you lack the proper skills in the party.

It takes a long, long time before gasses start becoming actually useful, let alone as viable as standard infliction skills.

You nearly finished training, Juthro? We are about the finish the floor.

Hell yeah.

Excellent work! Aha... so this is the memorial flower, is it? That's dainty, that is. Oh, I knew it would be small, I'm just surprised yeh found it in that great big Labyrinth. I'm sure it'll bring the old girl joy. Here's yer reward. I'll be counting on yeh!

Quests are so worth it.

Next game... next game the pain finally stops there... Well I guess you get Cass dialogue in this game, which is far more riveting than Valerie's dialogue at least?

Behind door number 15 or whatever is two Raptors guarding a Bird Whip, a nice upgrade before the first boss that we'll unlock next floor. What's the strategy to get past these two? I dunno, just run through and try not to die, worked for me.

Basically use an FOE item to stun them. That's about it. They aren't red FOEs so that bypasses them easily. Otherwise run past and hope they don't hunt you down.

And with that, we just need Juthro up to everyone's level and max out Bravery. Fuck, what do I go for after Bravery... Health? Health.

Oohoohoohoo! Good choice! Hey what if Prevent Order from the later games was an even stronger skill? That's Health right there.

Yeh beet yer heiney I do!

Perhaps one day I'll understand what you're saying.

Come with me now. I'll leave the store with the rest've yeh and be back before long.

Slash them up for me! I assume that's what she's doing, right?

Don't touch me.

All right, I'm back. I saw the hodgepodge lot they'd gathered... what a sorry crew! Yer one trumped them all put together! Haw haw haw! I don't know what they're up to, but sit tight. They should be done soon. Ah, here we are. So, what was the big deal?

I put meh... lumberjack skills teh use for the rookies.

Just kick a tree down, it's faster!

...they had yeh teaching swordplay to the green recruits? Haw haw! Well, good job, whatever yeh did. I'm sure the Grand Duchy appreciated yer skills. Here's the reward. G'luck, and keep up the hard work!

The accessory is nice but this quest was only finished this late since Holly switched out of the party at level 9, and of course I have to get the full reward. Thankfully you get the Power Ring no matter what, but if your Landy is level 6-9, you'll get 50en and if they're 10+, you get an additional 50en, fucking woohoo. Super not worth getting all those levels if you're not using a Landy, so just take the ring and shove them back in the guild for when you need another shortcut.

Also totally worth all the system lag if you didn't bother to cancel the quest and actually carted around the class forced to be trained.

you know you want to

Ugh, but the Duchy's door is really big and spooky. Fiiiiine.

I had wondered why you'd never entered that building.

Remember when yeh took yer landsknecht to the Grand Duchy? Seems they were well impressed. They've got a job in the offing they want yeh to be part of. Fame comes quickly, doesn't it? This time it's a protector they're after, to help fight off a pack of beasties. How do I know about the job, yeh ask? Like I said last time... the Grand Duchy trusts me now. It's all thanks to yer fine work that the Duke's men recruit from the Stickleback Bar!

Well then, follow me. The rest of you, mind the store. I don't want a break-in while I'm away!

I was only going to be taking a few snackings!

Thanks for staying! I admit, that looked like a hearty bunch of protectors. But don't worry. Yer one was clearly the strongest, just yeh wait and see! If yeh've time to sit a spell, why don't yeh relax here? Business here is slow today, and I hate maundering around the place by myself. Haw! Ahh, there yeh are. The work went well, did it? Glad to see yeh're not hurt.

I brought a friend back. Heh, well, he followed me for food.

Here I thought you and Holly were coming over to visit me at the Duchy...

With all the monsters in the Labyrinth, yeh can count on more jobs like this. Anyhow, thanks for taking care of this one... I'm always counting on yeh lot!

Similar verse, same as the first. Kinda. See, since I got 100en for my level 11 Protector it looks like it's using the same requirements, right? Well, no, documented nowhere else except for the JP wiki, you get extra money depending on your Protector's Shield Mastery, not level, so 100en for Lv3 or 200en for Lv5+. Since this is the first time I've heard about this, I didn't go for the max reward, and honestly you don't need to invest in Shields that much this early, I only did so I can pivot to the Antiskills whenever I need to. This fuckin game man.

Yeah turns out some of these quests also do skill checks which was fucking news to me when Cross asked what got these extra rewards and I looked into things more! How deep does the EO2 iceberg go?

Oh this would make for an excellent bonding exercise when we get our new furry friends.

Ugggggggghhhhhh...

Worst quest in the game, already? How lovely. The first game had you spend 5 days in the labyrinth and it was also miserable, but thankfully you had a healing spring and a small back and forth with no encounters. We don't have either of those here, but at least it's only 3 days. Still, it's a pretty awful quest you can't really attempt very early, so we'll come back to this later, I'd want the full guild anyway since I'll do some guild bonding like I did last LP. Though it'll be changed a little to account for less days. Anyway, ignore, ignore, ignore!

"Hmm, yes. Clearly the problem with the first game's version of this quest was that it could easily be cheesed by staying in the spring room. :thunk: "

A Sudden Gust of Wind that Calls for Death

This is the party we should've had for the entirety of 5F, but hey, with nothing else to do, let's kill some FOEs finally, they won't be impossible walls forever, but you wish they weren't such a waste of time to fight! As a refresher:

Furyhorn

HP: 420
STR: 18
VIT: 18
TEC: 16
AGI: 18
LUC: 16
Level: 8
Exp: 0

Skills
Step: Uses the Legs. Deals 80% Cut damage to a single target, with 75% splash damage, and attempts to inflict Panic. Has a 30% base chance, a 95% accuracy modifier and a 120% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

100%

125%

75%

75%

Disable Vulnerabilities

25%

10%

25%

50%

10%

Drops
Deer Hide: 25% chance, sells for 203en
1 required for Hide Armor - Light Armor, DEF+23 - sells for 500en

Gum Hide: 95% chance, sells for 11en.
1 required for Wing Leaf - Clothing, DEF+13, HP+5 - sells for 200en
1 required for Sherwani - Clothing, DEF+20, VIT+1 - sells for 420en
2 required for Bullwhip - Whip, ATK+32 - sells for 260en
2 required for Hide Aspis - Shield, DEF+12 - sells for 325en
2 required for Rough Hat - Headgear, DEF+8, TP+8 - sells for 120en
3 required for Hide Plate - Heavy Armor, DEF+22 - sells for 310en
5 required for Iron Glove - Gloves, DEF+10, VIT+1

Conditional: None

This won't be much health to chew through with some good defenses, a lot of healing, Bravery, and elemental weakness. A well timed Step can throw all this out the window, but we should be fine, right?

Confusion is a far worse ailment to be hit by than Paralysis, so this thing can end up ruining some strategies if you aren't careful. Furyhorns got a rather substantial buff from the Ragelopes since they can confuse and smack multiple party members at the same time now. Furyhorn actually hate front liner classes, and will target specific classes if they can on the first turn (Landskenchts, Protectors, Dark Hunters, Ronin, or Beasts.) After that they try to slam party members that aren't Confused.

And if I see ya discs tryin' to make any quiet moves... I'll break the board in two.

You won't make a counter outta me, ahahahaha!

Been five minutes and he's already stabbing me in the back...

I am thinking we will be the okiedokie.

you will be once i clean up this mess.

Can't enjoy victory without a little pain. Especially from your allies!

Die monster! You don't belonging in this world!

Ohohoho, gah! Well, you're not wrong.

This could be going better.

Don't worry, soothe your mind with my mus- or shoot yourself in the head, either way.

it is one way to cure yourself

I've gotten too into the habit of keeping everyone alive at the end of a battle because, remember, you do not get any exp from FOEs. This does mean we can grab their drops and avoid them forever, and you can do some suicidal rushes without worrying about missing out on experience. But it's not particularly fun.

Making FOEs not pay out any exp had some rather unfortunate consequences on people's playstyles. Namely that any incentive to kill them was completely and utterly gone beyond their unique drops and that avoiding them was basically the correct move 100% of the time. That and well killing an FOE resulting in no rewards is not exactly fun to see. Like did you even see the drop rate for their unique drop? You have to kill an average of 4 Furyhorns to get 1 Deer Hide. That is 4 kind of tough fights where you get absolutely no experience. As someone who got these without drop cheats, lemme say uh, it's kinda demoralizing! And nearly every FOE in the game have bad drop rates for their uniques, not just those deer. Which results in the game basically telling you that you wasted your time and effort killing these tough enemies if you didn't snag their main drop. If you're gonna take away the exp payouts, at least make the item drops guaranteed.

Alright, let's see if this fight goes bette-

These old bones aren't good for dodging...

He does some of this on purpose.

...well since the RNG is gonna need a bit of a shake let's go fight something else.

A bizarre and rather infuriating quirk of the DS era was that you and an FOE running headfirst into each other wasn't a guarnateed neutral start like in the 3DS era. Instead it actually rolls for preemptives and blindsides there, meaning that you can just get blindsided even if you and the FOE approached each other on seemingingly equal grounds.

Ahhh, much better.

Ooh, rigour mortis.

ffs

Raptor

HP: 600
STR: 22
VIT: 22
TEC: 22
AGI: 24
LUC: 24
Level: 15
Exp: 0

Skills
Fangs: Uses the Head. Deals 150% Cut damage to a single target and attempts to inflict Paralysis. Has a 50% base infliction chance, a 100% accuracy modifier and a 150% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

100%

125%

100%

Disable Vulnerabilities

25%

10%

25%

50%

10%

Drops
Brass Fang: 30% chance, sells for 248en
1 required for Hell Claw - Claw, ATK+61, Type: Fire - sells for 1,210en

Gum Hide: 95% chance, sells for 11en.
1 required for Wing Leaf - Clothing, DEF+13, HP+5 - sells for 200en
1 required for Sherwani - Clothing, DEF+20, VIT+1 - sells for 420en
2 required for Bullwhip - Whip, ATK+32 - sells for 260en
2 required for Hide Aspis - Shield, DEF+12 - sells for 325en
2 required for Rough Hat - Headgear, DEF+8, TP+8 - sells for 120en
3 required for Hide Plate - Heavy Armor, DEF+22 - sells for 310en
5 required for Iron Glove - Gloves, DEF+10, VIT+1

Conditional: None

Slightly tougher than a Furyhorn but I've never respected paralysis in this series and no splash damage means this is technically an easier fight.

It's a stronger version of the Gashtor. Once you have the stats to take this thing on, it's basically the same fight. You just can't get an easy preemptive on these without FOE items.

Gods, earlygame FOEs in the early EOs are just...so bizarrely simplistic.

Can you reviving her, Alas? ...you blinked twice, does that mean no?

F.Guard is great, but it doesn't help the backline getting oneshot. And no, B.Guard doesn't count cause I'll never use it.

So, uh, we ready for the boss yet?

I'll go with ohhhh myyyyyy no.

Furylord

HP: 580
STR: 20
VIT: 20
TEC: 16
AGI: 20
LUC: 16
Level: 9
Exp: 0

Skills
Step: Uses the Legs. Deals 80% Cut damage to a single target, with 75% splash damage, and attempts to inflict Confuse. Has a 30% base chance, a 95% accuracy modifier and a 120% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

100%

125%

75%

75%

Disable Vulnerabilities

25%

10%

25%

50%

10%

Drops
Deer Hide: 40% chance, sells for 203en
1 required for Hide Armor - Light Armor, DEF+23 - sells for 500en

Gum Hide: 95% chance, sells for 11en.
1 required for Wing Leaf - Clothing, DEF+13, HP+5 - sells for 200en
1 required for Sherwani - Clothing, DEF+20, VIT+1 - sells for 420en
2 required for Bullwhip - Whip, ATK+32 - sells for 260en
2 required for Hide Aspis - Shield, DEF+12 - sells for 325en
2 required for Rough Hat - Headgear, DEF+8, TP+8 - sells for 120en
3 required for Hide Plate - Heavy Armor, DEF+22 - sells for 310en
5 required for Iron Glove - Gloves, DEF+10, VIT+1

Conditional: None

Next up is the Furylord, don't forget it! Or do, getting 100% in this game is fucking miserable.

Gear Registry: "Muwahahahahahaaa!"

The Furylord is just a beefed up Furyhorn. If you tried to fight it during the guard rescue mission you'd also have to deal with 2 Furyhorns but no such thing happens after the mission is complete. It's rather unremarkable considering the buildup the game does for it, even if it's small.

Wait, Step is (i)cut(/i) damage?

Best way to avoid illusions is to focus on a point in front of you.

Even at early levels Health is still a 40% reduction in infliction rates, it's pretty great!

hey. hey. hey. you dead?

You know he is.

always good to make sure

That is on me for not using Alastor, damn Medics are slow.

So that was fun. Are we ready for the last FOE in this stratum with a dependable team like this?

Hahahahaha. The only other thing to do is to get the last of the equipment.

Red FOEs will basically destroy you. You should probably save these for when you reach the next Stratum.

Just need a couple more Gum Vines as well as like 10 more drops for the Maimai Bat... thankfully by the stairs you can encounter 3 Woodmais pretty consistently. Let's check out all our new loot!

5 Bent Twigs and 10 Feathers required for Beast Bow, +5 speed.
1 Deer Hide and 3 Glue Quills required for Hide Armor - Light Armor, DEF+23, sells for 500en - Armor of boiled, hardened fur.
1 Brass Fang and 2 Gel Cores required for Hell Claw - Claw, ATK+61, Type: Fire, 98% accuracy, sells for 1,210en - A claw left by an envoy of Hell.
1 Gum Hide and 2 Huge Petals required for Sherwani - Clothing, DEF+20, VIT+1, sells for 420en - Clothes of hardened fur, with a short waist area.
5 Gum Wines and 1 Shell Wart required for Briar Whip - Whip, ATK+42, VIT+1, AGI+1, sells for 520en - Created from the vines of a gigantic flower.
30 Husk Shards required for Maimai Bat - Stave, ATK+37, TP+10, sells for 420en - Mage staff created from durable shells.

Phew, that's everything we can get before the boss, definitely some nice stuff though it'll get quickly outclassed by anything you unlock on 6F, like the Briar Whip we already have an upgrade to. While I prefer the HP boosting staves, I grinded for it so dammit I'm using the Maimai Bat!

30 materials. Why. And no, this isn't a bizarre case of a mega grind. There are several pieces of equipment that require similar grinds throughout the game.

Gear Registry: "Muwahahahahahaaa!"

Do you see why people hate this fucking thing and are glad it never returned in any of the later games?

Also is like Sitoth the literal only equipment store in all of Lagaard or something? Why does the Duchy care that much about what wares they have?

But with nothing else to do, are we ready for Chimera? Well technically, no, with ordinary methods we'll get out shit pushed in and be forced to grind a bunch of levels, but this game has far from ordinary methods, and you guys voted in just what I needed. Though it's early enough in the game that I can just Force push my way past anything so I wasn't worried anyway!

Scarlet Rain

Good start.

Don't rush me!

With my shield, take all the time in the world.

I would prefer if you didn't take too long though, this is not my element.

I'm the one with elements here, we'll be just fine.

damn we're screwed

Chimaera

HP: 1400
STR: 22
VIT: 22
TEC: 22
AGI: 18
LUC: 20
Level: 18
Exp: 21,000

Skills
Blaze: Uses the Head. Deals Fire damage to a single target, with splash damage, with a spell power of 47. Damage multiplied by 110% for initial target and 100% to adjacent targets. Has a 95% accuracy modifier and a 1% speed modifier.
2-Hit: Uses the Arms. Deals 55% Bash damage to a single target 2 times. Has a 95% accuracy modifier and a 100% speed modifier.
Pile: Uses the Legs. Deals 65% Stab damage to a single target, with 70% splash damage, and attempts to inflict Poison. Has a 50% base infliction chance, deals 80-120 Poison damage, has a 95% accuracy modifier and a 10% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

100%

125%

100%

Disable Vulnerabilities

20%

10%

20%

0%

25%

0%

Drops
Brute Tail: 60% chance, sells for 776en.
1 required for Shadow Bow - Bow, ATK+58, STR+2, HP+10, +5 speed - sells for 2,380en, must be restocked
1 required for Beast Tail - Whip, ATK+65, VIT+2, LUC+2 - sells for 2,310en, must be restocked
1 required for Amrita III - Medicine, heals the target by 999TP - sells for 20,000en, must be restocked

Conditional: Kill while Poisoned
Brute Wing: 100% chance, sells for 30,000en.
1 required for Zamiel Bow - Bow, ATK+181, STR+10, HP+40 - sells for 231,000en, must be restocked.

First boss is a real menace due to pretty high stats and a bit more HP. Fenrir, for comparison, had 1200HP and you could change the fight's difficulty with level difference. Here, there's no such luck, either you get strong enough to survive... or cheese it through Poison or Force skills. Since we have Hart, and cannot do any damage outside of Corinth's level 1 elementals, we'll be going the Poison method. You'll want to end the battle quickly anyway due to the many Slaveimps, though it'll take quite a few turns for multiple to enter battle. That seems a bit ironic considering what we said about them earlier, but, well...

Here's the first real challenge of the game! Can you succeed where the Beowulf guild failed? If you want to avenge them, you'll have to work hard to accomplish that! Chimaera is a big battle of attrition and it is very easily capable of destroying unprepared parties. It doesn't start off particularly dangerous at first, only using 2-hit and regular attacks at the battle's start. But as its HP gets lower, it'll throw in Blaze for more coverage on your party, and then Pile which essentially instantly kills your party members if the poison lands. Unless your HP is high enough, you aren't surviving a Poison at this point. A Troubadour's Health buff is a fantastic way to counter that skill. And if you have access to any Ice attack, use them at this point! You need all the damage you can get! Chimaera by itself can be rather fearsome, but there are a few more wrinkles in this fight...

Slaveimp

HP: 152
STR: 17
VIT: 17
TEC: 17
AGI: 17
LUC: 17
Level: 16
Exp: 0

Skills
Flight: Uses the Arms. Deals 50% Cut+Fire damage 4-5 times at a 50/50 chance, respectively. Has a 95% accuracy modifier and a 100% speed modifier.
Heal: Uses the Head. Heals an ally by 110HP. Has a 100% speed modifier.
Aura: Uses the Head. Increases damage dealt by all allies by 150% for 5 turns. Has an 80% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

100%

125%

100%

Disable Vulnerabilities

50%

25%

50%

35%

25%

Drops
Glue Hide: 20% chance, sells for 126en
1 required for Sherwani - Clothing, DEF+20, VIT+1 - sells for 420en

Gum Hide: 95% chance, sells for 11en.
1 required for Wing Leaf - Clothing, DEF+13, HP+5 - sells for 200en
1 required for Sherwani - Clothing, DEF+20, VIT+1 - sells for 420en
2 required for Bullwhip - Whip, ATK+32 - sells for 260en
2 required for Hide Aspis - Shield, DEF+12 - sells for 325en
2 required for Rough Hat - Headgear, DEF+8, TP+8 - sells for 120en
3 required for Hide Plate - Heavy Armor, DEF+22 - sells for 310en
5 required for Iron Glove - Gloves, DEF+10, VIT+1

Conditional: None

They still have pathetic damage and HP and defenses, but that's because they're in this battle, they have a good chance of giving Chimaera that attack buff and then will just attack, or heal if Chimaera is injured. You don't really want to be diverting resources to fighting these, after all the ones on the map all die if Chimaera does, and it'll take until turn 4 and then turn 7 for them to reach you, so you have a little breathing room to setup your strategy. Chimaera isn't too difficult with some good defenses, it'll use Blaze after certain HP thresholds and then a chance to use its other attacks, with a higher and higher chance of using Pile. Due to a somewhat low Poison chance, especially if you use accessories, outside of Blaze and with some alright defenses, Chimaera doesn't do a whole lot. Until it gets Aura, after that you're in trouble.

Chimaera isn't just a big combat exam against a major enemy, it's also testing how well you deal with other factors such as external threats. If you were wondering why Slaveimps had that name and were rather pathetic FOEs, this is why. Their true purpose is to serve as Chimaera's minions and support it in battle. If your party's damage output isn't great, Heal will be a big setback. And Aura will basically cause Chimaera to be capable causing a game over very quickly. Flight isn't a lot of damage, but it can help Chimaera get kills or finish off weakened party members.

So how do you deal with these Slaveimps? Any FOE items or skills you have on hand will do a lot buy you time. These Slaveimps fly over impassible tiles, so you can't just walk over and snipe them before the fight begins. You'll have to lure them out to do that. Stunning them or luring them to a faraway spot can do wonders for buying you time. Because not only do they make Chimaera tougher, you essentially have to deal 152 more damage to clear them out, and that's about 11% of Chimaera's HP for each Slaveimp. Unlike Fenrir in the first game, Chimaera stays put, so you have all the time in the world to plan out and deal with the Slaveimps before you engage with the big beast. But once you do, any Slaveimps on the field will try to rush towards the battle as soon as they're able to.

Well Provoke didn't really work, so no Bravery to start with. Yes, Juthro is my second tankiest unit here so you know this team is a wild one. Still, even with the boost, Corinth won't do that much with a tier 1 level 1 spell, but in fairness most of the team is here for moral support.

Still, you can see that against Lily, Chimaera is doing sweet fuck all that kathy immediately heals, so I wasn't really worried about dying, but with Hart out of TP and a big boost via the Slaveimp, let's try this again.

Come at me, fool!

Kick... kick... no, uh, poison... poison...

So that I wasn't here for ten thousand years I did have to rest Hart to go all in on Poison. I was trying to avoid that but it was the only way I was gonna get through this fight. If not, a Bravery boosted Eschaton would've probably done the trick, but Hart is back to his Torpor and bind build after this fight, so it was a necessary evil. However, even at max level, it's still a 21% base infliction chance and there's no guarantee it'll stay on for long.

Gotta love EO1/EO2 disable mechanics.

Poison is a very easy way to cheese the fight, but it's very RNG dependant. If all else fails, well you can grind out Force I guess. For one, if the Alchemist's TEC is high enough, 1 Eschaton can instantly kill Chimaera.

i'm helping

Cute effort.

See, you need to focus on torturing, not kicking!

Oh it did not like that!

It secretes a similar kind of venom, how much could it really hurt- HOLY SHIT!

Oh. So this is the power I now wield. Fuck yeah.

...huh. Well, I'm glad to not have to use this damn gauntlet as much.

Ah, uncapped Poison is a sight to behold. This is at max level, so it's about as good as it gets, but ~300HP each turn will carry on for a long, looooong time. That was 20% of its health, and with Health making Pile a non-issue, we can just wait it out and try not to die to Blaze.

After the first game where Poison was straight up shit, it flipped right around to broken in this game. Even in big fights, 300 HP worth of damage can be huge, because enemy HP pools in this game are easily the smallest compared to any other game. Damage numbers in EO2 tend to be very small, so for those of you used to later games where you casually dumped out 4 digit damage, this is actually massive for EO2 standards. Probably the equivlant of a certain venomous skill in EO4 I would say, for those of you familiar with that game. Being a form of nearly completely fixed damage pretty much either brings it to useless or broken with no in-between depending on the game.

Also it's kind of weird, but Pile is also a skill that actually does more damage to its adjacent targets more than the initial one. Not sure why but that's just the way it is.

Ah, geez, I gotta cool this down somehow!

Cause, yeah, Blaze will fuck us up.

If you see how hard Chimaera is hitting right now, I'm pretty sure you can math out that 50% more damage would be a game over for Cross. He's gotta take it down fast before Aura becomes a factor!

do your best

You're welcome! Gack!

Because we're doing so much Poison damage, it keeps going to the next stage of its health, so that was two Blazes in a row, tanked wonderfully by our Provoked Protector.

Gah, I am not used to such little health!

So long as it means I'm not dying again.

We better finish this up quick, we've got a turn of the attack buff, but after that the imp will heal 110HP and undo a lot of progress. Still, what are the chances that Poison has stuck around this long?

Once the first Slaveimp has entered the battle, the clock is really ticking. And killing them will only help you so much, because there are several more on the way. If you aren't close to killing Chimaera, I'll be blunt, you're probably doomed.

Haven't seen that much blood in a while...

What a story!

What can I say, I'm a bit of a lucky bastard when I need to. Still, Poison didn't do all the work, just 99% of it. Corinth did enough uninterrupted Bravery damage across these turns to nearly shave an entire extra Poison turn. Juthro meant that Pile was a complete non-issue, and thank god Lily could actually survive a Blaze at full health, which she was at the end of the turn because while kathy is slow, she's great for preparing for next turn. Very happy with how well everyone contributed. Or, well, weren't very heavy while Hart/Sophia carried them all across the finish line.

Chimaera can be a very tough wake up call as to what this series in general expects from you. Good playing and management is pretty much paramount to succeeding in this series. You can probably imagine how much tougher this fight would have been if Cross didn't have access to a max level Poison.

pathetic

And that's a wrap. To compensate for no exp from FOEs, bosses now have... way too much exp, they overcompensated since Fenrir gave out 1800. And since we got the conditional... ehehehe... it gets better!

That was not a typo in Chimaera's infobox. Chimaera genuinely gives out 21,000 experience points! The Raflesia, the toughest enemy in this Stratum, only gave out 831. Yeah, while FOEs giving out no exp was a response to how much people grinded on them in the first game, they just moved all that exp to bosses and it just resulted in people farming bosses to grind. And yes bosses give out mountains of exp every kill, which makes EO2 one of the easiest games to grind in. Even though EO2 is possibly the most mean spirited game in the series, it also does plenty of things to utterly shatter its own game design. The world of Etrian Odyssey 2 is certainly a land of contrasts.

Oh and getting the conditional drop is a very big boon, as you'll see in a bit.

Gotta love how Atlus then went in the complete opposite direction in EO3, and made FOEs give too much EXP, while bosses don't give enough. Again.

Excellent work there, my kicking companion!

Huff... huff... I did most of the work! But you pulled off the chants pretty well for a beginner!

I just imagined the steps I would make for my illusions.

i had a fun time, what a lovely ugly amalgamation

Not how I'd put it, but with support like that I can't complain.

Heh, you're also welcome. This adventure is just beginning... though I can't say the same for...

Well done! You have defeated the loathsome Chimaera! A sense of accomplishment wells up within you, as a beast's howl reaches you from far away. The howl nags at you... it seems familiar somehow. If you can remember what it is, you can try returning to the place where it emanated.

he seems fine for now, but we might not make the trip to him

Agreed, let's find what Flausgal taught us, he deserves that much.

Here's all of 5F, quite a long floor, with quite the wall at the end, but we're ready to move on. The real Etrian Odyssey starts here

If this is your first EO LP you're reading, or your first experience with EO in general, he's serious. Chimaera may have been tough, but the game has even stronger obstacles in store for you. Can you handle the heat? Though to the rest of you more familiar with the series, I'm sure you already knew he was being serious in the first place.

Ever-Scarlet Forest

That's warm. My burning adventurer's spirit and the thick heated air. Yowch!

i can only treat external burns

Before, I wouldn't like this heat, now it's pretty comforting. Though I could cool myself down by-

I thought you were gonna stop doing that!!!

Steamy.

Indeed, the very ground is boiling, I wonder what would cause such a thing... the red leaves are my first thought, but they seem fairly average...

At least I'm not going to cook for long, heh!

The violet light rises from the center of the room, surrounded by poles. You think back to the protector Flausgul's words... the Geomagnetic Field he spoke of must be this light! You consider touching the pole of light to see how it works, though you could also move on.

A good feeling when you've cleared a stratum, though it is a little more rewarding last game since you went through the entire thing. Still, not gonna complain about more checkpoints! But before we go back, we do have an urgent matter.

Geomagnetic Fields function just like the last game. And unlike poles, these are permanent 2 way checkpoints.

At least you're still fine, r-right?

Not for long...

There was a lonely beast here with pleading eyes before. Upon your return, you see the beast standing here unchanged, like a bronze statue. He seems to sense that his long-time enemy has been defeated and wears a peaceful expression. Kurogane barks quietly in thanks, and paws his collar as if offering it as a gift. Satisfied at last, Kurogane falls to the ground, as if entering a deep slumber...

And so he shall return to the forest.

Not always a happy ending, but if we get stronger, we can make sure this never happens again.

you weren't cute, but i hope you sleep well

If you come back here later, long after Kurogane has passed away, there's actually alternate dialogue:

After defeating the Chimaera on the 5th floor, you enter a dead end at the forest's edge. You recall that before it was the endpoint of a trail of blood you discovered... As you follow the trail to its conclusion, you discover a beast lying on the ground. It is Kurogane, the Beowulf member you encountered before. He seems to be dead already... You bow your heads and pray that Kurogane's noble soul may rest in peace. Taking one last look at the deceased, you notice his collar lying loose on the ground. Some mysterious force impels you to reach for it and take it back to Lagaard with you.

Obtained Trust Band.

Though you still get that key item either way.

You guys go and get some rest, I'll finish this up.

There's somewhere we gotta go first...

I've heard that Chimaera is no more. Allow this old man to thank you with all his heart for your exquisite work! Well done, well done! On the Grand Duchy's behalf, I present you with this reward.

Kinda not used to missions just ending without much fanfare.

Hey, we got a lot of money at least. That should cover all the supplies that was needed to get past the 5th floor and Chimaera. Though... heh heh heh...

Its leader was very affectionate with beasts, and trained them to fight against monsters. You hold the collar he used in his training routine. With that, perhaps you too can tame wild animals and teach them to fight with you. Why don't you try inducting a beast into your guild?

Puppy...

This was preventable and due to our own weakness. Therefore we will induct these two Beasts into the guild to always remember what we could not do.

'ere 'ere! They look like fun to wrestle with!

I wouldn't recommend it, but then I have much to learn with working with animals.

Fluffy coats are good on beds, but this is fine too.

Purrrrrrrrrr!

Hehe!

Hey! Where are you two going?!

Thankfully Beasts are unlocked nice and early, and we'll be using both Rajah and Loopy throughout the next stratum, buuuuut it's a shame this class is so shit. It's why we have two, Loopy will be going full into Loyalty and become a very glassy cannon, while Rajah will avoid that skill entirely and be a mediocre tank. Oh well, it's a perfectly fine class, but it has a lot of small issues and one very big issue, as I go into full detail in the class writeup. At least we now have the full guild!

Unlike the last game, you actually get the unlockable class at a reasonable time. And grinding one up isn't too much trouble, as a battle with Chimaera should bring it up to par. Chimaera starts its respawn timer right away, so you can rest at an inn for 2 weeks to bring it back for another go. Too bad Beasts has its own fair share of issues.

Those guys seemed a bit down, wonder what happened in there? Well least I can do is sell thi- HOLY SHIT!

Now for more imbalance, because I love this dumb game so much. Not only can you crush everything in your way with broken classes and ridiculous Force skills, bosses give out tons of exp and have very easy conditional drops that sell for ludicrous amounts, we will not have money problems for the rest of the game. And hey, it'll take a few more kills, but here's a bow they were expecting you to buy much, muuuuuuch later. Because of this bow, Survivalists can actually be a force to be reckoned with, but I don't fancy grinding that myself. Still, the choice is there if you want it. Oh yeah, what about the regular drop?

1 Brute Tail required for Shadow Bow - Bow, ATK+58, STR+2, HP+10, +5 speed - Its arrow can pierce anything imaginable.

What the shitting fuck!? Yes, that conditional drop sells for a ridiculous amount! Just look at the fund difference in those screenshots! Money troubles can be an issue to deal with in the first part of the game, but the moment you lay your hands on a boss's conditional drop (they all supply a ridiculous amount of funds), money is basically no object for the entire rest of the game! Especially if you gun for the rest of the boss's conditional drops. And unlike in most other EO games, there's no downside to doing so. Boss drops are not mutually exclusive in EO2 (which EO3 would change back), so you can snag every drop at once from a boss. This is pretty much why gathering fell out of favor as the best way to make money. Why risk a weak team and wasting time wiping to an asshole flower, when you can just get far more money from poisoning the first boss!? The only downside is that Poisoning Chimaera is RNG dependant but uh. There other ways to make a lot of money too.

Back at last...

Yeah...

It was a fun time, heh, but still...

huh? who are-

Beasts incoming! I'm ready to fight!

Don't you dare!!!

Hmm!

Hmhm!

What are they...? Uwah!

Hey get off her- gah!

Heh!

Mmhm!

They're licking you both... heh...

how sweet of them

What happy additions to the guild, did you come to make us feel better?

Hahaha, they are really fluffy!

I guess we shouldn't, bleh, feel so bad about the end of one adventure, when we have new ones just beginning! But I really need to get this now slobbery armour off me...

Purrpurrpurr...

Ehehehehe!

Well, we could stay for a bit longer...

Next time, the next stratum begins!

It's a game

Crosspeice · Sun Sep 05, 2021 12:09 am

Beast Overview wtf

Beast Overview

Welcome to the final class of the game, where all bets are off. Every game has some kind of meme class, whether it's Farmers or Bushi, or perhaps Hexer from the last game, there's a class where you look at it and it makes you go... okay? Beasts are meant to be more offensive Protectors but have a lot of weird skills, a passive that might be one of the worst designed skills in the series and pretty good offensive utility that requires said godawful skill. The main issue is that you don't take that skill and get an alright defensive class... which is worse than a Protector, or you take the skill and go all in, becoming the glassiest of cannons. Neither works that well, this class is so strange, it feels like it was added in last minute and since it's the only unlockable class in the game, it might well be. Let's get stuck in.

Here's the only unlockable class in this game. Fortunately you unlock this class super early, right after beating the first Stratum boss, so it doesn't have the exact same problems as Ronin or Hexer. Unfortunately what's behind the lock isn't great. Why? Oh just read on...

Here's the first weird thing, to see how well each class fares, I've been ranking them by how their stats compare to the other classes. Then I take all those ranks and create an average, just out of curiosity. Beast is number one, it has the best overall stats out of all the classes in the game, best HP, second in STR and VIT, third in LUC, the worst TEC oh no, and decidedly average everything else. That means this class is great, right? RIGHT??? Well we'll get to that, but on paper Beasts have everything they need for greatness.

Beasts can be built one of two ways. An offensive tank hybrid. Or taking Loyalty. Why these 2 builds? Oh you'll see in a moment. As for stats you want, HP and TP are good builds. TEC can be ignored entirely as +10 to that awful TEC stat won't fix it. STR is really good no matter which build you go with, so you'll want to max that out. VIT is an odd one. If you're going with the hybrid build, you'll want to max it out. If you're going with the Loyalty build, VIT is completely useless to invest in, and HP is the only defensive stat they can really use.

Common Passive Unlocks

HP Up: Lv3: Autocure
VIT Up: Lv10: En Garde
TEC Up: Lv5: Fetch
LUC Up: Lv5: Fetch

Ah, one useful skill out of three, sounds about right. Fetch invests in two stats Beasts really don't care about and you can just use Survivalists from base instead for gathering. It's kinda cool that it rolls the gathering skills into one, but it's not worth it. En Garde is pretty alright on defensive builds and Autocure would be pretty great if it was per turn instead of per battle, but both are basically useless if you pick up Loyalty which is, oh yeah, up next.

Loyalty
Unlocks: Lv1: Doze Off; Lv2: Preen; Lv3: Bristle; Lv10: Rampage
BUGGED: Uses the ally's defensive stats and buffs instead of the user's, treated as recoil damage and thus ignores damage reduction and nullification skills.
Gives the user a chance to take damage for an ally, can activate multiple times per turn. Takes priority over any damage mitigating or nullifying skills. Passive.

What the fucking fuck were they FUCKING THINKING with this skill??? On the face of it it seems fine, a passive 1 Guard that when combined with a bunch of defensive buffs, can be a great shield for the party. But of course there's two HUUUUUUUUGE problems, due to a bug it doesn't use its impressive VIT and various defensive buffs, instead it uses the allies. So that squishy Gunner trying to use a Charge shot? All you did was replace their HP and died in their place, it makes the Beast into an incredibly fragile unit due to the high activation rate at high levels. And when AOEs get thrown around more by the enemy, guess what the Beast can do? They throw themselves in front of every goddamn hit and ignore all the wonderful unique defensive skills they have, making them completely useless. Preen and Bristle are pretty alright skills if Loyalty didn't ignore their DEF reduction aspect, so instead you get their ATK reduction and Provoke rate, respectively.

Second issue, and this is an important one: IT GOES BEFORE FRONT GUARD OR ANTI ELEM SKILLS, so even on the all out offense build, you can't even get them somewhat protected by those skills. Up against the biggest and baddest enemies, when you'd want to Rampage all over the place, they instead die to the dragon breaths even if the rest of the party has that attacked nullified or to the various physicals AOEs that get thrown around lategame, that you love using Front Guard on.

That means due to their below average AGI, they might not even get an attack off, they'll just take a full hit from a postgame enemy and immediately die. What is the fucking point of them then??? Well, you can ignore this skill completely and become a discount Protector because you can't get Preen, Bristle, or hell even Doze Off. It is staggering how this skill forces you into two different builds, completely at odds with what the class is supposed to do and make them mediocre in BOTH aspects. What an absolute shame. And this is the first fucking skill!!!

THIS SKILL, IS FUCKING SHIT! And it really brings the class down! It's very rare that's the case because most shitty skills can just be ignored, no need to waste SP on that garbage after all. Not Loyalty, ohohoho boy! It has several issues that makes it even more shit than a standard bad skill. For one it's a mastery skill. You want those particular skills, you gotta take this, there's no way around it. It's a passive that can't be toggled off either so you can't take it back outside of resting the SP out.

There's also the fact that Loyalty is this class's core mechanic, several things were designed to work with it. Except not! It's completely and utterly bugged. I have more specifics on this skill in a Jank Odyssey writeup, but the gist of it is that the damage redirection a) happens way too late and b) is coded as recoil damage, breaking several interactions with all these skills. This also means that by ignoring Loyalty, you are met with an incomplete and half baked class. And if you do take Loyalty, the class design is at complete odds with itself due to the sheer anti-synergy the bugs introduce!

This is why HP is the only defensive stat that matters for Loyalty builds. The Beast's VIT is completely useless on Loyalty procs. Not only that, you basically have to do 2 separate builds with this class. Taking Loyalty or ignoring it since those 2 builds are completely at odds with each other as Loyalty turns the Beast into a ridiculous glass cannon, while the other build gives you a tank with several missing tools for actually tanking. And no matter what you do, you are left with a very incomplete and mediocre class, if not really terrible in the Loyalty build's case.

Now there is a way you can make Loyalty work. It scales with your party's defenses, but most classes in the game aren't exactly on the beefy side, but there are a few that are. Just stuff all those slabs of beef into your party and suddenly Loyalty becomes very strong as with even more defensive buffs they won't die. What's the problem with this strategy? Doing this setup requires going with a party that focuses heavily on defense instead of offense and tanking their damage output greatly! It's way more efficient and far less effort to just go with an offensive party of some kind where with this strategy you have to put in a lot of effort just to make the skill functional. And that doesn't even fix all the anti-synergy issues this class has. It's just a bandage over a far bigger problem. As such we're not gonna be writing this overview with that specific strategy in mind, as it's very unlikely most players will even go for it. If you're doing a challenge run, be my guest but that's pretty out of scope for this LP and if you're doing one, you don't really need our help and already know what you're getting into.

Alternatively run a solo Beast and literally no other party member. Or 5 Beasts. Suddenly all of Loyalty's issues go out the window because there is no party to defend, or the party is full of Beasts that can actually use their stats while reaping the benefits of the defensive skills they can actually use. But uh again, that sort of thing is out of the scope of this LP.

Autocure
Prerequisites: HP Up Lv3
Unlocks: Lv5: Autoheal
Restores the user's HP by a certain amount after each battle. Passive.

Now for a defensive build this is a pretty great skill that gives you a nice chunk of scalable healing at the end of each tu- oh, it's at the end of every battle? WHAT IS THE POINT OF IT THEN??? You're gonna invest 10 points for a skill that gives you like 50HP at the end of each BATTLE? Just use Cure, it's super cheap and heals for way more, and chances are if you have Loyalty you'll be dead at the end of a two turn battle anyway. Still, it has one positive point, and it's the skill it unlocks.

A more selfish version of Patch Up for less return. It does stack with Patch Up so whether you want to take this is up to you, though I'd consider it super low priority. Especially if you took Loyalty to max level and are frequently left with a dead Beast.

Autoheal
Prerequisites: Autocure Lv5
Unlocks: Lv5: Tenacity
Gives the user a chance to recover from any ailment at the start of a turn. Separate chance to the standard Recover Chance. Passive.

Now this is much better, gives the Beast a great chance of recovering from any ailment since it's in essence a second recovery roll. Since they have great LUC, it's very likely they'll shrug off ailments after one turn, which is very nice for a tank. Of course, if you have Loyalty, dying also cures ailments, but what this skill unlocks would actually help with that build, so it can be worth picking up in both. Just a shame about Autocure.

Keep in mind it doesn't work on binds, but it does work on Petrification! Which isn't a huge upside as only 5 enemies have access to Petrification in the entire game. Still, being able to get right back into the action is a really good passive to have. Though non-Loyalty Beasts will see significantly more value from this since they won't be dying all the time.

En Garde
Prerequisites: VIT Up Lv10
Gives the user a chance to reduce incoming damage by 50%. Does not stack with Loyalty. Passive.

So if you were wondering why I didn't mention this skill when talking about Loyalty... well there it is, god could you imagine how good this class could be if all the multipliers and defensive buffs actually WORKED with Loyalty? But for defensive builds this is pretty darn nice. Would've been nice to combo with Bristle but oh well, stuff to dream about. Of course, this skill works well when it actually activates and outside of Loyalty there's no real way for the Beast to attract hits so it won't work as well as a 1 Guard Protector, but you've invested ten points of VIT Up, might as well use this!

This skill would be fucking amazing with Loyalty IF IT ACTUALLY WORKED WITH IT! As a result, ignore this entirely if you're using Loyalty, it won't help one single bit. For a tank build, it's really good though. It effectively increases the Beast's HP by 38%. This is also a big reason why this class is so weird. Just look at how at odds the skillset is with each other! All this anti-synergy is just disgusting!

Tenacity
Prerequisites: Autoheal Lv5
Gives the user a chance to be automatically revived at 1HP. Can activate multiple times per battle, stacks with Loyalty and cannot activate if the user was killed by Instant Death. Passive.

Finally, something that actually works with Loyalty. This skill is pretty great if your Beast is dying a lot and pretty useless otherwise. Still, the fact that it can proc after every death if you're lucky enough is pretty damn good, but it's also pretty bad when it doesn't activate, since reviving a Beast for it to then die immediately isn't a great feeling. The best way to keep on Rampaging and that's not saying a lot.

This is pretty much the only defensive skill you can even get with Loyalty builds, and it's probably the only worthwhile one since your Beast will be dying all the damn time. Might as well mitigate that the best you can! Outside of Loyalty builds, probably take it or leave it. Your Beast will be pretty tanky but this could be handy to have on the off chance they die from a stray Loyalty proc if you have that at a low level.

Maul
Unlocks: Lv5: Devour
A single target Claw attack that increases in damage the lower the user's HP. Claw skill with Bash damage, uses the Arms.

Wow look at all those numbers. Unfortunately this type of skill is back and it's still hard to justify, especially on Loyalty builds where it'll rarely get the chance to be this low in health, and Rampage is better. This can work on more defensive builds, but there's better skills to use, like the one this skill unlocks! Can be worth throwing out if you find yourself at low health, but due to the free flowing of Salve II and it not being worth maxing means you're better off doing something else.

This skill isn't quite hard outclassed by others like some other skills of these types are but it's still outclassed in practice. Loyalty builds should be using Rampage instead, while tank builds can be using Devour or Bodyslam. 25% HP is a very dangerous threshold on tank builds, and on Loyalty builds, you're either dead or you're not dead. There is barely any inbetween. And again, Rampage exists, so please use that instead of making your Beast's existence even more miserable than it already is.

Devour
Prerequisites: Maul Lv5
A single target Claw attack that heals the user's HP by a percentage of damage dealt. Claw skill with Bash damage, uses the Head.

Now for a tanky build, this is a pretty great skill. Due to the Beast's high STR it'll do a nice chunk of damage and, indeed, heal a fair bit. For Loyalty builds, this will absolutely not offset the amount of damage you'll take, so don't even bother. Otherwise this move is kinda whatever, since it doesn't really heal that much, but for keeping topped off and for a slight investment that can ease your healer's load, it's pretty nice.

A pretty strong utility skill for tank builds, as dealing damage and healing yourself at the same time is a really strong effect. And on a supportive class this can really extend their survivability. But on Loyalty builds? Trust us when we say that the lifesteal does not make up for the sheer amount of HP they will lose from Loyalty procs. Or deaths they will run into.

Bodyslam
Unlocks: Lv5: Rampage
A single target Claw attack that attempts to inflict Stun. Claw skill with Bash, uses the Arms.

...what is this scaling?! Truly this is the meme class, but that does mean when fully invested Bodyslam is a damn good skill, hitting hard and striking fast. Of course, this is outshone by Rampage, but for defensive builds this is a great move to spam if you don't fancy doing anything else. Of course you'll need to wait to use this, it is absolutely godawful early on, but quickly becomes an excellent skill. Since it doesn't require HP tuning like Maul or the suicidal Loyalty like Rampage, this is the best overall skill this class has, which says a lot, but the Stun chance coupled with high LUC is actually pretty dependable. Definitely something to work towards, you'll want this skill nice and early.

From levels 1 through 5 it's straight up worse than a regular attack, and it's barely better at level 6. But past that point is where the skill starts getting good. What the fuck is this scaling!? Keep in mind Etrian Odyssey does not tell you the specifics of the skill data, we're pulling this out for you, so chances are a player who invests in this will likely see that this skill is crap and not invest in it further. What the fuck is this class!?

Anyways if you're using a tank Beast build, this is your best damage skill in its toolkit. Deals decent damage and could possibly lock enemies out of a turn. Assuming their Claws don't weigh them down anyways.

Rampage
Prerequisites: Bodyslam Lv5, Loyalty Lv10
A multi target Claw attack to 3-6 enemies, does not redirect if original target dies. Claw attack with Bash damage, uses the Arms.

Alright fine, you want the suicidal Loyalty build, what does it get you? Well, okay, it's the best attacking skill in the game. Yes, it outpaces Midareba and Richochet, but is MUCH harder to use than those since you usually don't get off more than two of these in a battle before you're paste on the wall. Theoretically you do incredible damage with this skill, but accuracy and the chance of only doing 3 hits at max level really hamper this skill's effectiveness. It can outdamage all other skills, but will it? Will it really? Loyalty is just such a fundamentally terrible skill that warps everything associated with it that even at this class's best, it's still hard to use and can explode in your face at any moment. I just can't recommend this, good as it may be, and that's the biggest shame of this class.

If you maxed out Loyalty, you might as well snag this. It's the best attacking skill in the game, and you might as well embrace the glass cannon nature of your pet since they're going to be dying a whole lot due to Loyalty. At max level, taking into account the lowered accuracy, it deals a whopping average damage of 546%! (Without the accuracy penalty, the average damage increases to 728%.) Extremely high for a non-conditional damage skill! Then again Loyalty gives it a condition of "hope your Beast doesn't fucking die." It would be an amazing skill if it wasn't attached to Loyalty, but it is and rarely does being associated with a terrible skill bring down another skill! God, what the shit is this class design!?

Claw
Unlocks: Lv5: Wildcut
A single target Claw attack. Claw skill with Cut damage, uses the Arms.

Uh, yep, you are reading this right, this skill gets stronger, but also gets slower and less accurate the more you level it up. What the fuck is the point? I feel like I'm asking that a lot with this class, just use Bodyslam instead, hell use the skill this one unlocks, I dunno why they would make a bland skill worse the more you want to use it, they were just throwing everything at the wall and yes, haha, very funny, but stop making this class bad!!!

Well this isn't something you see too often in an EO game. A skill actively giving reasons not to max it out beyond raising the TP costs. You'll have to decide where to stop, but if you want Wildcut, you'll need to level it up to 5. This feels like an experiment that didn't work because SP is already a precious resource, so knowing how to carefully distribute it is already an important skill for players to learn. And skills are already competing to gain SP, so there really didn't need to be more reasons to drag a skill down. Or they thought a Beast having access to Cut damage was really really scary.

Wildcut
Prerequisites: Claw Lv5
A multi target Claw attack. Claw skill with Cut damage, uses the Arms.

Oh hey Wildshot but better, how you doing. This is clearly supposed to be a finishing off skill with that godawful speed modifier, and it does work well in that regard due to pretty high power and good Beast stats. Otherwise kinda whatever, line wide Cut damage is definitely interesting and useful against 5 enemies at once, but if you can't finish the enemies off your party will have to awkwardly kill them off at the start of the next turn and you'll probably want to use Bodyslam instead to secure the kill. Or Rampage if you're suicidal, yadda yadda. Still one of the more useful and unique skills of this class.

A 1% speed modifier. Did somebody think giving the Beast access to Cut damage was really scary or something? What's with this skill and Claw? Anyways it's the only true AOE skill they have so pick it up if that's something you want your Beast to be dishing out. It's one of the few physical AOEs in the game but it won't be able to take out random encounters before they act.

Bristle
Prerequisites: Loyalty Lv3
Increases the user's physical and elemental defense, and reduces their damage output for 5 turns. Buff skill, uses the Head.

So for the other Loyalty skills, you were probably wondering if you could only invest in the mastery skill, just a little bit, and just ignore the higher activation and Rampage. And yes, you can do that, but there's a few problems with this, firstly the activation chance, even at the lowest level you'd like, 3, is still annoyingly high. Secondly using these skills in conjunction with Loyalty activating is pointless because it ignores the best part of them, the damage reduction for Bristle is FANTASTIC, and for a more defensive approach the lower damage is kinda whatever.

But if Loyalty activates that huge damage reduction doesn't matter at all and the 1% less damage you'll take from a level 3 Loyalty is all that'll matter. You're using these skills praying that Loyalty never activates at all, and that's a huge problem with the 3 skills early in this tree, so it's less of a headache to just not bother with them. When Loyalty doesn't activate, hot damn these skills are pretty darn good, but 1/3 times that's not gonna be the case. And that just sucks. Are you sick of me talking about how bad Loyalty is yet?

More amazing skills that are just utterly tanked by how fucking shit Loyalty is! Once again, the anti-synergy on display here is just utterly horrifying! Which is a shame because this is the strongest defense buff in the game! But Loyalty ignores all of it! And even on tank builds that took a bit of Loyalty to unlock this, 33% of the time it won't matter! And this is completely useless for Rampage builds since the last thing you want to do is reduce Rampage's damage, which is the only redeeming thing about max level Loyalty, and the defense buff will be ignored 75% of the time!

Preen
Prerequisites: Loyalty Lv2
Increases the user's physical defense and provoke rate for 5 turns. Buff skill, uses the Head.

Now for the next Loyalty shackled skill, Preen is pretty great for when you want your tank to be a tank, but if you've only got Loyalty at level 2, there's a 31% chance that you'll technically use this skill but take 2% more damage, making this skill completely useless in those cases! If you're able to combine Preen, Bristle, En Garde and even Wildwall, you can see how this class could've been an amazing tank. But there's always that hanging spectre of death that will completely screw everything up and act as if you didn't invest in those skills at all. This is the only way outside of Loyalty for the Beast to properly draw aggro and help protect the team and it's not a great defense increase, admittedly, and has the godawful passive associated with it. So again, it's just easier to ignore it entirely and go full Rampage or not pick Loyalty at all.

Like Cross said, combining all of these defensive skills could have made for an amazing tanking class. But once again, Loyalty induces anti-synergy, so these skills have extremely questionable usefulness. With max level Loyalty, Preen's basically in effect all the time anyways, and on tank builds you have to hope Loyalty doesn't activate to get the most out of this since the defense buff doesn't activate in those cases. The defense buff is also pretty bad, so it's not even a must have even if you're trying to ignore Loyalty. It does have one specific use in the post-game at the very least, but that's about it.

Wildwall
Nullifies all STR-based attacks for the entire turn or if the user dies. Buff skill, uses the Arms.

Ah, a Parry that can nullify STR-based elemental attacks for some reason, rare that they are. Combined with Preen, this is a great way to really shut down any physical attacker for a turn considering Loyalty doesn't fuck everything up, but it's also something you don't need to level up all the way. It's rare you'll take 10 hits at once, let alone fucking 20. Of course, without Preen, and indeed Loyalty, this skill isn't very dependable since there's no way to guarantee the enemy will attack you, so it's best to use a Protector for this strategy. See how with most skills with this damn class there's always a freaking asterisk? Ah, what could've been.

Suffers from the same issues Parry does, in that it'll fall off as the game goes on since it's pretty tied closely to Preen. And it doesn't even work with Loyalty, so that bit of usage is completely thrown out the window. At best it's a one point wonder. Just imagine just how powerful this class would have been if Loyalty wasn't horrifically and utterly bugged!

Roar
Attempts to inflict Fear on all enemies. Curse skill, uses the Head.

Yep. They were having a fucking laugh with this class lemme tell ya. Still, wonky infliction rate aside, this is a damn good skill at max level when combined with high LUC. Pairs very nicely with a FEAR TREE Hexer and can also just shutdown enemies pretty effectively, especially when combined with Bodyslam. Holy shit a good skill where I don't have to UM, ACTUALLY and mention Loyalty in any way. ...SHIT

What the fucking shit is this scaling. Did they forget to design levels 1 through 4? Just max it out as soon as possible if you're grabbing it. AOE Fear is pretty okay crowd control, but it can be paired up nicely with a Hexer if you're using their Fear skills. A high priority if you're using a Fear Hexer. Can be taken or left in the dust if you're not.

Saliva
Restores HP to a single target. Healing skill, uses the Head.

Uh, right? Due to a lack of a healing boosting passive and any TEC to really speak of, this is a pretty pathetic heal, but can be a way for a defensive build Beast to heal other party members...? Just use Devour, it has much better utility, and leave the healing to the actual dedicated classes toots. Still, if you don't have a healer for some reason...

No Healer, the worst TEC stat in the entire game out of all the classes, yeah pass. Just have them throw out a Medica or something if you need your Beast to be healing someone else. And if they need to heal themselves, Devour can do that while also chipping away at their enemies at the same time. Or they can gobble down a Medica if they really need a lot of emergency healing.

Doze Off
Prerequisites: Loyalty Lv1
Restores the user's HP and puts them to Sleep. Heal skill, uses the Head.

Again, what? Stop being such a fucking weird class! Still, this does combo with Autoheal and is a very cheap heal, but Devour is again way more useful, you should have a dedicated healer, and also this requires Loyalty and being asleep when that activates is a BAD FUCKING IDEA, so maybe don't.

...Why? It's a fast healing skill and Autoheal can Purge off the Sleep next turn but uh. Use an actual healer. Or an item. Devour is also there too to deal damage and heal at the same time. Oh and in case you had any ideas, no, Sleep resistance or any form of ailment resistance will not prevent the Sleep from happening, as it's guaranteed and pierces immunities. Recovery buffs do work so there's that. It has one possible use in the post-game, but Preen can also do that and is just a better skill all around.

Howl
Lures non-red FOEs in a certain radius to tile used and stuns them for a set duration. Field skill.

God this class has so many skills... can be useful but I prefer saving SP for other skills, even if that's a hard sell with this class, and using items instead. Fighting FOEs is a bad idea, so can definitely be useful to avoid them!

Oh hey more FOE field skills. Take em or leave them. Though most players opt to leave them.

Growl
Stuns non-red FOEs in a certain radius for a set duration. Field skill.

Gets both FOE skills like the Troubadour, so can offer some nice utility like that class, but this class is pretty confused enough, maybe don't add more chaff to it? Ah who cares, I don't care, let's end this already.

Right so instead of repeating my commentary on these skills yet again, let me drop a bit of trivia on you. These skills were an attempt to make Labyrinth explorations more interactive. Players could use these to interact with FOEs to make their trips more easy. However, these skills were frequently ignored outside of certain sections of the game that forced you to use them. Not only do FOE items exist, but learning FOE behaviours isn't particularly hard, and avoiding them is pretty easy once you've got their patterns down. Not only that, Red FOEs are probably the ones you'd want to avoid the most but these skills don't work on them, limiting their usefulness further. And yet another downside is that depending on the FOE navigation puzzle, you might fuck up the patrol routes if there are groups of FOEs by using these skills and make it completely impossible to get through that part without killing them.

In short, these mechanics were basically failed experiments. These were dropped entirely starting from EO3, and instead they opted to make puzzles involving FOEs more involved once the 3DS era of Etrian Odyssey came around to add more interactivity to the Labyrinths.

Fetch
Prerequisites: TEC Up Lv5, LUC Up Lv5
Allows the party to gather from Chop, Mine and Take points a limited amount each day.

This is unique, but since you're putting investment into two pretty mediocre passives for this, it's just easier, and takes around the same amount of SP, to use the Survivalist's skillset instead. Going with a team of 5 Beasts is not as useful and you don't want these skills on your actual Beast, so heavy skip, even if it's a fun novelty.

This is an interesting idea in theory but in practice it plays out the exact same way as investing in all of the gathering skills on a Survivalist. TEC and LUC aren't particularly stats the Beast cares about. And in a gathering party? Beasts are locked off at the start of the game so you can't really make a party of Beasts from the get-go, and Survivalists have actual field skills they can use to reach gathering points easier that Beasts don't have access to. And due to the skill tree design, you don't get the payoff from this skill until later in comparison. A Survivalist can gather from 3 different gathering points with 3 SP, but it'll take the Beast 11 SP for them to do so. Just stick with a Survivalist gathering party.

Salivall
Heals and revives the entire party and dispels all status ailments. Does not remove binds or Stun. Force skill, uses the Head.

Oh thank god it's nearly over. Salivall is a worse H. Touch since it has a limit to its healing, but it's still a really nice OH SHIT button that falls off in the lategame. It's basically the same skill otherwise so you'll use it if you have it, but it's otherwise a mediocre and confusing cap to a mediocre and confusing class.

It's basically a worse H. Touch, what else is there to say? The base healing is pretty big though so it's not all bad and should cover your party for most of the game, even if by late or post-game it stops being a full heal. Throw it out whenever you need it and it's up.

Folks. What the fuck did we just read??? If everything worked out like it did in my dreams then the Beast would be a wonderful defensive class with some fun utility that makes it different enough from the Protector, better healing and defensive measures with a lack of elemental mitigation. And honestly that's fine, because the various offbrand and offensive skills this class has is actually pretty nice.

But then Loyalty comes and fucks it all up. So either you ignore it entirely, which ignores the great skills of Rampage, Bristle and Preen, becoming a worse Protector in the process, or you go all in and die to anything that deals any modicum of good damage. It's such an awful rock or hard place to be in and I hate it, I really do, this isn't a bad class, per se, it's a very interesting experiment that can go horribly wrong at a moment's notice, and you don't need that kinda stress in your life. At least the remake fixed them, but anyway, that's enough of us rambling, it's on with the main event! Fucking finally, what a journey these classes have put us through...

Beast could have been an amazing class, but due to programming shortcuts being taken, it's among the bottom of the barrel instead. Trying to make Loyalty work takes a ridiculous amount of effort to pull off, and at that point you could have completed the game more easily and faster with a better party. And if you don't take Loyalty you just have a pretty middling generalist class. What a shame, it has a pretty decent toolkit that's heavily undermined by one terrible skill causing a weird split in skill builds. So instead you have a unit that's pretty mediocre all around. It's astounding how one skill, one skill, completely undermined a class's design.

Crosspeice · Sun Sep 05, 2021 12:09 am

Well that was a fucking trip... anyway, new stratum and a new vote for who will be exploring most of it. We have the 5F team to explore 6F, but we'll need the divide the 12 members in 3 teams of 4 to explore 7F-12F. Simple, uh, right? In any case, here's how everyone is shaping up. Or will shape up when I level them for being in the party.

Holly: Starting off a little awkwardly with bad skill Tornado, but will start focusing on Chasers as more members delve into their elementals. Bit of a slow burn, but should be fun!

Lily: I can keep ignoring the anitskills for now, right? She'll focus on Provoke and Parry for now and generally keep everyone alive. Max level F.Guard is kinda good!

Logan: Also starting off awkwardly with bad skill 2-Bolt, but will soon come into his own with exploration utility. 1st Turn will be very nice.

Sonia: Always hard to start with an EO2 Dark Hunter, we'll get arm binds and Climax rolling, along with Viper for damage, Baits to come later.

kathy: all the healing plz, guess I should work towards Purify and CPR. But Salve II...

Corinth: He's shown how, uh, wonderful level 1 tier 1 spells are so he should probably get better ones before we head for Megido.

Juthro: What do you do with a Troubadour after Bravery, anyway? After Health I can go... Nihilo? Sure.

Eleanore: With Kienzan obtained it's Midareba time and that's about it. Ronin, everybody!

Hart/Sophia: Working on Torpor again along with head binds, yes I'm avoiding Poison and Revenge until later.

Aleks: I'm not a pussy so it's Charged element time, babyyyyy! Oh wait I should get Richochet first. Siiiigh.

Alastor: Warmight and Salve II and then maybe Cursecut, not much else really.

Rajah: Will not get Loyalty, will get Devour and Wildcut.

Vote for which three you'd like

Top four will be featured first, then the next four, then the next four. The 5th slot, or wildcard, for this vote will be both Beasts, focusing on Loopy first for fun Loyalty, but I'll have a different wildcard for whatever team Rajah is voted for.

Araxxor · Sun Sep 05, 2021 12:47 am

AI Oddities

The first thing I'll be getting into is the Gashtor/Raptor (their enemy data points to the same AI script file, so they behave the exact same way in battle)

Gashtor/Raptor wrote:If the party is blindsided, and flag 1 is not active, activate flag 1, then:
-90% chance to cast Fangs. (Targets the front row.)
-10% chance to cast Fangs. (Targets the back row.)

If HP is below 50%:
-79% chance to cast Fangs. (Targets the front row.)
-21% chance to cast Fangs. (Targets the back row.)

Else:
-69% chance to cast Fangs. (Targets the front row.)
-31% chance to cast Fangs. (Targets the back row.)

There's nothing wrong with this enemy... at first glance. In fact most FOEs in the game (And some random encounters) are more likely to perform a nasty action if they manage to blindside you, which makes sense considering how fearsome they are and that getting an FOE to walk into you back is meant to be a punishment for poor positioning. All well and good, but there's one major problem with this.

It doesn't work properly. The FOE system in EO2 is frankly a glitch ridden mess, and talking about all the intricacies now would be irrelevant and rather spoilery, so I'll save that for another time. You see, when an FOE manages to walk into your back and grants them the free blindside... the enemy doesn't actually realize they've blindsided you and the game actually skips that routine entirely. The only way for the FOE to realize that they've blindsided you and use the proper routine, is for both of you to run headfirst into each other and have the game roll a natural blindside that way. Which was most likely not the intent given that almost every FOE was designed to eviscerate you upon blindsiding you. It would be an odd piece of design if it only popped up on a fairly uncommon occurrence.

Also on a related note:

Furyhorn/Furylord wrote:If the party is not blindsided and flag 1 is not active, cast Step. (Targets Landsknechts, Protectors, Dark Hunters, Ronin, or Beasts.) Activate flag 1.

If HP is below 75%:
-75% chance to cast Step. (Targets party members that aren't confused.)
-25% chance to use a regular attack. (Targets party members that aren't confused.)

Else:
-50% chance to cast Step. (Targets party members that aren't confused.)
-50% chance to use a regular attack. (Targets party members that aren't confused.)

The Furyhorn and Furylord are the only FOEs in the entire game to show you kindness if blindsided. Or rather naturally blindsided. Dunno if that was due to a typo, but compared to how many other FOEs will gleefully jump at the chance to get first blood, it's kind of odd.

Also something I'll probably paste into the EO1 correction update and is not an AI oddity, but as it turns out, Blind is a pretty terrible ailment in EO1. In EO2, it's an 80% reduction to accuracy. In EO1? A mere 20%. That's the exact same amount as a Head Bind in EO1 gives! And Blind doesn't have any special side effects in EO1 (Ailments nullifying evasion was an EO2 addition) so it's literally a shittier Head Bind! It does stack with Head Binds but that's not really that much. On the plus side, it makes the Ronin's Sight skill a little stronger since Blind is of very little consequence to them. Of course you can just go at Night for that one.

More corrections to info. Paralysis and Fear give a 30% chance to deny someone's turn, not 50% in EO1. I have no idea about EO2, I haven't checked.

RandomKesaranPasaran · Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:54 am

Rajah, Logan, and Aleks

EO2o, go home, you're drunk.

Cornix Argentus · Sun Sep 05, 2021 5:11 pm

I am legitimately wondering if it would be possible to go in the code and make a hack of the game that just... fixes Loyalty to actually redirect attacks at a reasonable time. Just to see how Beasts would work if Loyalty worked like it was supposed to.

Araxxor · Mon Sep 06, 2021 5:05 am

Cornix Argentus wrote: ↑
Sun Sep 05, 2021 5:11 pm
I am legitimately wondering if it would be possible to go in the code and make a hack of the game that just... fixes Loyalty to actually redirect attacks at a reasonable time. Just to see how Beasts would work if Loyalty worked like it was supposed to.

Beast was likely very very unfinished. The game was rushed out the door and some mechanics are like barely finished. (Speed's an unfinished mechanic for one, but I need to look into the disassembly of the speed formula code more.) If Loyalty worked properly it'd probably flip straight around to broken because a Beast's innate durability is super huge.

Mihoshi · Tue Sep 07, 2021 10:06 am

Holly, Logan and Corinth

BolticThunder · Tue Sep 07, 2021 2:44 pm

Sonia, Aleks, and Rajah.

Cornix Argentus · Tue Sep 07, 2021 9:07 pm

Rajah, Logan, Sonia

Crosspeice · Wed Sep 08, 2021 9:19 pm

Voting is closed!

Logan: 5
Sonia: 5
Aleks: 3
Rajah: 3
Will do 7F-8F

Hart: 2
Holly: 2
Eleanore:1
Juthro: 1
Will do 9F-10F

kathy: 1
Corinth: 1
Alastor: 0
Lily: 0
Will do 11F-12F

Crosspeice · Mon Sep 27, 2021 4:27 pm

Part 9: Everything tastes like burning

Update 9: Everything tastes like burning

You're, uh, sticking pretty close, eh?

Mmmm.

So it's time for the second stratum, and Beasts. Due to not having much equipment, what they do get has pretty inflated stats and you can use accessories to make up the difference. So we'll stack STR boosts on our Loyalty as it doesn't matter what their defensive stats are. They're honestly not that bad when things work out, but we'll be seeing the issues as we go. Also since last update was a little long, we've got some new dialogue to see!

Oh joy. Time to work with Beasts.

It's so strange how the colors change on the different Strata. Yet it's the same tree all the way up... it's beyond me!

Makes you wonder what other trees _{and dark lords} are hiding up there.

Wait I just realized, how does that work? Are these some special everred kind of trees in the 2nd Stratum or something?

Not "up there," necessarily—in fact, it's in a different game—but have you seen the shit in Armoroad's Yggdrasil?

They say you've reached the next Stratum! Congratulations. Tell me, are the trees in this new area really on fire? If so, the temperature must be a lot higher in that region of the forest. Keep yourselves hydrated, watch your body temperature and... oh? The rumor isn't true? I see. It's a good thing those trees aren't really on fire--it could be a serious health issue. Even so, you should be careful. Red is a very strong color. Stare at red things for too long, and you may experience impaired vision or nausea. You're fine for now, but I'm concerned about long-term exposure. Be careful out there.

I'm done seeing red, personally.

ominous

That's so, so amazing! Congrats! People ask me all the time about you all... Like "What weapons did they just buy?" or "Can I get some armor just like theirs?" I always tell them the truth. It's not your weapons or armor that make you so great! Even though we'd sell a lot more equipment if I stayed quiet, it wouldn't be right... My father agrees, too! We both think being honest is more important than being rich! So go ahead and shop here as much as you want!

No, I am thinking that being rich is bettering.

You always say that, though.

Don't tell Napier about this.

I heard the place is filled with burning trees! How do the critters there survive? Eh? It's not true? Ahh, I see... the trees are red, but they're not on fire... hmm. Anyways, the Nidhogg Guild is getting to be famous now. But don't get a swelled head! I'll be counting on yeh... G'luck!

Yeh guys are on fire. Literally!

Ah- hey, you said you put it out!

But it made my cape nice and warm...

I do wonder what it would be like to go through a Stratum where being on fire was the natural state of things.

Cass's bizarre "are the trees on fire" bit makes more sense when you realize that Lagaard is, to my recollection, extremely cold year-round, and deathly so when winter rolls around. I'm not sure there's a temperate enough time of the year for the trees around the city to turn auburn.

Yer job is to bring them some ingredients, but there's more to it... oh, so yeh wanna know? Yeh'll have to talk to the lad at the hospital. Yeh know where it is, right? Well, g'luck to yeh!

Pop over and see what they want, chum.

No problem, buddy.

He's famous in the Grand Duchy, Lord Gascoyne is. He's got a powerful love for animal hide... not that I blame him, what with the bitter cold we see in winter, but the man's obsessed. His mansion's full to bursting with furs lining the walls, the floors, even the ceilings! It's men like him I'll never claim to understand...

Ugh, that guy, never seen his face when he visits the Duchy since he's covered head to toe in fur.

Wonder if he's related to Aleks...

Anyhow, our Lord Gascoyne went into the Labyrinth to hunt for new kinds of fur... says he found a rare beastie no one's ever seen before. Naturally, he wanted the hide. But no matter how fast he ran, this monsters just wouldn't be caught. He had a nasty spill while giving pursuit, and banged himself up pretty badly. But that hasn't dampened his desire for that hide one jot. And that brings us to the quest on the board now. G'luck out there! The monster should appear on the 6th floor. Don't forget to bring back the hide!

back so soon?

Can't get enough of Medics apparently. Who's the guy covered in fur over there?

Oh, did they not tell you the details at the bar? Well, remember when you found the Pale Bloom some time ago? Our current medical research is based on the same flower. Since it was you who were the ones that started us down this path... I wanted you to be the ones to help us finish it. Now, we're all set as far as flowers, but there are other things we need as well. And they can only be found in the Labyrinth. So I need you to retrieve them for us. We need one Mint Leaf. I've heard you can find them around the 6th floor. Once you collect it, just sell it to Sitoth Trading. That's all we need to finish the medicine. It'll come in real handy during your journey! Well, take care out there!

What's the second Stratum like? They say it's an autumn-covered forest. I'd like to see it... but stay on guard. The monsters there aren't in the same league in the first Stratum. That's all the advice I have for you. Never underestimate the Labyrinth.

Should be just fine if one of- oof! Okay, okay, you're up first.

Yaya!

Bah...

Hmm? Yes, I was just filing in the maps for the first stratum, uh, sir.

The forest of red trees... yes, I know it. It took us several months to discover. Legions of guards fought pitched battles against monsters before we made it that high. It was a difficult period in High Lagaard's history. And now your guild has reached it... mmm. In those excursions, we would abort the mission when we lost over half the team. But you overcame all obstacles with a team of only five. That in itself shows your strength. I expect great things from you.

A Sudden Gust of Wind that Calls for Death

Gotta be a knack to this...

Be the leaf!

Stalker

HP: 1200
STR: 20
VIT: 25
TEC: 20
AGI: 25
LUC: 20
Level: 18
Exp: 0

Skills
Amputate: Uses the Arms. Deals 200% Cut damage to a single target. Has a 100% accuracy modifier and a 100% speed modifier.
Scythe: Uses the Arms. Deals 200% Cut damage to a single target with 50% splash damage. Has a 100% accuracy modifier and a 100% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

100%

75%

100%

125%

50%

125%

Disable Vulnerabilities

25%

15%

25%

3%

25%

20%

3%

Drops
Scythe: 80% chance, sells for 389en
1 required for Sensui - Katana, ATK+55, STR+2 - sells for 1,020en

Conditional: Kill within 1 turn
Harvester: 100% chance, sells for 1,280en
Required for nothing

Last thing to do before the new stratum is to take on an enemy weaker than Chimeara with the Hexe- I mean, team that beat Chimeara! We'll have to come back later anyway to get the conditional for the codex, because that's fun.

Stalkers don't have much to them other than eviscerating you if you don't pass their stat checks. Red FOEs are generally best saved near the end of the Stratum or once you've reached the next Stratum.

I've never liked "kill on the first turn" conditionals, it feels a lot more like arbitrary time-gating on filling out bits of the Item Compendium.

I can only do this for so long...

Give me, uh, a little while.

With our current damage output we could do this in around 20 turns, or we could speed it up a little.

Well I don't need both arms to play music...

i'll get 'em next time...

Well Juthro would've died to Amputate's splash damage anyway. It has a bigger chance of using it when below 25% health and if it doesn't use it, then it activates a flag to give it an even bigger chance of using it. Always fun looking through the AI files, though I'll only bring them up when there's something interesting going on, otherwise I'll just skim, but there is one passage in particular that's funny: if it's 2 turns past turn 25, 79% chance of using front row Scythe, 21% chance of using back row Scythe. What an interesting routine that most people have never seen, guess they don't want you to stall it!

why 25 turns. what the hell was that a typo or something?

EO2 switched from controlling AI through binary tables like EO1 (shudder) to Atlus's FLOW scripting system, probably more well-known amongst romhacking types for being used in every Persona game from P3 onwards. Later games will actually use the fact that they can script out AI in a programmatic fashion to a much greater extent, but in EO2 everything—even bosses—use really simple behavior patterns.

In the process of poking at Persona Q2, though, I actually learned that the FLOW scripting system actually has support for multiple functions within a given compiled script. All of the EO games, from 2 on, just never use it for AI, which is why it took me by surprise when I decompiled PQ2's largest enemy AI file and found not just multiple functions, but multiple functions dedicated to custom targeting types used only for that boss! I dunno, I find it interesting to see how different teams within Atlus use the same tool in different ways.

1 Scythe and 5 Feathers required for Sensui, +5 speed.

Not that necessary since we'll unlock a better katana in the next stratum soon enough, so speaking of next stratum, let's go to it already!

Ever-Scarlet Forest

Noticing your presence, it prepares to flee. You suddenly remember the quest you undertook at the bar... There was a similar cowardly monster whose hide Lord Gascoyne desired. Perhaps the monster in front of you now is none other! You may choose to pursue the monster and complete your task, or resume your explorations.

I must be obtaining that fur!

It won't be an easy critter to catch. Perhaps we should use a Sleep Bell?

where's the fun in that

We could stun this quest FOE to quickly catch it, or we could chase it around half the map.

Well I can't block that.

i don't believe you tried

Bigcap

HP: 132
STR: 16
VIT: 16
TEC: 15
AGI: 16
LUC: 15
Level: 17
Exp: 599

Skills
Mold: Uses the Head. Attempts to inflict Poison on a single target. Has an 80% base infliction chance, deals 52-78 Poison damage and has a 100% speed modifier.
Spores: Uses the Head. Attempts to inflict Paralysis on a single target. Has an 80% base infliction chance and a 100% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

100%

150%

100%

100%

Disable Vulnerabilities

100%

0%

100%

100%

Drops
Open Cap: 50% chance, sells for 21en.
1 required for Stud Coat - Light Armor, DEF+26 - sells for 720en
1 required for Fungus Jet - Accessory, Paralysis Resist Up 50% - sells for 2000en
2 required for Milk Staff - Stave, ATK+48, TP+10 - sells for 830en
TWENTY required for Milk Maul - Stave, AK+65, HP+15 - sells for 1,530en
1 required for Smithy Thompson's request I

Tiny Bloom: 20% chance, sells for 25en.
1 required for Nectar - Medicine, revives the target to 1HP - sells for 500en
2 required for Theriaca A - Medicine, LV5 Unbind, removes all binds from the target - sells for 100en
3 required for Theriaca B - Medicine, LV8 Refresh, removes all ailments from the target - sells for 100en

Conditional: None

Lots of new enemies to go over and we start with a mediocre one since they're only threatening if they land Mold. That's a 39% chance so it'll happen every now and then, but they're also weak enough that you can kill them before it can be an issue.

I guess it's here to teach you about more ailments, though it's super weak that it's pretty much a trash mob.

Hmph!

You will just be getting them the next time.

Good start to the Beast showcase, but I'm sure that miss was just a fluke.

Anyway, I'm just gonna rip the bandaid off and get max level Loyalty to show why that's a really bad idea, even if Rampage is oh so good. Beasts do incredible damage for this part of the game, but they're incredibly slow and because of Loyalty, Loopy has a 3/4 chance of taking a hit with squishy defensive stats multiple times before he can deal very nice damage. Still gotta wait a level to actually get Rampage, this better be good!

I'll go make the funeral preparations.

Just solemnly shaking my head over here.

uh, there's a ghostly pumpkin behind you

What a ridiculous statement, as if I could believe something could sneak up on- bloody nora!

A bizarre monster suddenly appears right before your eyes! You wonder how it could have come so close without you sensing it at all. Take heed! There seem to be monsters in this forest that do not appear on your map!

Hm? Hmhmhm?

Agreed, I can't sense any kind of malice or any real presence from it. Is it alive? Ugh, the thought of this being behind a door...

I think invisible FOEs are pretty rad and stops you from just going into autopilot and looking at the bottom screen when you've finished your map. We'll try and beat it up in a moment, but we have something to chase still!

Honestly it's kind of a rather underutilized concept and something that could afford to be used more to give a reason to keep an eye on the top screen in some places. It's only used fully in 2, and for certain types of FOEs in the 3DS games.

Aha!

That sounds like a dead end.

Big bird! Big feathers! Fluffy pillows!!!

Your animal killing lust really is quite something.

Moa

HP: 144
STR: 16
VIT: 17
TEC: 16
AGI: 36
LUC: 34
Level: 19
Exp: 774

Skills
Rush: Uses the Legs. Deals 135% Stab damage to the entire party. Has a 95% accuracy modifier and a 120% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

100%

150%

100%

100%

Disable Vulnerabilities

100%

100%

Drops
Tail Quill: 55% chance, sells for 31en.
1 required for Bird Whip - Whip, ATK+51 - sells for 680en
2 required for Madfa - Gun, ATK+55 - sells for 870en
2 required for Quill Arm - Gloves, DEF+11, VIT+1 - sells for 400en
3 required for Shell Boot - Footwear, DEF+12, AGI+1 - sells for 420en

Conditional: None

Oh goody an enemy that hits the entire party after you get Beasts, thanks game. Moas will definitely do a big chunk of damage, but they're also pretty fragile, so a good round of smacking should sort them. Let's see how this first turn goes.

Oh. Oh wow. I just realized how unfavorable the enemy roster is to Beasts right after you get them. Not a great showcase of a new class's... strengths. Or perhaps it is the perfect showcase for Beasts. Take these things down fast unless you want to be AOE'd down.

that was a lot of hits you took for us, have this as a reward

You're not helping! Still, kinda worrying how eager he was to do that...

He was taking the full brunting for such a delicate flowering like me.

We've only known him for a day, did we make that good an impression on him? What a lonely time you must've had...

So Loopy took 4 hits of Rush and died, both of the attacks from Aleks and Juthro missed and I was planning on healing him at the end of the turn, but that obviously didn't happen! Probably one of the worst turns I've ever had playing this series. The only fragile member we have is Aleks, but you can see how that didn't really matter, Loyalty is a huge pain against certain enemies and party wide attacks only get more frequent from here!

Welcome to the Beast experience.

It's like blindly tanking partywides with Hit-Taker in EO2U, except instead of blaming yourself, you can blame God, by which I mean the game's RNG.

We've chased the creature all this way, better brace for a tough fight!

it was a bit hard to tell before but this is a lot smaller than i was expecting...

Fleehog

HP: 414
STR: 16
VIT: 17
TEC: 15
AGI: 34
LUC: 32
Level: 18
Exp: 0

Skills
Claws: Uses the Arms. Deals 120% Cut damage to a single target. Has a 95% accuracy modifier and a 100% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

100%

150%

100%

100%

Disable Vulnerabilities

100%

100%

Drops
None

Conditional: None

Quest FOEs sure are something, they have a fair bit of HP but that's about it. Really nothing to worry about, I only make these because I might as well.

Quest FOEs in this game are usually beefed up verisons of regular mobs. That's it. The funny thing about the Fleehog is that its skill comes from the Mole, not a Hedgehog. Error or last minute change?

Would Sonic be a Fleehog? He is quite adept at that, given his speed.

Sonic the Fleehog.

I think we'll be just fine, look at that damage! But there's a downside, being based on a Hedgehog has doubled the number of enemies weak to Bash in this game, from 1 to 2, so we'll never see such a thing again. Hell yeah EO2.

It was rough work catching the monster, but you've succeeded in defeating the beast! Judging by the way it moved, there can be no doubt it is the monster from your quest. You efficiently strip it of its fur and take your leave.

Almost a wasting to be handing this over.

6F B3 Take Point

Ambush Chance: 1%
Ambush Encounter:
60% Poseidon x1
40% Bigcap x5

Mint Leaf. 70% chance. Sells for 65en.
1 required for Medica II - Item, heals the target by 200HP - sells for 200en
1 required for Charm Gas - Item, Lv5 Provoke, Provoke Rate Up 70%, DEF Up 12% - sells for 700en

Mugwort. 25% chance. Sells for 70en.
1 required for Metopon - Item, LV1 Erasure, dispells 1 buff from a single enemy - sells for 100en
3 required for Blind Gas - Item, Lv1 Blinding, 15% base infliction chance - sells for 450en
3 required for Labyrinth stew

Tri-Fruit. 5% chance. Sells for 175en.
1 required for Fire Jar - Item, Lv5 Fire, deals Fire damage to a single target, with a spell power of 43 - sells for 300en, must be restocked
1 required for Ice Jar - Item, Lv5 Ice, deals Ice damage to a single target, with a spell power of 43 - sells for 300en, must be restocked
1 required for Volt Jar - Item, Lv5 Volt, deals Volt damage to a single target, with a spell power of 43 - sells for 300en, must be restocked

It's new gathering point time, wow! Definitely some useful items, Medica IIs can be a godsend for teams with not much healing and I'm sure the other items are good or whatever. Like last stratum, Poseidon is a dangerous enemy we'll see on later floors, but it won't murder you as much as Raflesia, so that's a relief. Now then, we skipped a chunk of this floor chasing after this thing, so let's backtrack a little!

Medica IIs are worth the unlock so go after those if you can. The Jars are mediocre, but at least they're level 5 versions of the items instead of level 1?

Heh!

It's weak to electricity, just like me.

Mystue

HP: 180
STR: 23
VIT: 17
TEC: 12
AGI: 15
LUC: 17
Level: 20
Exp: 764

Skills
Breath: Uses the Head. Attempts to inflict Petrify on a single target. Has an 80% base infliction chance and a 125% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

75%

0%

150%

Disable Vulnerabilities

100%

0%

100%

0%

100%

0%

Drops
Rock Shard: 40% chance, sells for 27en.
1 required for Kora - Sword, ATK+50 - sells for 820en
1 required for Stud Coat - Light Armor, DEF+26 - sells for 720en

Amazonite: 20% chance, sells for 30en.
1 required for Iron Glove - Gloves, DEF+10, VIT+1 - sells for 380en
1 required for Venom Ring - Accessory, increases Poison resistance by 50% - sells for 800en
1 required for Bird Stare - Accessory, increases Panic resistance by 50% - sells for 800en
1 required for Leg Guard - Accessory, increases Leg Bind resistance by 50% - sells for 800en
3 required for Matchlock - Gun, ATK+46, STR+3 - sells for 530en
7 required for Warubide - Katana, ATK+39, STR+2 - sells for 450en
5 required for Paint the town blue

Conditional: Kill with Stab damage
Holed Rock: 85% chance, sells for 39en.
1 required for Shard Mace - Stave, ATK+60, TP+10 - sells for 1,880en

Statues are dicks. If it's below half health, it has a 75% chance of trying to petrify one of your party, and that's pretty rude if you don't have many Theriaca Bs. Otherwise they're a pain to kill without Volt damage, thankfully Aleks can 2 shot with level 1 Voltshot, but without anything like that it'll take a minute. Thankfully if you leave them alone and focus on other enemies you don't have to worry about getting tagged, but otherwise ugh, screw these guys.

These things also don't use standard targeting and hate your back row and will gun for them instead, so be aware of that. Also hi, here's your introduction to Petrify. Statues are dicks!

Funnily enough, EON basically replicated this enemy and its gimmick exactly, except as an FOE, and party-wide instant death instead of petrification, 0% damage vuln to all of the physical types, and a weakness to ice instead of volt.

Frilzard

HP: 138
STR: 16
VIT: 17
TEC: 15
AGI: 34
LUC: 32
Level: 18
Exp: 580

Skills
Clawing: Uses the Arms. Deals 100% Cut damage to a single target. Has a 95% accuracy modifier and a 100% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

100%

150%

100%

Disable Vulnerabilities

100%

150%

100%

100%

Drops
Soft Horn: 40% chance, sells for 18en.
1 required for Broadaxe - Axe, ATK+53 - sells for 780en
3 required for Tachi - Katana, ATK+51 - sells for 790en
THIRTY required for Sting Whip - Whip, ATK+64, VIT+2, AGI+2 - sells for 1,350en

Collar Fur: 35% chance, sells for 22en.
1 required for Muffler - Collar, DEF+59, HP+20 - sells for 1,460en
2 required for Petal Coat - Clothing, DEF+24 - sells for 640en

Conditional: None

And then on the flipside there's a nice, easy fodder enemy. You're reading that right, Clawing is just a slightly less accurate regular attack, I don't get it either. Check out this AI too: If HP is below 99%, cast Clawing. (Targets the party member with the lowest HP.) This does mean they'll try and finish something off if they're slightly damaged, which can be pretty rude, but that's the extent of their trickery.

Another trash mob to help ease you into the 2nd Stratum. In the same battle as the Mystue. I'm getting mixed messages here.

Sometimes, I want to just go up to EO1 and EO2's designers, present them with stuff like the Frilzard, and ask "why?"

what is it boy, logan fell down a well?

This is fine, too, though I prefer being at the back.

Good enough for me.

Hrmph.

Lowest HP will be Loopy like 99% of the time. Means everyone else stays pretty healthy!

However... it doesn't seem to notice you. It is focused on licking something before it. Straining your eyes, you can tell that it's a nest of giant ants. The monster seems to have destroyed the ant's nest, gleaning the honey inside.

That does look the tastying.

You remain silent, hoping the monster will leave before you sneak to the ant's nest. You briefly worry that the monster may return or the ants may swarm, but nothing happens. Unable to resist the sweet scent any longer, Loopy takes a taste of the flowing honey. It melts on Loopy's tongue, permeating their tired body and relieving all tension!

Reericious!

I wonder where he learns these odd words, the Guildmaster?

ooh a pretty mix of red and gnarled grey

Fuh!

Language.

Trigourd

HP: 780
STR: 27
VIT: 27
TEC: 27
AGI: 27
LUC: 27
Level: 21
Exp: 0

Skills
Pain: Uses the Head. Deals Fire damage to the entire party, with a spell power of 35 and damage multiplied by 105%. Has a 95% accuracy modifier and an 80% speed modifier.
Whisper: Uses the Head. Attempts to inflict Curse on the entire party. Has a 25% base infliction chance and a 100% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

0%

100%

100%

Disable Vulnerabilities

25%

10%

25%

50%

10%

Drops
Curse Bone: 25% chance, sells for 390en.
1 required for Mirage Rod - Stave, ATK+50, TP+50 - sells for 4,780en

Gourd Head: 25% chance, sells for 380en.
1 required for Pumpkinhat - Headgear, DEF+15, TEC+2, TP+10 - sells for 1,820en

Bendy Tool: 90% chance, sells for 37en.
1 required for Headdress - Headgear, DEF+12, TP+3 - sells for 380en
1 required for Blind Gas - Item, Lv1 Blinding, 15% base infliction chance - sells for 450en
3 required for Fancy Coat - Clothing, DEF+28 - sells for 1,030en

Conditional: None

The start of the pumpkin trio. These guys are assholes, but I love them, even if we can't fight them with what we've got! They don't have too much health compared to the strong enemies we've been fighting recently, but unless you have some charged elementals, you'll be doing sweet fuck all to them. Now yes you can solve all your problems with Poison, but there's other damage sources you could use as your team starts forming properly. But really, what are the chances you could find something next floor that lets you easily control the amount of untyped damage you're dishing out? Pish posh. Anyway, it doesn't do much Fire damage, but it'll still sting, and Curse can be a pain if you're trying a nuking strat, but for a first encounter, the main puzzle is finding a way to kill it.

Trigourds are a bit of a wake up call in that you can't just rush into every FOE battle and expect to see results. Though you'll have to play around to see what damages them if you're playing the game blind, as the game doesn't provide weakness info in the game outside of seeing Analysis activate.

Gah, shot through the hearth! This is going nowheres.

Agreed, I don't want to go on a boring adventure like this, heh.

very carefully

...don't tell me yeh just chased the thing all over creation! Haw haw haw! Let's have a look at this hide, shall we? Hmm? This... this looks like a dirty old rag. Why would he...? W-Well, whatever, eh?! No one told yeh how to kill it, did they? Then no harm, no foul! Job done, then! Great work, and don't forget yer reward!

Wasn't this supposed to be a Pole Stone?

Ack! I was hoping you wouldn't notice my mistake. Between map fixing and quest transcribing I'm stretched a bit thin!

Ohhhh, fancy writin' fer a fancy boy, hahaha!

2 Open Caps required for Milk Staff
1 Rock Shard required for Kora, ATK+50 - Its tip is angled for greater destruction.
3 Soft Horns required for Tachi, ATK+51 - Designed for large, arcing swings.
1 Soft Horn required for Broadaxe, ATK+53 - A precision axe with a chiseled blade.
1 Tail Quill required for Bird Whip, ATK+51 - A whip covered in sharp bird feathers.

1 Collar Fur required for Muffler
1 Rock Shard and 1 Open Cap required for Stud Coat - Light Armor, DEF+26 - Metal pieces are wedged in it to deflect blows.
2 Collar Fur required for Petal Coat - Clothing, DEF+24 - Outerwear made of forest plants sewn together.

Looks good on you two.

Purrrrr!

Ayeaye.

It will barely help.

They overcompensate a little for Beasts not being able to equip other armour since the Muffler is a 20 DEF increase from the Wildflower we unlocked technically last floor, as well as +20 HP. Of course for a Loyalty Beast it doesn't make too much difference, but every little helps...

You in the okiedokie?

Oofah! ...just about, how you holding up, Lily?

Hrmmm...

we won't last long like this

"I really need more Theriaca Bs" I say as I use two in one fight.

2 Tail Quills required for Quill Arm.

You in the okiedokie?

Well actually I feel like *bleurgh*

Getting a foothold on the new monsters on this floor, so let's finish it up already.

If you have a Troubadour, now would be a very good time to max out Health.

The deliberate way that they've been placed makes you suspect that a human did this. As you mull over the path of berries, one tactic occurs to you... you can always follow the trail if you want to learn why they may have been placed here.

Hmhmhm...

I'm one to be cautious, but I'm also hungry, let eat!

Thinking it may be a sign of some sort, your curiosity leads you to follow them. The trail ends at the wall. You walk towards it to investigate it more closely... suddenly, Juthro screams out! You spin to see what happened. Two saplings hidden in the grass spring up to catch Juthro's leg, locking it in place.

Gah, bloody traps! Gah, bloody mushrooms! Gah this bloody floor! Okay I'm done ranting.

The row of berries was a trap all along to catch wild game! It was most likely set by other explorers, and now it has snared one of their colleagues. You carefully break the trap, setting poor Juthro free. But the saplings sprung up with such force, Juthro's foot was injured in the process.

you should live

Ah, well, can't be too annoyed at a simple, yet effective, trap like that. Very interesting.

There's an FOE puzzle down there, so let's put it off for a bit.

Don't be looking so glummy, chummy, it is what he wants to do.

i'm sad this idiot keeps giving me more work

A +2 DEF increase, oh yeah, frickin' content baby!

Gah! Why are birds falling from the sky?!

Ruhroh!

This ways!

Well that was terrifying...

Use it or lose it. If both Moas had used Rush on the second turn we would've been fucking dead and there was nothing I could've done. Nice reminder that this game will fuck you up given the chance.

The Beast died there, but that was actually an instance where Loopy saved the entire party as no Loyalty procs would have led to a game over. I guess it's good for something after all, even if the cost is a dead pet.

Little difficult showing how I dodged two invisible FOEs on the map, but the path I took says a lot, grumble, grumble.

Bah bah bah.

There a sheep behind there?

Hopefully not, the only sheep I've heard of are the size of tall cliffs and live on tall cliffs.

There's half the floor missing, but I'm sure it's nothing important.

Yatah!

Nice little shortcut, and a little trick of purposefully getting an encounter on the earlier side of a shortcut. Oh yeah, now that we have a moment, you might have noticed I've been missing here and there. I've been cutting a good chunk of it out because it's being a right pain, but it's something to expect if you take the quick way out of killing Chimeara and end up on this floor a good few levels lower than you're supposed to. Not because of level difference, but because you haven't invested in skills as much, as well as their base accuracy, and you'll have a lower AGI, those two factors end up mattering quite a bit. In comparison to the old EO2 LP, I'm four levels lower, and due to the overall boost of the enemy's LUC, you'll be missing a lot more at the start of a new stratum.

Oh yeah, welcome to the main mechanic of EO2. Accuracy. Where it barely mattered in 1, missing is very common in 2, so get used to it. Later games would strike a better balance.

You can try climbing a nearby tree to reach it or give up and leave it be.

As you have guessings from my character, I am actually an expert tree climbing!

Uh, sure.

Aleks finds a strong branch and uses it to shimmy up the tree. The sack is further from the tree than it looks. Aleks nearly slips trying to reach it. No one in your party had any way of knowing, but this is no normal tree... its sap is harmful to animals and Aleks's body turns red all over with a painful rash! Still, at least you caught the sack that Aleks dropped, so its contents are yours to keep.

What's redder, your face or the rash?

Urk, most unbeffitings for a lady.

This is a rare chop item, and you wouldn't know this, but you'll need it for a quest later, so it's a good idea to store it. I'll get another one, so hey, free money!

Quick rest at town, not because we'll be doing 7F, there's a newly voted team for that, but because there's a bit extra to 6F.

Sigh...

t-thanks

Well I'm not as quick as I used to be.

Reduces Fire damage by 50%, stack them for a near immunity, but what are the chances we'll need to fight a horrendously strong fire breathing monster?

See, we can handle this team just fine when they don't kick my ass!

Heh.

Someone's happy to complete the floor.

One of us has toos.

6F B7 Take Point

Ambush Chance: 1%
Ambush Encounter:
60% Poseidon x1
40% Bigcap x5

Mugwort. 70% chance. Sells for 70en.
1 required for Metopon - Item, LV1 Erasure, dispells 1 buff from a single enemy - sells for 100en
3 required for Blind Gas - Item, Lv1 Blinding, 15% base infliction chance - sells for 450en
3 required for Labyrinth stew

Mint Leaf. 25% chance. Sells for 65en.
1 required for Medica II - Item, heals the target by 200HP - sells for 200en
1 required for Charm Gas - Item, Lv5 Provoke, Provoke Rate Up 70%, DEF Up 12% - sells for 700en

Tri-Fruit. 5% chance. Sells for 175en.
1 required for Fire Jar - Item, Lv5 Fire, deals Fire damage to a single target, with a spell power of 43 - sells for 300en, must be restocked
1 required for Ice Jar - Item, Lv5 Ice, deals Ice damage to a single target, with a spell power of 43 - sells for 300en, must be restocked
1 required for Volt Jar - Item, Lv5 Volt, deals Volt damage to a single target, with a spell power of 43 - sells for 300en, must be restocked

That's all of the floor for now! Why is there a gathering point in a hidden area of an optional part past the stairs? EO2, baby!

At least it's pretty safe? Only 1% ambush chance.

Hey, you're staying at the Flaus Inn, right? I talk to the owner all the time! We usually shop together. Have you met her daughter? She's so small and cute... she looks almost like a doll! She's usually out doing errands, so you won't run into her often, but try to meet her if you can!

Ah yes I have seen her a few times. Doubt she'd ever approach a seasoned hunter like me, though.

We should be near the top by now, surely.

Hey, why don't yeh ever bring me back something from the Labyrinth? Oh, yeh know... like a fruit that looks like a diamond, or a golden egg... something rare! Eh? Sounds expensive? Of course it does! Who wants something that's not worth anything!? Are yeh lot fresh from the crib? Money is power! Haw haw haw!

Money doesn't buy happiness, but it really helps.

Yeh've stayed at the Flaus Inn, right? This request is from the lady of the house. I wasn't sure what to do, since she wasn't offering much of a reward... but yeh can consider all the great times yeh've had at the inn yer reward! Haw! I don't have the details. Yeh'll have to ask the Flaus lass for all that. G'luck!

Ah yes, apparently she's out of this stew we're polishing off. Leftovers?

...this cold slop is worse than the rashings I've had today.

I'll pass on the details since I need some sleep, but lay it on me.

I'm assuming you mean me... well I need to clear up this map anyway. Please tell me the wolf didn't draw this.

Er-hem...

Hear me out, because we have some real problems right now. Have you eaten our chef's meals before? He calls it the Labyrinth Lunch. It's made of ingredients from the Labyrinth. People say it's good, but I wouldn't know. My husband usually fetches the ingredients, but he's been injured, the poor dear. Now we have a full house and there isn't anything left for the chef to prepare! Could you go to the Labyrinth for me and bring back 3 Mugworts and 1 Moving Eye? We need them at once! Where do you get them...? How should I know!? This is my husband's job! But I think he spends most of his time in there on the 7th or 8th floor... when you find the ingredients, just give them to Cass at the Stickleback Bar. Hurry! Time's a wasting!

Ugh, that mush shouldn't be called stew- ah h-hello, I mean, uh, mmmmmm, have you been making more, cause something smells good!

It's good, isn't it? My daughter made them. She's cute as a button and a good cook to boot. Just like me when I was young! What? Don't you believe me? Can't you tell by how beautiful I am now? Bahaha!

Hmm... you don't look so good. Are you tired? Exploring while tired can be risky. Take frequent breaks to maintain your stamina.

You always ask me this, but this is how I look.

I'm no longer sure you need my advice, but... all the same, a word of warning. It takes insight, analysis, judgement, and action to make it further into the Labyrinth. That's all the advice I have for you. Never underestimate the Labyrinth.

Hey I made it far into the labyrinth with none of those things!

Uh, I'm just here to get the new map-

You've grown stronger... and so I have a favor to ask. Very few explorers know of what I am about to say. Please keep it a secret. Our chief goal in exploring the Labyrinth is, of course, to find the floating castle. But there is a more pressing concern... it's the Duke. He's a very wise, very good man, but he is grievously ill. I've asked many priests and shrine maidens, but none could ease his pain. Though his suffering is slight compared to his daughter's. She lost her mother when she was young. Her father, the Duke, is the only family she has left. So she went out into the forest to find a cure for her father's disease. But this old man has rambled on long enough... here is the hard information you need. The Duchess's document say that ingredients for a miracle cure are in the second Stratum. I would ask that you help us obtain those ingredients.

Oh hey, Ro, there a mission for us?

I think so... I'll tell you the details later, I'll take the map you finished. Hmm, you seem to visit the Duchy a lot.

It's none of yer business! We beatin' up some fannies in this mission?!

I hope not...

Then you will help? Thank you... I'll explain further. We know that the Salamox resides on the 8th floor. Its feathers are used to make the Panacea. Panacea, I should explain, is the term used for the miracle cure in the Duchess's papers. Guild Nidhogg... will you help the Duke's daughter and myself? I must warn you, the rumors say that this Salamox is an incredibly strong beast. I've spoken to an explorer who tells me Salamox wiped out his entire guild at a stroke. I have the map he made. Watch for enemy movements, and avoid battle as much as possible.

Well I guess I can copy this over, get an early start. May I escort you to the meeting hall, madam?

Yer on thin ice, bucko. Heh, but ye meh.

See ya guys, guess I'll get some resources.

Uh, I was just here you daft old cu-

There's a legend regarding this nation I'd like to share with you all... they say our Duke is descended from men who came to earth from the floating castle. No one knows for certain, but I thought you might be interested to hear the legend. Well, then. I expect great things from you.

Next time, we've got a massive beast to die against. Sounds like a pain.

Or a delight if you're watching from the sidelines!

Unlike what will quickly become business as usual, where you've got a massive beast to send to its death.

I'm very funny.

Crosspeice · Mon Sep 27, 2021 4:28 pm

Medic Overview

Medic Overview

Can equip: Staves, Clothing

Okay obviously this class has fallen, these guys were RIDICULOUS in the first game, with one of the best skills in the series that reduced all damage by up to 85%, as well as being damage dealers on the front lines and healing a crazy amount on downtime. Of course they got hit with the nerf bat and completely lost Immunize, got their STR reduced to pathetic levels, but they can heal with much greater potency, maybe even too much. Not bringing a Medic last game was a miserable, and expensive, time, but now there's a few more options making them not as necessary, though they absolutely have their uses. They'll never reach their previous heights, but it's fine they don't. Also they have Scavenge which gives them bonus points.

Medics were absolutely asking to be nerfed since they were a master of all in the previous game. Ridiculously good DPS, even outclassing the Landsknecht at DPSing, and causing several enemies to lose their turns in the process! Along with making your party invincible on top of being a great healer. Pretty much the most broken class in the entire game, and the nerfs it got were pretty much deserved. Unlike Survivalist, they got off a lot easier, though now they're no longer a must have in the party. And their overall usefulness in this game is debated by some since their nerfs really do hurt. Still, not a bad class to bring along if you want some defensive support, but they're competing against the War Magus in regards to the healing department, and that class is generally considered to be a better healer since they're much faster due to the way this game handles speed.

OOF, that's a big hit in STR, down from 53 last game, as well as the loss of ATK Up to make that even beefier. At least it's better than a Troubadour? Pretty bad VIT as well, as well as lower AGI and HP. Second best TEC and TP which helps healing a lot since the former impacts the healing formula, but most stats don't really matter since Medics will never really attack, they just hide in the back row and keep everyone else alive. Higher LUC gives them better stun rates with uhhhhhhh Caduceus? Never mind then.

Yeah, the Medic's STR got utterly gutted. And as insult to injury, they no longer have access to ATK Up, which tripled their STR in the last game! Yes, really. It made them an absurd DPS class. STR Up is pretty much the replacement for ATK Up in this game and uh, +10 STR really doesn't compared to 3x STR. If you really want to experience the glory days of offensive Medic again, I suppose you could take it, but don't expect STR to be an effective investment for them. Their defenses are even more poor than they were in the last game, so putting them on the front lines isn't a good idea unless you want to see them get pasted, and investing in VIT doesn't really offset the damage they'll take that much. But if you really want to have a front line fighter, you'll have to invest in that along with HP to give them way more survivability. Unfortunately neither AGI nor LUC are great investments as well. You'd think a fast healer would be a good idea, but staves essentially set the Medic's speed to the near absolute minimum, so AGI doesn't have much of an effect. And LUC just doesn't do all that much.

As for stats that are good investments, TEC increases the potency of their healing by quite a bit. They'll also really appreciate any boosts to TP they can get, as some of their strongest heals can get very expensive. And HP boosts on a backliner will always be appreciated, though pick that one up after getting all of their important skills.

Common Passive Unlocks

TP Up: Lv10: TP Regen
STR Up: Lv10: Caduceus
TEC Up: Lv 10: TP Regen
VIT Up: Lv5: Caduceus

OOF, those are some heavy investments for some TRASH skills, TP Regen requires half the investment but still recovers the same, absolutely pathetic. Caduceus can hit hard with a 300% ATK Up and pretty okay STR and EO2 Medic has neither of those, and both STR and VIT are low enough that putting lots of points into them is a massive waste for an SP hungry class as this. Now granted you can max out TP Up and maybe even TEC Up, but even then TP Regen is nowhere near worth it. Ah crap now I don't have anything to talk about when I get to those skills.

Healer
Unlocks: Lv1: Patch Up, Cure; Lv3: Cure 2, Salve, Unbind, Refresh; Lv5: Cure 3, Revive; Lv6: Salve 2; Lv10: Salve 3, Phoenix
Increases healing from non-fixed sources. Passive.

Ah, the classic, Healer is a great skill that you want to max out asap, not only does it have most of your good skills, especially Salve and Revive, it's as if you're levelling those skills at the same time. Due to the exponential growth this skill is pretty bad to begin with, but you want to beeline to Revive, so it quickly gets good fast. Since this is applied at the end of the formula, it boosts your healing skills by a lot but can also make them overkill territory. I guess that's fine, since you can save SP by not investing in other skills but it definitely adds to the Medic's reputation.

Without this skill, each point of TEC adds on 0.625% to the healing multiplier. This caps out at a 61.875% boost to healing at 99 TEC. With a max level Healer, each point of TEC adds on 0.96875% instead, capping out at a 95.90625% boost at 99 TEC! Pretty hefty, though if you're going to be using the best healing skills, you won't be seeing Healer come into play much at all. Still, a very good skill to invest in as your Medic's main job is... healing. What else are they gonna do in this game, DPS? You'll want to max this one out earlier than their healing skills, as you don't want to invest too much in their weaker healing skills if you can help it.

Patch Up
Prerequisites: Healer Lv1
Restores a certain amount of HP to the entire party at the end of each battle. Unaffected by Healer. Passive.

Hm, no. This was a bad skill before and it's still bad, since it just doesn't heal enough to sink points into. Like wow, 12%? Just use Cure outside of battle, it'll be not a lot of TP for way more healing, you want to be properly ready for the next fight and this skill won't cut it. Pass the fuck over.

A fairly unchanged skill. Could be good for sustain, but it's ultimately not a huge priority to grab. If you really want it, wait to grab the Medic's important skills before doing so.

TP Regen
Prerequisites: TP Up Lv10, TEC Up Lv10
Restores a certain amount of the user's TP at the end of each turn. Passive.

What the fuck is this garbage??? Not only do you need to heavily invest to unlock this skill, it's identical to the last game's also terrible skill??? Did they think this was a great reward at the end of the game? 5 TP is NOTHING, especially with skills that are pretty costly. What a waste, though getting TP and TEC to 10 might not be a bad idea.

This skill is even worse than it was in EO1. Sure, it only needs 5 SP to max out this time, and the prerequisites are something you'll want to pick up, but the TP costs for the Medic's skills are way higher than in the previous game, making -5 TP per skill essentially not a great return cost when skills can cost around 30 TP. And TP Up mostly deals with any TP issues anyways.

Scavenge
Additively increases drop rates. Stacks with itself. Passive.

Now we're playing with power. Last game had some terrible drop rates that could be increased... at a cost, since the game checked drops in reverse, so if you increased rates too much, the first drop would never, well, drop. No longer the case, thankfully, this skill is insane and 2 users will make even the craziest drops actually obtainable without a million resets or a few cheats here and there. Will definitely recommend, though of course you need to have them on your team against the most dangerous enemies for this to work as well, which can make for... interesting team comps. Still, in the regular game, this just boosts your cash flow by a crazy amount and will also annoy you with constant item discard. Always get.

Holy moly, what a buff! In the first game it was not that great, being only a 30% boost, oh and it was multiplicative. So it didn't do that much for low drop rates. The lowest drop rates get in this game is 10%, meaning that 1 max level Scavenge boosts drop rates to 51% at the minimum! And up to 92% if you have 2 Scavenge users, which is absolute overkill. This skill basically destroys the concept of random drops, and it's great. The closest thing to a downside this skill even has is that it causes your inventory to get filled up very fast during explorations, so you're gonna have to toss a lot of junk out depending on how much supplies you brought along for that trip.

Oh, and if you really like the idea of having this skill around, but don't want to cart around a Medic, don't worry. There's an even better class that has access to this, with even more reason to take this skill, heh heh heh.

Cure
Prerequisites: Healer Lv1
Unlocks: Lv3: Salve
Restores HP to a single target. Healing skill, uses the Head.

Here's the basic bitch skill for your basic bitch needs. Cure is, well, exactly what you expect, the worst healing skill, but that lies its usefulness. Of course you're gonna use it a fair amount at the start of the game, but it still has its uses later on for out of battle healing and it'll scale pretty well with Healer so it stays effective longer. You only need to get it to level 3 to unlock Salve later on, but it works perfectly fine.

And since there's not much to talk about we can go over the healing formula, previously only Healer affected the base heal, so at max level you were always going to get the same results. Now it's [Base Healing * (160 + UserTEC) / 160] * Mastery Bonus, so there's a bit more variety, the central part can vary between 1-1.62 depending on the user's TEC, 1-99. So even level 1 Cure goes from a 54 heal with 1 TEC and level 10 Healer to an 88 heal with 99 TEC. Obviously it gets more impressive with later skills, but it can make a big difference, another reason why levelling up healing skills isn't that useful, since the numbers balloon into overkill pretty quickly. This can save on SP, but if you don't fancy working it all out, just max Salve II and you'll have no issues.

Your basic healing skill. Take it and you'll save a lot of money from splurging on Medicas. You'll be using this quite a bit throughout the earlygame, but past that point you'll want to move onto the higher tiered healing skills. The main reason to even use the weaker healing skills past that point is so that they're faster and more likely to heal your party members before something bad happens. Unfortunately, that's not how this works in practice in this game. Because the Medic is a very slow class due to being forced to use staves, the speed modifiers of their skills don't really do all that much for them since the Medic will be at near minimal speed no matter what you do. The earlygame is pretty much the only time they matter, but after that point, they're pretty much always going to move last, so you'll have to be preemptive with your Medic's heals, which will be more effective with stronger heals.

By the way, when starting out, I highly suggest spending your Medic's starting 3 SP like this: 2 on Healer, and 1 in Cure. The reason for that is simple. A level 1 Medic with a level 1 Cure heals for 40 HP with their current stats. With their starting TP pool, they can use it up to 10 times, so that's a total of 400 HP they can heal the party with before running out of juice. However if that TP cost of 3 increases to 4, that reduces the number of times they can use Cure to 7, which only heals for 43 HP each at level 2. Reducing that total potential heal from 400 to 301 HP. Not a great deal, and at the start of the game, 40 HP heals already cover a whole lot. And that extra SP in Healer won't affect healing any bit, but it gives the Medic a bigger head start to unlock their better healing skills. Granted you should probably level Cure up to 3 at some point to get access to Salve.

Cure II
Prerequisites: Healer Lv3
Unlocks: Lv4: Salve II
Restores HP to a single target. Healing skill, uses the Head.

Healing... 2! For a bit more TP you can have quite a bit more healing for a little less speed. Cure 2 probably won't see much use in battle since Salve will definitely be more effective by that point, but it'll be a great topper out of battle. It'll heal between 200 and 326 at Healer 10, TEC depending and you can see why I didn't list all these values, we'd be here all day. It's a big improvement right out of the gate and also shows how long you can wait to actually use this. You need to invest a little more into it to get Salve II, but that's a skill you'll be using for the rest of the game so I think it's worth it. Of course, you can max these skills out if you want fast and mad heals, but for single target it's not really worth it, their main use is their out of battle utility.

Your midgame healing skill. If you play your cards right, you can gain access to this skill as early as level 3 while still having access to Cure. Granted, it's complete overkill at that point, and really hefty on the TP pool. But having access to this can help with the later parts of the 1st Stratum and its boss. By midgame you'll see this used occasionally, but you'll likely be breaking out Salve 2 more since multitarget attacks start getting more common there. So level this up enough to unlock Salve 2, and feel free to ignore this skill afterwards. The next one is what you really want for your single target healing needs!

Cure III
Prerequisites: Healer Lv5
Unlocks: Lv5: Salve III
Restores all HP to a single target. Healing skill, uses the Head.

Healing... 3! This one is a little tricky to recommend since it starts off pretty bad, but since you should probably max this out for Salve III, for the few times you'll need that OH SHIT button, it makes Cure III a much more interesting prospect. Until you max it out, it's still worth using Cure II outside of battle to heal someone, it'll be slightly cheaper, but a full heal can be very useful on your tankier party members. This requires a bit of timing to use correctly, which I'm dumb as shit about, but can be pretty alright. You'll still want Salve III anyway.

Pretty much the best single target heal in the entire game. There's pretty much no reason not to take this and make use of it in the late and post-games. At max level, it's only 4 more TP than a max level Cure 2, but will always fully heal the target. This makes it an incredible value heal, as while Cure 2 can get up to high healing values, the Medic would need to be at like 99 TEC or so to do so. Meanwhile you can grab this skill way before then, and if you invest in HP Up for your classes, their max HP pools will get very high, which will never outpace the healing from this skill. With that being said, while you'll want to max out this skill, that's mainly to unlock a much better skill for them, which will see far more use. Still, Cure 3 is a pretty good skill to have in the Medic's back pocket.

Also something you've likely noticed is that the prerequisites for the higher tiered healing skills don't even require the lower tiered ones at all. Resting a character also got changed form being usable only at level 30 and beyond and subtracting 10 levels, to being usable at anytime and only subtracting 5 levels from the user for a full SP refund. This means that Resting a Medic is extremely optimal, as they'll have plenty of SP to spare in other skills, as there's basically no reason to ever use Cure or Cure 2 once you can make use of the best healing skills. It's a really weird aspect of the first two DS games where certain skills basically exist just to be obsoleted, but hey that's just how things play out here.

Salve
Prerequisites: Healer Lv3, Cure Lv3
Restores HP to the entire party. Healing skill, uses the Head.

Ahh, these skills were amazing last game, relatively cheap and spammable, great way to keep your party alive, because enemies did a lot of damage and were very scary. This is somewhat the case here, but to counter their spamminess, Salves now have pretty extortionate TP costs, which is a bit rough, but because of their still great utility, it's still worth using them. If you crunch the numbers, healing everyone with Cure is 3TP cheaper overall when both skills are level 1, but you're paying the extra TP for the utility of doing so in battle. And Cure would be level 3 but whatever you know what I mean. Because there's only 5 levels, it's pretty easy to max these skills out if you have all the Amritas in the world, since having a moderate Salve will be more TP efficient so you're not using a maxed Salve II for the smallest of booboos. If you have the resources you can max them out if you don't want to really think about it, there's no kill like overkill!

In the first game, you could get away with only making use of Salve instead of Salve II, as Immunize lowered damage heavily to the point where big heals were complete overkill. Immunize is gone now, so that's no longer an option. This is now strictly an earlygame heal. While very good at that point as AOE healing is always welcome, past the earlygame you'll want to use the higher tier Salve skills instead. In fact when you see the skill data for the next skill, you'll understand why there's absolutely no reason to use this over Salve 2 and 3, and why you may want to consider resting your Medic to put those spent SP elsewhere.

Salve II
Prerequisites: Healer Lv6, Cure II Lv4
Restores HP to the entire party. Healing skill, uses the Head.

Now we're talking, if you want a healing skill to last you all game, then get this sucker to level 5 and watch the TP disappear... just like that! At, let's say 50 TEC and Healer 10, this skill heals 463 HP to the ENTIRE PARTY which is a little nuts and will be mostly what you need for a wide chunk of the game. Salve III can pick up the slack, but it depends if the extortionate TP costs are worth it. That's the main issue with these skills, 48TP is not a massive deal in later games, but if you need to chug an Amrita every time you want to use this skill, then it might be just a weeeeeeeeeee bit expensive. Still, the utility is pretty much unmatched, but if you don't need all this healing why are you paying so much for it? Considering Medics don't really do much else and are pretty helpless when Head Bound, sometimes it might seem they're more trouble then they're worth, but it depends how much healing you need. Maybe don't get hit?

And say hello to your midgame healing skill! Heals twice as much as Salve, for only 60% more TP at max level! Also, take a look at the speed modifiers. Yeah, for whatever reason, the Salve skills all have the exact same speed modifiers at every level, meaning that the higher tier Salves are basically just straight upgrades, and you have very little reason to use the earlier versions other than cheaping out big time on TP costs. Which aren't remotely an issue once TP Up is maxed out. So take as much as you need, then ditch it all for the hotness that is Salve 3 when the time is right.

Salve III
Prerequisites: Healer Lv10, Cure III Lv5
Restores all HP to the entire party. Healing skill, uses the Head.

The last healing skill is also an interesting one. SEVENTY FOUR TP??? You'll be using this after you max it since it's an upgrade from Salve II, but it's a hard sell before then. This skill has its uses in the very OH SHIT postgame and your Force Skill is basically this skill for free, as well as another skill. Hopefully you'll need all this healing and you can find the happy medium between using this skill and Salve II, but I suppose TP isn't a crazy hard resource in the postgame. This is the main draw to using a Medic, so you'd better find it useful.

Salve 3 is pretty much the best healing skill the Medic gets access to, and pretty much their best selling point, as War Magi do not get access to this skill. And at max level, it only costs 2 more TP than a max level Salve 2. It's a fantastic deal and there's basically no reason to use anything else unless you're an ultra cheapskate with TP. Max both this and TP Up to be able to use this a whopping 7 times before they need to refill. More if you opt for TP increasing accessories.

So, how do you get the most out of your Medic with this? Their speed is so low that they'll almost always move last. Well, you just spam this skill, even if your party is at full HP. Because Medics are so slow, they can't really react to much. How players got around that was just proactively using their healing skills, and undoing the damage the enemy does in the same turn. Other skills only get used if they absolutely have to be. Yeah it's an incredibly one-dimensional playstyle, but it's really the most effective one they can really do. While Medics did deserve to get nerfed, the way Atlus handled that nerf ended up making them have way less options than they did in the first game, and I'm not really a fan of it. They're still fairly usable, just don't expect this class to be a particularly exciting one to use.

Revive
Prerequisites: Healer Lv5
Unlocks: Lv10: CPR
Revives a single target to a certain HP amount. Healing skill, uses the Head.

Oh sweet salvation. Revive is such a wonderful skill to get early and will save you so much Nectar money. Later on it becomes less effective when Nectar IIs become all the rage and it never heals by a fantastic amount, so it's not a great skill to max out. This is one of the skills a Medic has over a War Magus, along with Salve III, and considering there are plenty of successful teams with a War Magus and not a Medic shows how relatively unnecessary this skill can be. It's still super useful when you have it and one big use is reviving a Hexer to 1HP to continue where they left off. Will I be abusing that? OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO, but really this skill is a way to save on Nectars outside of battle and something to use if you have TP to spare in battle, so it's still incredible utility, but mainly for the early game, let's be honest.

One of the other big selling points of the Medic, as War Magi completely lack the capability to revive people without using Nectars. Unlike in EO1, you can pick this up far earlier, making it much more usable and allows it to compete with the lower tiers of Nectars. It's great to pick up early on as it saves a decent bit of money from being used on Nectars, and you'll want to max this out for a fantastic skill. Granted at max level it doesn't do a whole lot, though unlike later games, the heal can be boosted to an okay amount. A level 1 Revive can be used for Revenge strategies if you have a Hexer in the party. But even then, if you want to abuse that skill, you can just use Nectars instead for a low HP revive, so it's not too much of an issue.

Unbind
Prerequisites: Healer Lv3
Unlocks: Lv5: Freedom
Removes binds from a single target. Healing skill, uses the Head.

Well this skill hasn't changed much, I'm surprised it's not 10TP more expensive like everything else. If you're not using Theriaca As then this works fine, though you will need to get this to level 5 for Freedom, even if removing 3 binds at once isn't very useful due to how rarely it happens. And if it does happen your Medic has been tagged as well, remember, they can't free themselves from a Head Bind... without a Theriaca A. Also make no mistake, this is completely unrelated to the Dark Hunter's Unbind or the Landy's Unbound. Can't see why you would get confused.

Bizarrely enough levels 2 and 4 provide absolutely no benefits and just serve to make the skill slightly worse. So uh, save enough SP to skip past those levels before investing in this skill, I guess? Like with the other unbinding skills, level 3 is the sweet spot, as getting hit with multiple binds isn't too common in this entry of the Etrian Odyssey series.

Freedom
Prerequisites: Unbind Lv5
Removes binds from the entire party. Healing skill, uses the Head.

Well this is nice, but has very niche uses. Firstly, Theriaca AXs are way easier to throw around and don't require a slight SP sink, and like before you shouldn't go past level 3, since if your ENTIRE PARTY is fully bound... uh how's your Medic doing? Fully bound too? Well colour me surprised. Also you're about to die anyway so I really don't find this skill useful, when the game fully binds you, you know you're about to get fucked up. Now Theriaca AXs only heal one bind, and in the case of multiple binds, prioritises Head, then Arm, then Legs, which isn't that amazing, so this skill has some use in comparison, but it's admittedly not much.

While one person being tagged with multiple binds at once isn't particularly common, multiple party members being tagged with a bind is something you'll see more often. So investing a bit into this skill can be a great boon. That being said, you won't see them all the time, so I would say level 3 is the sweet spot here if you invest in it at all. And like with Unbind, levels 2 and 4 just make the skill worse, so if you want to go for levels 3 or 5, just save enough SP to skip past to those thresholds.

Refresh
Prerequisites: Healer Lv3
Unlocks: Lv5: Purify
Removes ailments from a single target. Healing skill, uses the Head.

Here's something funky, very similar to last game though the ailments got shuffled slightly, with Panic being at 7 instead of 3, in any case a Theriaca B is a level 8 Refresh so it's probably better just using that instead, but if you get tagged with multiple ailments, you're gonna need Purify, since Theriaca BXs are a little late. Of course this skill is great for Petrify, there's only 2 ways to cure it after all, but if you want to save just a little SP and use Theriaca Bs for the last 3 ailments, you can just move on to Purify. A pretty big nerf from before, but it's up to you if you want this or the item.

Disables are very debilitating to be hit by, so being able to clear those quickly is a must. This is the only ailment dispel skill in the entire game that can purge Petrification, so you'll likely want to get it up to at least level 8. Whether you get it up to 9 or 10 to decrease the cost is up to you, but the Medic isn't exactly starving for TP, so I don't really recommend it. Or you can stuff your pack with Therica Bs instead. Up to you.

Purify
Prerequisites: Refresh Lv5
Removes ailments from the entire party. Cannot heal Petrification. Healing skill, uses the Head.

Alright now we're getting back to a regular skill again, Purify can be very useful since there will be a fair few times you'll get tagged with multiple ailments, but it's not a necessity, depends what ailment you get hit by after all, and your Medic won't be very useful if they get tagged and can't do anything either. Theriaca BXs are very late items but can also cure Petrify, so this skill becomes pretty redundant by that point, but you can get a lot of mileage before then. It's pretty expensive, especially if you're curing less than 3 party members, but such is the price you pay for convenience.

Oof, a bit on the pricey side, but getting this up to level 4 is a very handy tool for the Medic since Theriaca Bs got nerfed to be single target in this game. Whether you get it up to 5 is up to you, but disables are way more debilitating than binds, so you'll want to get those off ASAP. Like with Refresh, whether you get it up to max level or not to save on TP is up to you, but I'd advise against it unless you really have some SP to spare, or you're running less than a 5 man party at which point saving all the TP you can is a must.

Caduceus
Prerequisites: STR Up Lv10, VIT Up Lv5
A single target Staff attack that attempts to inflict Stun. Staff skill with Bash damage, uses the Arms.

Look at how they've massacred my boy. Last game, when your Medic wasn't doing a million other things, they could stay at the front and whack the monsters as much as they wanted, but since their STR took a big nerf AND they no longer get a 300% ATK Up, investing similarly will not give the same results, not even close. Adding 10 STR will give them 42 at level 70, which is still PATHETIC, and the numbers from this skill compared to last game are pretty similar, aside from the speed modifier, so it doesn't in any way compensate. Now with that increased speed modifier, you could actually see the Stun effect in a lifetime, but it's expensive, doesn't do enough to justify the investment and needs a lot of SP to actually become even slightly passable. Gonna skip the fuck over this skill and make my Medic completely beholden to head binds. Sigh...

Holy shit how the mighty have fallen. In the last game it was a fantastic way for a Medic to spend their non-healing turns, which they got a lot of thanks to Immunize making the party almost invincible. But this skill barely does any damage in this game thanks to the Medic's laughable STR stat, and level 10 STR Up barely helps with this skill's damage output. Do not be fooled by the high damage modifier. STR is one of the biggest factors of damage, and the Medic barely has any to make this skill deal a noticeable dent in enemies. Oh and thanks to the new speed mechanics, you're not likely to see the Stun come out either. Ignore this skill entirely, it's nothing but a shadow of its former self.

CPR
Prerequisites: Revive Lv10
Gives the entire party a chance of living one lethal attack at 1HP for 5 turns. Buff skill, uses the Head.

Ah, this skill again, CPR is a pretty amazing skill... when it works. That's always been its issue, there are some times when this skill will shine like a beacon, but if it doesn't work, that's a lot of TP and SP you just wasted and you'll look like a real idiot. It can create some real good cheese strats and let you pull of some dumb stuff... if it works. Still, even having some of your party survive a deadly attack instead of none of them can be pretty amazing. Or you'll just die next turn anyway. It's a harder sell since Revive isn't a great skill to max out and dying in a boss fight is usually not a big deal due to better checkpoints in this game, so if this delicious coinflip cheese sounds like fun, well I can't really stop you.

Another big selling point of the Medic. CPR is an amazing safety net in case something goes horribly wrong, which is likely to happen in a game like EO2. It can't protect against the likes of Petrify or Instant Death, but having a chance to save a party member from a stray lethal attack can be a huge momentum saver. And believe me, you'll be seeing a lot of that later in the game, so anything to mitigate that can be a huge help.

A few things to be aware of when using this skill. This is not an endure! This is an on the spot revival, so any party members saved by this skill will lose any buffs or debuffs they had at the time of dying. Make sure to refresh any buffs they had afterwards.

Phoenix
Prerequisites: Healer Lv10
Sacrifices the user to fully heal and revive the entire party and removes one random bind. Healing skill, uses the Head.

From the outset this skill seems a bit questionable, it doesn't mention what it fully does, if it just fully healed your party like Salve III, then it would be bad. But it's, in effect, a spammable Force skill, which is pretty nuts, minus the full ailment heal. Sacrificing your Medic might seem strange, but it can be worth it if they won't be immediately useful after fully healing everyone. Since the level only increases the base heal, there's no point investing in it much, the speed modifier is barely a factor and you hopefully shouldn't use this skill much so the TP cost doesn't really matter. It's a weird, but good skill.

This skill may look very questionable, but it's a fantastic panic button. While it shouldn't be used if none of your party members are dead, it's a massive undo button for when things get really bad. Being able to revive multiple people at once is a huge boon, helping your party get back on their feet more easily. Sure you'll lose your Medic in the process, but in a situation where multiple party members are dead, Salve 3 spamming wouldn't have done much to save them, and really, what else can your Medic do in this game? And think about it this way. Nectalls are fantastic items. Reviving a Medic is essentally converting a Nectar into a Nectall, which is a fantastic deal. It's an incredibly cheesy panic button if the time comes for it, salvaging situations that shouldn't be salvageable otherwise.

With that said, you may want to leave this skill at level 1, as it doesn't scale too well, and the chances of using this multiple times per battle is slim. And if you have to use it a ton... you may want to rethink your strategy. Do be warned, the one bind it decides to clear is random per party member. And it can end up selecting a bind that said party member doesn't even have. Like attempting to dispel an Arm Bind when they have nothing but a Head Bind. So don't rely on that aspect too much.

Patrol
Decreases damage tile, uh, damage for a certain number of steps. Field skill.

Same as the Survivalist's skill, can be useful but since you have a Medic on the party, just heal everyone before battle and use Guard Soles if you really want to save TP. Or go all the way and not need to Salve before battle, due to how expensive those skills can be, it can be worth it. This might be the only time I can recommend these skills.

This can be a nice way to cut down on how often your Medic has to heal the party whenever damage tiles get involved, though it's not strictly a necessary skill to have. Can make certain floors much less annoying, and the Medic can have a large amount of SP to spare if they've rested their lower tier heals away.

H. Touch
Fully heals and revives the entire party and dispels all status ailments. Does not remove binds or Stun. Force skill, uses the Head.

And finally, a great Force skill. Don't panic seeing that skill name, H. Touch is actually amazing in this game and is absolutely fantastic as an OH SHIT button, it can combo pretty well with CPR as well if you fancy, but you have to be mindful of how slow it is. Not removing binds can be a slight pain, but usually they're not a big deal and this can be a way of just not using Salve II if you're low on TP and near the end of the floor, it's brilliant and will be a great crutch later on.

Hey, so what if Phoenix had absolutely no downside at all? You get this skill. Phoenix was already a strong panic button, and this one is even better. Mostly. It doesn't remove binds, but Phoenix's bind removal was unreliable anyways, so meh. A great way to salvage a bad situation, assuming the Medic has their Force ready. Which admittedly won't be too often due to how the Force mechanics work, unfortunately. Unless you opt to use Axcelas.

Medic doesn't have any fancy tricks this time around, unfortunately, Immunize was wiped from existence and Caduceus can let the Medic do something not involving the head, but was indirectly nerfed in so many ways it's not worth it. War Magus does a good chunk of the Medic's skillset while having other utility, while also not having Healer, Revive and Salve III, which can be a dealbreaker. You don't have to use a Medic, which is wonderful to say after last game and they're not the most busted class in the game, but they still have incredible utility and sometimes you just need a fuckton of healing to make your life easier.

While the Medic was completely overpowered in the first game and deserved to be nerfed, the way they got nerfed made them a little too one-dimensional to play, though they're still a fairly effective class to bring along. Not all parties need one this time around, especially with the War Magus competing for the healer slot on a team, but the nerfs thankfully did not utterly kill them like the Landsknecht or Survivalist. So bringing one along isn't a huge setback, and they can contribute a lot to a party despite the changes they went through.

RandomKesaranPasaran · Mon Sep 27, 2021 5:46 pm

Yeah I honestly find the near-monored nature of EO2's second stratum to be pretty bad, they kinda pushed the fire part of the theme harder than the autumn part of the theme IMO and as a result did both in nearly the most boring way possible to the point where I go back and forth as to whether this or EO1 had the worst second stratum in the series.

That said it's not like any Yggdrasil has ever made sense so having a deciduous forest in whatever part of the world High Lagaard is implied to be in is the least weird thing here.

Araxxor · Mon Sep 27, 2021 11:41 pm

AI Oddities

Stalker wrote: If the party is blindsided, and flag 1 is not active, activate flag 1, then:
-89% chance to cast Amputate. (Targets the front row.)
-11% chance to cast Amputate. (Targets the back row.)

If it has been at least 2 turns since turn 25:
-79% chance to cast Scythe. (Targets the front row.)
-21% chance to cast Scythe. (Targets the back row.)

If flag 0 is active, deactive flag 0, then:
-34% chance to cast Amputate. (Targets the front row.)
-If Amputate does not get cast, 69% chance to cast Amputate. (Targets the back row.)
-If Amputate does not get cast, 89% chance to cast Scythe. (Targets the front row.)
-Else, cast Scythe. (Targets the back row.)

If HP is below 25%:
-19% chance to cast Amputate. (Targets the front row.)
-If Amputate does not get cast, 29% chance to cast Amputate. (Targets the back row.)
-If Amputate does not get cast, 64% chance to cast Scythe. (Targets the front row.) Activate flag 0.
-Else, cast Scythe. (Targets the back row.) Activate flag 0.

Else:
-89% chance to cast Amputate. (Targets the front row.)
-11% chance to cast Amputate. (Targets the back row.)

For some reason the Stalker has a special routine if the battle lasts for more than 27 turns. I don't know why. I assume it's enrage behavior where the Stalker just tries to end the battle if it goes on too long, but I'm really not sure what party that isn't deliberately sandbagging would even survive for 27 turns or haven't killed it by then.

Moa wrote:If the party is blindsided, and flag 1 is not active, cast Rush. (Standard targeting.) Activate flag 1.

If flag 0 is active, clear flag 0, then: [NOTE: flag 0 can't ever be active in this fight, causing this block of code to go completely unused.]
-34% chance to use a regular attack. (Targets the front row.)
-If a regular attack did not get used, 69% chance to use a regular attack. (Targets the back row.)
-Else, cast Rush. (Standard targeting.)

If HP is below 60%:
-69% chance to cast Rush. (Standard targeting.)
-31% chance to use a regular attack. (Standard targeting.)

Else:
-39% chance to cast Rush. (Standard targeting.)
-61% chance to use a regular attack. (Standard targeting.)

Also there are instances of some enemies not having their AI cleaned up checking for completely non-existent flags. The Moa is one such instance.

Crosspeice · Wed Nov 03, 2021 10:06 pm

Part 10: Foul Thorns Underfoot

Update 10: Foul Thorns Underfoot

I like how warm this place is, but looking after two animals is, well...

I see their furs as long term investings.

Don't let them hear that!

Pfeh.

Purr...

It's time for 7F, which we can reach without a single encounter if you're lucky. And our main Beast is here, gonna be a right bloody tank even if the best defensive skills aren't accessible to him. Oh well.

A tank that dies right away is doing its job correctly, right?

Ugh.

Hm? Hmmmmm....

Oh wow that is a problem.

You have no ideas.

Gigaboar

HP: 180
STR: 23
VIT: 17
TEC: 12
AGI: 15
LUC: 17
Level: 20
Exp: 805

Skills
Bullrush: Uses the Legs. Deals 150% Bash damage to a single target, with 50% splash damage. Has a 90% accuracy modifier and a 200% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

100%

150%

100%

100%

Disable Vulnerabilities

100%

100%

Drops
Steel Fang: 40% chance, sells for 30en.
1 required for Iron Claw - Claw, ATK+64, STR+1 - sells for 990en
2 required for Long Bow - Bow, ATK+52 - sells for 770en
2 required for Beast Tail - Whip, ATK+65, VIT+2, LUC+2 - sells for 2,310en
3 required for Snow Axe - Axe, ATK+66, Type: Ice - sells for 1,690en

Beast Hide: 35% chance, sells for 34en.
1 required for Hard Aspis - Shield, DEF+14 - sells for 450en
2 required for Plate - Clothing, DEF+27, VIT+2, AGI-1 - sells for 790en
3 required for Volunteer Service II

Conditional: None

Tired of the Moa kicking your ass? It's back, in splash form! In case you breathed a sigh of relief that your Beast didn't tank this hit and die, well they'll still die anyway, but aside from these things being a little chunky, they're not too crazy. Hopefully you don't encounter too many at once!

More AOE hitting enemies, and essentially another version of the Moa. Or a bit of a weaker version. Perhaps we should start keeping a funeral count for poor Loopy to put a Loyalty Beast into perspective? Before anyone asks, I ain't counting!

Never met a boar I didn't hate. Ask me about the fucking Babirusas in EOU...

That's a nice chunk of cash. For me to poop on, cause we're rollin' in it from Chimerea! As an aside, since we haven't done the 4F quest of wasting 3 days of our time (we'll get to it very soon) it means we haven't unlocked the next quest, which has you help the guards map 7F and 8F. Again, we'll get to that pretty soon, but it does mean we miss naturally encountering the guards while exploring the floor. Thankfully there's another EO2 LP that's free real estate, so here's what the guard's map would unhelpfully show us!

Does this count as a weird Frankensteining surgery grafting of 2 LPs by this point?

No worry, my speed will get you back in- oh come on!

There are times when Aleks is better off reviving someone than our speedy Survivalist. Unfortunately she's usually busy dealing lots of elemental damage, so to Logan it usually falls to.

Firstly, trees, secondly, gathering, thirdly, thorns?

Hrmmm...

7F D6 Chop Point

Ambush Chance: 3%
Ambush Encounter:
60% Poseidon x1
40% Bigcap x5

Red Root: 70% chance. Sells for 70en.
1 required for Self Bow - Bow, ATK+56, STR+2, AGI+2, +15 speed - sells for 1,440en
2 required for Pumpkinhat - Headgear, DEF+15, TEC+2, TP+10 - sells for 1,820en
5 required for Snake Whip - Whip, ATK+, STR+2 - sells for 1,680en
5 required for Fire Beads - Collar, DEF+62, STR+2 - sells for 1,580en
1 required for Toward a cozier inn

Hardwood: 25% chance. Sells for 75en.
1 required for Flame Leaf - Clothing, DEF+30, TP+10, Ice Resist Up 10% - sells for 1,550en
5 required for Milk Maul - Stave, ATK+65, HP+15, -3 speed - sells for 1,530en
1 required for Toward a cozier inn

Red Pine: 5% chance. Sells for 250en.
1 required for Quid pro quo

Easy gathering point to get to, nothing too crazy though. Didn't we just get a collar that is now being immediately replaced? Weird, but okay.

Wait, you two, that's not a plant!

Yeep!

Gah!

Fangleaf

HP: 201
STR: 19
VIT: 20
TEC: 22
AGI: 17
LUC: 17
Level: 21
Exp: 879

Skills
Binding: Uses the Arms. Attempts to inflict Arm Bind on the entire party. Has a 50% base infliction chance and a 100% speed modifier.
Thorn: Uses the Arms. Deals 165% Bash damage to a single target and attempts to inflict Blind. Has a 90% base infliction chance, a 100% accuracy modifier and a 100% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

100%

150%

100%

100%

Disable Vulnerabilities

0%

100%

50%

100%

100%

Drops
Moving Eye: 35% chance, sells for 33en.
1 required for Madfa - Gun, ATK+55 - sells for 870en
1 required for Bite Piece - Accessory, Blind Resist Up 50% - sells for 2,000en
5 required for Battle Axe - Axe, ATK+65, STR+2, VIT+2 - sells for 1,480en
1 required for Labyrinth stew

Bendy Tool: 30% chance, sells for 37en.
1 required for Headdress - Headgear, DEF+12, TP+3 - sells for 380en
1 required for Blind Gas - Item, Lv1 Blinding, 15% base infliction chance - sells for 450en
3 required for Fancy Coat - Clothing, DEF+28 - sells for 1,030en

Bent Twig: 25% chance, sells for 30en.
1 required for Wood Bow - Bow, ATK+27, +20 speed - sells for 170en Required for The item trade I
3 required for Slice Whip - Whip, ATK+38, STR+2 - sells for 370en
5 required for Beast Bow - Bow, ATK+39, STR+1, +5 speed - sells for 440en

Conditional: None

Annoying, but not too bad. Fangleaf are pretty tanky and are very, very likely to inflict Blind. Their main scare is arm binding, pretty much everyone gets shut down from that. They'll be pretty deadly when combined with other enemies, but also not a huge deal to not go after immediately. It's a 49/51 to what it'll go for, but will go for Thorn more often as it gets lower in health.

Fangleaves by themselves are guaranteed blindsides, but there's not a whole lot they can do to you, so solo Fangleaves are just an annoyance at best. They can be deadly when paired up with other enemies provided they're strong enough to capitalize on the Fangleaf's disables.

There's always environmental hazards when I'm out slaying...

Yay it's damage tiles again. These are more dangerous compared to last game, not because they do more damage, but because Salve is way more expensive. They're also way more prolific, but have their one use we'll go over soon enough.

Remember tha damage tiles are percentile based in the first two games.

Ask me about the cosmic revelation I had when I first stepped on a damage tile in EO2U, and it was automatically colored orange on the map.

Let's cut our losses, eh?

So long as you are never making me wear the drabby feets.

An encounter on the tile I was gonna get the treasure and warp out with... anyway Guard Soles are one of the ways to mitigate damage tiles, but it's only 40% reduction for 50 steps which requires quite a few of them. Best to invest into Patrol proper, or just suck it up and still use Salve even if you can't spam it like before.

Later games switching to fixed damage makes damage tiles much easier to tank, but not so in this one. You'll really want mitigation of some kind unless you want to be walking around at 1 HP. At least they can't kill you.

1 Steel Fang required for Iron Claw
1 Moving Eye and 2 Tail Quills required for Madfa - Gun, ATK+55 - A firearm capable of firing huge bullets.
2 Steel Fangs required for Long Bow - Bow, ATK+52 - This bow's large size lets it deal greater damage.
1 Beast Hide required for Hard Aspis
1 Bendy Tool required for Headdress - Helmet, DEF+12, TP+3 - Headpiece made of boiled and linked plant leaves.
1 Bendy Tool and 3 Mugworts required for Blind Gas - Item, Lv1 Blinding, 15% base infliction chance - A dark gas that blinds all enemies.

Another nice haul, eventually we'll stop unlocking all these shitty gas items. And just in case you thought your Beast wasn't doing ridiculous damage, here's one with 20 more ATK than the first claw we unlocked, and 1 more STR, cause why not.

Due to how the EO2 damage formula works the weapon ATK increase is far less than it sounds. You generally want to prioritize armor upgrades instead of weapons in this one. It's like around +1 or 2 STR here. I know, for those of you familiar with most other EO games, your world has been turned upside down.

Glad you agreed to join us, but I'm surprised you could take such a cursed thing off your head.

It hurt like hell but I managed it, ohohohoho, what a great little trinket.

Because I don't fancy going around a damage tile ridden floor with no healer AND a Loyalty Beast, I've made the important decision of changing my wildcard slot for Alastor, since he was one of the least voted. Also the Town Crown is nice, but I do want some actual DEF in that slot, so fare thee well.

RIP to all the potential RIPs we could have seen this update.

Ugh, we could go straight through! But my feet...

Hmm!

Good doge.

Already I feel so much better having an actual wall of a class instead of, well, *gestures wildly*

Harrumph. Coward.

Going the longer way round means more encounters, but you should be grateful for the exp!

Looking closely, you can see that it's red amber. Could the tree's sap have seeped out and hardened? Amber normally solidifies under ground, so it seems out of place but valuable nonetheless. You can carve out the amber and take it with you, or give up on it and leave the area.

Ah, a sparkle as beautiful as your eyes.

Purr, purr.

Guess I'll do all the work then...

You pry the tip of your weapon into the amber's edge in an attempt to extract it. But when about half the mass has been scraped out, you hear an odd sound and turn to meet it. You gasp as you see a monster standing there, roaring menacingly at your party! You belatedly hear something squealing at the tree's roots. It seems that the tree was serving as a sanctuary for the monster's young... the monster has marked you as a predator of its children! You cannot avoid battle now!

While I would be liking the amber, we'll be putting it back!

Bit too late for that, time for more orphans!

Tortmail

HP: 206
STR: 25
VIT: 20
TEC: 14
AGI: 17
LUC: 18
Level: 24
Exp: 992

Skills
Armor Up: Uses the Arms. Reduces all physical damage on the user by 50% for 5 turns. Has an 80% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

75%

125%

125%

Disable Vulnerabilities

100%

150%

100%

100%

Drops
Armor Hull: 35% chance, sells for 44en.
1 required for Broadsword - Sword, ATK+60 - sells for 1,230en
1 required for Fancy Coat - Clothing, DEF+28 - sells for 1,030en
1 required for Shell Boot - Footwear, DEF+12, AGI+1 - sells for 420en
1 required for Metopon - Item, LV1 Erasure, dispells 1 buff from a single enemy - sells for 100en
2 required for Breaker - Claw, ATK+65, 120% base accuracy, +3 speed - sells for 1,020en

Conditional: Kill with Bash damage
Armor Bone: 75%, sells for 69en.
1 required for Godhunter - Gun, ATK+66, AGI+2, 120% base accuracy, +3 speed - sells for 1,920en

Well at least we're not blindsided, we'll see these enemies next floor but Tortmails are your usual element check, nothing too special. They'll always lead off with Armor Up, making them a right pain for physical parties, and then just attack, attack, attack. Thankfully lot more elemental options in this game, so these enemies aren't as annoying as they were last game.

They're annoyingly durable if you lack elements, but even a Gunner can take em down pretty fast. Otherwise, get annoyed for the amount of time it takes to kill them I guess?

Use your imagination. That's one of the main aspects of the series after all!

These things are a completely different enemy in EO2U, but you probably could've guessed that. They're all the way in the 5th Stratum in that game, for some reason!

Grrrrr!

While Aleks and Rajah continue to miss, at least we have Viper to speed things up. This is one of the events where it's a shame there's no text after the fact, what happened to the amber you chipped off? What about the babies? Are they gonna die? Who knows.

Hmm?

Hey, don't go that way, listen to me!

Dammit!

Aww...

This game has plenty of rude moves, with plenty more to come. I love it.

It is an Etrian Odyssey game on the Nintendo DS.

1 Armor Hull required for Broadsword
1 Armor Hull and 3 Tail Quills required for Shell Boot - Footwear, DEF+12, AGI+1 - Sturdy, lightweight long boots.
1 Armor Hull and 1 Mugwort required for Metopon - Item, LV1 Erasure, dispels 1 buff from a single enemy - Neurotoxin that neutralizes an enemy's stat boosts.

Going to be getting more fractured unlocks as I keep heading back after running out of Salve TP, but hey Metopons are nice to have to slap down a buffing enemy. Would've been nice for Chimeara...

lol why does it only use level 1, that's so bad

Tha' aye's still movin'!

Stop squidging it!!!

Welcome back! How'd it go? That innkeeper lass is scarier than a forest wolf, eh? Her husband must be a brave one to deal with a woman like her... and don't tell her I said that! Let's see now... ugh! She feeds this rubbish to her guests...? Some things man was not meant to know, eh? Well, much as I don't want to touch that foul stuff, I s'pose I should go deliver it... Here's yer reward. I'm counting on all of yeh!

Don't have a need for these just yet, so they're basically money for now.

Purr, purr!

Showoff...

Looking at the map, we've still got a chunk to go for the floor, but if we went through the top passage we'd reach the stairs very quickly. We'd walk through a bunch of thorns, but we'd reach the pole and an easy checkpoint to then explore the rest of the floor at our leisure. Very recommended. I won't do that because I'm a bit bonkers and there's not much left to this floor anyway. But it is basically optional. Not sure why they did it that way, but hey, most people won't complain!

Odd bit of map design. I guess they thought damage tiles were bigger obstacles than they were to players in practice.

That is a big monke.

Well nothing to do now except kill it.

This guild is crazy...

Redwood

HP: 810
STR: 29
VIT: 29
TEC: 27
AGI: 29
LUC: 27
Level: 22
Exp: 0

Skills
Poison: Uses the Arms. Deals 100% Bash damage to a single target and attempts to inflict Poison. Has a 25% base infliction chance, deals 48-72 Poison damage, has a 100% accuracy modifier and a 100% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

100%

125%

100%

50%

Disable Vulnerabilities

25%

10%

25%

50%

10%

Drops
Sharp Nail: 30% chance, sells for 350en.
1 required for Shida - Katana, ATK+67, STR+2 - sells for 2,060en
5 required for Pain Aspis - Shield, DEF+37, STR+30, ALL Resist Down 50% - sells for 75,000en

Blood Hide: 25% chance, sells for 410en.
1 required for Pale Round - Shield, DEF+18 - sells for 1,120en
5 required for Pain Aspis - Shield, DEF+37, STR+30, ALL Resist Down 50% - sells for 75,000en

Beast Hide: 90% chance, sells for 34en.
1 required for Hard Aspis - Shield, DEF+14 - sells for 450en
2 required for Plate - Clothing, DEF+27, VIT+2, AGI-1 - sells for 790en
3 required for Volunteer Service II

Conditional: None

I'm not crazy, but you might think I am! There's a few FOEs we can take down when we encounter them, not many mind you, but this is one due to how relatively non-threatening it is. Now of course it could paste us into next week, especially with those stats, but it can only do it one party member at a time. I have a pretty offensive party, so I can be a bit reckless, and since you don't get exp from FOEs you don't have to worry about keeping everyone alive. So let's go nearly die.

WELCOME TO DIE etc. etc.

Also why did they call the White Ape "Redwood," that's bizarre.

Oh and don't get excited seeing the Pain Aspis here, sure you need these drops but there's a 3rd material we need that's... postgame. This game's fuckin' wild yo. Not that +30 STR would make a Protector deal damage anyway.

This is a trick that would later be pulled in EO4, of all things! That game gates your access to gear made from boss conditionals by making them also require 6th Maze enemy drops to buy. Y'know, since the en cost—in a game with severely nerfed conditional drop sell prices—wasn't enough.

Oh shit we're doing this already? Right it's an FOE with single target attacks. If you can chain revive you've basically won. Otherwise who they go after is basically dead meat if their stats aren't high enough. Not too threatening, the weakest FOE in the stratum basically.

Grah!

That's the slaying spirit!

And so the pasting begins. Could probably use more HP on our units it seems.

So those are my insides... well have fun!

I was definitely sweating by this point, but I'd done enough alpha strike damage that I was gonna be fine, you know, if my damn hits landed.

Big if.

Well that wasn't so badman, right mans? Right.

People who care about synched XP bars are sighing in relief that EO2 FOEs can't possibly screw those up.

1 Sharp Nail required for Shida, -5 speed.
2 Beast Hides required for Plate

I'll kill another 4 of these damn things later, but let's move on and ignore Redwoods, they're not aggressive.

Thought I saw something shiny, ah no matter.

Better not be going senile.

I'm following the online maps too closely and went the long way around for no reason!

1 Armor Hull and 3 Bendy Tools required for Fancy Coat.

And that was one trip because using two Salves for damage tiles is all we get. I can't avoid them sometimes!

Hehe!

Amazing what you can put out when you actually land it.

Here's the Redwood lair, but since the second one patrols the top row only we won't go anywhere near it.

Son of a-

Phew, we barely held in there, right Sonia? Ah bugger.

7F A4 Chop Point

Ambush Chance: 3%
Ambush Encounter:
60% Poseidon x1
40% Bigcap x5

Hardwood: 70% chance. Sells for 75en.
1 required for Flame Leaf - Clothing, DEF+30, TP+10, Ice Resist Up 10% - sells for 1,550en
5 required for Milk Maul - Stave, ATK+65, HP+15, -3 speed - sells for 1,530en
1 required for Toward a cozier inn

Red Root: 25% chance. Sells for 70en.
1 required for Self Bow - Bow, ATK+56, STR+2, AGI+2, +15 speed - sells for 1,440en
2 required for Pumpkinhat - Headgear, DEF+15, TEC+2, TP+10 - sells for 1,820en
5 required for Snake Whip - Whip, ATK+, STR+2 - sells for 1,680en
5 required for Fire Beads - Collar, DEF+62, STR+2 - sells for 1,580en
1 required for Toward a cozier inn

Red Pine: 5% chance. Sells for 250en.
1 required for Quid pro quo

Ugh treasure and ugh gathering.

They can't all be winners.

Ain't this going swimmingly...

Hmph.

Not to worry, we can _probably reach the stairs.

Not a big floor, but I was definitely one step away from an encounter. Phew! You can see how much you skip by coming from below and yeah the treasure isn't that worth it, but you'll need to explore this floor anyway, so might as well!

Now that is some intense heat. You're looking a little worse for wear over there?

Well half due to the immense pressure coming from the center of the floor, and half due to this terrible guide the Radha gave us. Makes me despair just looking at it.

Blech!

I will murder whoever draws these "helpful" sections one day.

slain that lizard yet?

No... but I'm itching to!

If it's the source of the stratum's heat then us beating it now would be quite the tale.

So what's this I hear about yeh reaching the 8th floor? Did yeh meet that lizard? Whaddya mean, "What lizard?" Don't yeh know?! It's a huge beastie that shoots fire! How could yeh miss it!? Maybe it's just a rumor. Well, I was taken in! I hear about the thing destroying guilds all the time! I don't know what's going on in there, but yeh'd better watch yerselves. Better to be cautious than to be dead! G'luck!

Nice chunk of quests that won't take long. I'm seeing if we could get a level 20 Medic before the end of the stratum (we won't) but the next step of Volunteer service won't unlock yet so no rush or whatever.

If I have one more serving of that damn lunch...

Come now, I might have no tastebuds due to atrophy, but it goes down a treat.

Seems she's got an important guest, and she wants to keep him happy with some tasy fruit. Though after that Labyrinth Lunch, I'm not sure I'd eat any fruit she brought me... As always, yeh can get the details over at Flaus Inn.

we'll need that guy again

I thought about summoning him with a bell, but he recoiled in horror from the idea. That makes two who aren't fans of those.

Yeh lot should know him. He works at Sitoth Trading. He's asked for any guild to collect materials for his next piece. Go to the shop and ask him what he needs. G'luck!

Ugh, I'll go grab my stuff.

You should always keep your tools close at hand.

Yeh're in the same profession, so yeh're rivals in a way, but yeh have to put that aside now. Anyway, the lot of them were ambushed as soon as they set foot on a certain floor. Most of them escaped with their hides, but their alchemist weren't so lucky. So they're asking if they can borrow yer alchemist. Don't let yer fellow explorers down!

Have fun on your trip, son!

Shut up dad, you're not my real mom.

Yeah, that one doesn't look half bad. I'm sure the other guild will be pleased. All right, follow me to where the other guild is waiting. The rest of yeh, stay here. ... All right, I delivered yer alchemist safe and sound. Their mission starts soon. We'll just sit right here and wait for yer friend to come back, shall we? Let's hear a few war stories, eh? I know yeh must have some good ones! Drink up, friends! Haw haw haw!

Well, this one time, at band camp...

Back. What a waste of time that was.

Back, are we? So yeh killed the beastie, but yeh nearly died trying...? Well, here's what the leader of that other guild had to say... "I appreciated your help, and we'll return the favor someday. In the meantime... train harder." What a tosser! Haw haw haw! Here's yer reward. Yeh better not lose against that lot!

Due to my lack of caring, we didn't get the best reward for that quest, since the money reward changes slightly depending on what skills your Alchemist has. If you have the Fire skill you get an extra 300en and if you have the Flame skill you get another extra 300en. It's still pretty early on and since I'm going for Megido at the moment I didn't fancy investing in Fire Up Lv5 and Fire Lv5 to unlock Flame to get a paltry 300en. It's nice if you were already going for this skill, but uh, whatever.

I've got a VIP staying here who wants to sample our meals between jaunts in the Labyrinth. He's simply mad about hunting! He wants the meal delivered to his camp on the 4th floor today. Trouble is... we're low on the Labyrinth Lunches, so I decided to send him some fruit instead. And I heard an explorer say he'd found the most delicious fruit in his travels. I don't know much about it, but he assured me it would make a great meal for my guest. I want you all to find the fruit and deliver it to the VIP on the 4th floor! He said the fruit should be around the southeast area of the 8th floor... I think. Oh, but he also said once you pick the fruit from the tree it starts to spoil at once. You'll have to deliver it before it goes completely rotten! I know you won't let me down!

A vegetable from the 9th floor to be delivered the day after on the 6th floor, got it.

Close enough...

EO2 had quite a few "backtrack through the Labyrinth" quests and I'm not sure why or what they really add to the game. And no you can't use the Geomagnetic Fields for these.

Hello, children! Could you lend me a hand again? I just need someone to care of those dishes, thanks!

Gah, this meal again, it's everywhere! Let me sleep!

Huh? You've really never had this before? It's one of our best-selling meals. We call it the Labyrinth Lunch. My husband came up with it! I can make it myself, if you want, but to be honest, I don't think that's such a good idea. Why? Oh, well, you know... Bahahaha!

I'm gonna kick Salamox's ass!

Nae, I will!

As more people explore the Labyrinth, we make breakthroughs in science and medicine. Just the other day, we found a plant there that actually eases a fever in humans. But there are so many different plants and herbs, and we don't know what many of them do. If we could do research on them, it would advance the cause of medicine worldwide. But to that research, we need explorers to bring us samples of these plants. We need their help to cure wounds... but so many of them are wounded trying to help us. That's the circular situation I'm in now. I hate to see anyone get hurt, but... I know it's asking a lot of you, but I'd like you to continue exploring the Labyrinth.

I never noticed how much dialogue freakin' Derek has.

I miss when Derek was kind of incompetent in the first Trauma Center.

Man, I haven't played a Trauma Center game in fuckin' forever.

Does he only come out when we're not here?

He says he's too busy to come out, but I think he's just shy around people. Isn't it weird for someone like him? Hee hee! Oh, I need to give you his list! He asked for 1 Fluorite and 1 Open Cap. You can get them from the Auburn Thicket. Just sell them back to me once you collect them! We're counting on you!

I need something for lizard slaying!

Huh? Oh, Sonia... your clothes are torn! Come here and let me fix it. There you go! All better! Hee hee... I'm good at mending clothes and things like that. I'll be over here, so call me when you're ready to check out!

How thoughtful, now I'm properly dressed!

Heh, sure.

How delightfully blunt.

Grr!

Hrmhrm!

Ahaha... it was only a joke. Don't take it so personally. I heard your next destination is the 8th floor to collect a Fire Plume from the Salamox. There's no shame in running from a monster that strong. Survival is your first priority. That's all the advice I have for you. Never underestimate the Labyrinth.

I don't think you'll have much of a chance to run if you get into a battle with that thing.

I would be the telling you but then I would have to be the shooting.

Please don't threaten my boss!

High Lagaard is somewhat remote and difficult to reach from anywhere else. We have been considering how to deal with the influx in new residents. We need new roads, housing, and food sources... so many things to consider. We didn't expect Lagaard to become the boom town that it is now. But you have been abroad. Have you any suggestions as to how to deal with these issues? I realize that exploring is a full-time job, but if you should think of something, tell me. I expect great things from you.

If you want to develop a town... open a restaurant. Nah, that's sounds stupid. Anyway, despite what these walls of text might make you think, we haven't done that much exploring, 7F is pretty small, so let's go fight a large salamander!

The obviously correct choice involves sailing.

Hmm, what is that?

You remain vigilant for some time, but the sound does not reoccur. You can't be certain if it's hiding from you or waiting for a chance to strike. Part of you wants to leave the room now, and part of you wants to proceed with caution.

Slashin' time, baby!

Hrm!

Apparently scared by your drawn weapons, the source of the noise flees deep into the forest. You sheathe your weapons and look around. Something has fallen to the floor. The unseen creature must have dropped it. You stow away the unexpected bounty in your bag.

Ah, a fruit as tasty as your neck.

You are not the wrong.

We only need one of those for the jar items I'll never use, so neat!

Bats. I can deal with bats. Their wings shred like pa- eek, why does it breathe fire?!

Firezard

HP: 165
STR: 19
VIT: 20
TEC: 18
AGI: 20
LUC: 19
Level: 23
Exp: 741

Skills
Breath: Uses the Head. Deals Fire damage to a single target, with a spell power of 35 and damage multiplied by 150%. Has a 99% accuracy modifier and a 100% speed modifier.
Fumes: Uses the Head. Deals Fire damage to the entire party, with a spell power of 30 and damage multiplied by 80%. Has a 95% accuracy modifier and a 50% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

100%

0%

150%

100%

Disable Vulnerabilities

100%

150%

100%

100%

Drops
Green Hide: 30% chance, sells for 23en.
1 required for Flame Whip - Whip, ATK+62, Type: Fire - sells for 1,070en
1 required for Fire Wall - Accessory, Fire Resist Up 30% - sells for 1,500en
7 required for Zanmatou - Katana, ATK+62, Type: Fire - sells for 1,480en

Green Tail: 25% chance, sells for 25en
1 required for Fire Beads - Collar, DEF+62, STR+2 - sells for 1,580en
3 required for Flame Leaf - Clothing, DEF+30, TP+10, Ice Resist Up 10% - sells for 1,550en

Conditional: None

Either damage to one or damage to all. The Direwolf last game worked exactly the same, but the Firezard is too weak to really do much of note. It doesn't even soften you up for other enemies, so it's a relief that they're here.

Wizard trash mobs basically. Magic casting enemies in general are weak because they too have their damage halvved by the magic formula.

They just do partywides in EO2U.

I should be throwing up the raining bow instead, bleh!

Grrrrrr!

Who fell down a well? Sorry, I don't speak beast. ...oh, right, the scythe wielding maniac behind us.

I haven't been decapitated yet, ohohoho!

Razekings spawn in these small nooks as you walk past and chase you for a fair while. Can we take it on like we did the Redwood?

Haha, no.

While we're next to it I needed to fix this hot mess. Much better!

We'll dive in here! It'll be safe... amongst the... thorns. Sigh.

Yelp!

Never slain something like that before.

I have been wanting the snaking skins.

Garauchi

HP: 162
STR: 19
VIT: 19
TEC: 18
AGI: 38
LUC: 36
Level: 22
Exp: 741

Skills
Taillash: Uses the Legs. Attempts to inflict Head Bind on a single target. Has an 80% base infliction chance and a 100% speed modifer.
Corrode: Uses the Head. Increases physical damage taken by the entire party by 130% for 5 turns. Has a 100% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

100%

150%

100%

Disable Vulnerabilities

100%

150%

100%

100%

Drops
Ruby Shard: 35% chance, sells for 28en.
1 required for Stain Gage - Gloves, DEF+13, STR+1 - sells for 750en
2 required for Gara Rod - Stave, ATK+63, HP+10 - sells for 1,250en
5 required for Snake Whip - Whip, ATK+66, STR+2 - sells for 1,680en
FIFTEEN required for Self Bow - Bow, ATK+56, STR+2, AGI+2 - sells for 1,440en

Conditional: Kill with Volt damage
Ruby Scale: 80% chance, sells for 41en.
1 required for Horn Plate - Light Armor, DEF+33, VIT+2, Volt Resist Up 10%

It's a support enemy that isn't very dangerous if there's nothing to support. We only care about head binds for healing, but Corrode can be a real fucker combined with a Moa or Gigaboar. Otherwise not that big a deal, if you kill the dangerous attacker first then they're just gonna sit there, especially cause it's a 50/50 what they'll go for, so you'll probably get lucky and only get bound!

Not much to em. Just ignore or take em out first depending on how much your party loves their heads.

Ugh, this gel is melting my clothes off and reducing my defense! ...I was only joking, Logan, you are too easy to teas- urk!

That's technically karma but it screws me over too.

Viper is my main way to kill Tortmails...

Much better. That chest contains a Nectar II, which we need to hoard excessively since we won't unlock it for a fair while. At least we'll get a few dotted around here and there.

Mmrph.

No muzzling the doggy, we need him for the bites!

With a bunch of damage tiles and no TP on our healer, that's how we're heading back. Man, remember TP recovery? Good times.

Could be worse. Could be forced to work with EO4 Amritas. Now that's jibblie inducing!

2 Ruby Shards required for Gara Rod, -3 speed.
1 Green Hide required for Flame Whip - Whip, ATK+62, Type: Fire - Red whip imbued with the power of flames.
1 Ruby Shard required for Stain Gage.

I lived, bitch.

8F A6 Mine Point

Ambush Chance: 3%
Ambush Encounter:
60% Poseidon x1
40% Bigcap x5

Fluorite: 70% chance. Sells for 70en.
1 required for Fungus Jet - Accessory, Paralysis Resist Up 50% - sells for 2000en Required for Smithy Thompson's request I
1 required for Arm Guard - Accessory, Arm Bind Resist Up 50% - sells for 2,000en
1 required for Bite Piece - Accessory, Blind Resist Up 50% - sells for 2,000en
1 required for Warp Stone - Item, Lv1 Return, warps user to the last Geomagnetic Field - sells for 100en
3 required for Godhunter - Gun, ATK+66, AGI+2, 120% accuracy, +3 speed - sells for 1,920en
5 required for Battle Axe - Axe, ATK+65, STR+2, VIT+2, +0 speed - sells for 1,480en

Red Ball: 25% chance. Sells for 75en.
1 required for Breaker - Claw, ATK+65, 120% accuracy, +3 speed - sells for 1,020en
1 required for Fire Wall - Accessory, Fire Resist Up 30% - sells for 1,500en
1 required for Bash Wall - Accessory, Bash Resist Up 30% - sells for 1,500en
3 required for Zanmatou - Katana, ATK+62, Type: Fire - sells for 1,480en
5 required for Katzbalger - Sword, ATK+63, STR+1, VIT+1, +15 speed - sells for 1,550en

Blood Rock: 5% chance. Sells for 200en.
1 required for Life Belt - Accessory, HP+50 - sells for 1,000en
1 required for Quid pro quo

You might've wondered why I didn't go straight for Salamox but we need to explore this whole floor for the quest, so might as well. Also so we can unlock Life Belts, which are great defensive items for quite some time, as well as something we'll be doing pretty soon. Also there's just a lot of stuff to unlock, so this is pretty helpful to find.

Life Belts are ridiculous defensive accessories to have this early. That's a ridiculous amount of defense this early.

How do these birds keep getting the jump on us?!

Oh, was I meant to be on the lookout?

Fuck you, game.

Still, nice chunk of the floor done and some armour we won't get until next floor. Neat! Now for Salamox...

This labyrinth sure is interesting sometimes...

The open area formed by the scarlet forest feels as though it's warmed by a furnace. You can sense a terrible aura drifting to the room's entrance from beyond the trees! Have a care! Fighting in this area will surely lead to your deaths. Be on your guard!

T-T-That is some heat!

It is like all of my comforting feathery blankets in one, which would be most uncomfortable!

Well, are we ready?

Hrmmm...

No, not ready to die, where's your faith doggy?

The red FOEs of even numbered stratums are elemental kings that will absolutely fuck us up. It'll be quite a while before we fight these, but they're passive and are pretty easy to dodge. No, the real danger is the massive black ball of death guarding the way to the Fire Plume. We need to lead it around the loop and- whoops my finger slipped!

GAH! No one said it'd charge towards us!

It's breathing in deeply!

Too hot! Too hot!!!

Bark bark bark bark bark!

Well bugger.

It's good thing we have the Edda guild here, looks like they'll take up the mantle and finish the LP for us!

...

Alright fine we'll do the stupid 3 day quest, train up and then do this properly. Sheesh.

Great excitement.

Doing a quick check of the Salmox's stats and the skill it just used, the amount of overkill it applied is quite sad.

Like normally when a post-game fight overkills a low leveled party, it's like 18-20x the overkill, but here it's only 4-5x, which is rather pathetic meaning that when this thing is fought at the proper point, the magic attack will basically be nothing. God why does magic in EO2 have to suck so much ass?

Crosspeice · Wed Nov 03, 2021 10:07 pm

Part 11: Three Day Fun

Part 11: Three Day Fun

Alright, rub this on you and you'll blend right in.

So that's why you bathe twice a day, thought you were weird like El.

It is most strongly.

You get used to it, geh, mostly.

Before we do the 3 day trip there's a few things to do quickly, won't take a moment.

Keen senses to still notice us.

Hmph!

You have noted the locations of numerous withered trees, as the doctor requested. This should be sufficient data. Report back to the bar at your earliest convenience.

What if there's more trees on further floors?

Best not think about such things.

Its smooth bark and odd branch structure would make it difficult to climb. But looking up, you can see a perfectly sized fruit daring to pluck it. You weigh your options. Pluck the fruit, or walk away?

Sure let's walk away from this required item for a quest.

No sarcasms in this happy guild! My previous climbing skilling is not for this type, how about it Sonny?

Mmm!

Uh, never been called that before, but sure.

Break a leg!

As leader of the party, Sonia was chosen to climb the tree and pick the fruit. The fruit's skin is a shining yellow sheen, and it emits a pleasing aroma... you remember now about the quest you accepted at the bar. You agreed to fetch a type of fruit from the Labyrinth. The fruit in hand can only be the one the innkeeper requested! But you have the nagging feeling there's something else relevant about this fruit... Oh yes... as soon as you pluck it from the branch, it will begin to spoil! You resolve to head for the 4th floor before the fruit spoils, angering the VIP. A thud breaks the reverie... Sonia fell from the tree and landed badly!

I'm okay!

You got the lucks...

Uh, sure game, let's get to 4F! A lack of encounters from your Stalker gathering party is very nice for this quest.

Engaging gameplay.

Ah, the feeling of no longer burning my lungs with each breath. I miss it.

You don't want to delay this quest too long since it'll be soon time for Chimeara to respawn and make things annoying as hell. I still don't think we could take it on in a regular fight lol.

Different guild, same results...

Annoyingly placed FOE can piss off and we beat it easily even though I forgot to heal off thorns! Ahem.

Also kill this one, you'll see why in just a moment.

Killing this FOE is key to cheesing the ever loving shit out of this quest.

Greetings, we have acqui-

You approach them, but they block your way with their weapons.

Halt! If you have no business past this point, we must insist that you turn back."

You show them the fruit you're holding and tell the guards about the request. After considering your words, the guard relents slightly.

All right, I'll see that he gets it. Now be on your way. Wait... maybe you should take half of it, as proof that you completed your duty.

The guard pulls out his hunting knife and slices the fruit in two equal pieces, giving you one. You thank the guards for their hospitality and decide to not overstay your welcome.

Giving you half the fruit seems very weird to me from a "giving the rich guy the fruit he wants" perspective, but what do I know?

Back with half a rotting fruit, great use of our time.

Ooh something smells good.

Damn, what took yeh so long? Let's have a look at that fruit... eeeuuh! That stench! Don't put that on the table! It'll stink up the whole place! That's the reek of evil, it is! I've gotta get rid of it before they condemn the place! How'd yeh carry it all that way!? Yer reward's on the table. Take it and get out already!

"Requests where Cass gets upset at the end" are my favorite genre of quest.

The hell did they all bring back, a Durian?

Oh yeah we found some dead trees.

we're working on it

Welcome back! So what was all that about? Something about withered trees...? It does sound pretty strange that they'd all wither that way. But it's no big deal, is it? It's not like everything'll rot away... will it? Hmmmmm. Truth to tell, I've never once understood what that man goes on about. Oh well... the quest's done, so here's yer reward. Come back anytime!

Woo, not worth it. Still, this is a passive quest that's really easy to complete so might as well. Right that's enough convenient preamble, let's get going.

Right, I believe that's everything in order, excited for the camping trip?

No.

That's the spirit!

Your task is to stay on this floor for 3 days, defeating as many monsters as you can. Will your items and stamina last that long...? You now have 3 days remaining.

Ugggggghhhhhh... okay so this isn't too bad compared to the five days of absolute tedium last game. There's a few differences, this is earlier in the game so the encounters are easier, but there's no fountain or 3 tile wide no encounter section to hide in. The secret area on the east side of the floor has a lower encounter rate compared to the rest of the floor and any Evil Eyes you encounter will be with other enemies, so there's no blindsides. Otherwise just cheese the entire quest with Stalker and if you don't need to train slightly before Chimeara, or you'll cheese that too, don't bother fighting anything. Like the 5 day quest we'll have some fireside chats with the guild, though it'll be 4 per conversation instead of 2, oh well. Let's get going.

"Hmm, so the problem with the quest was that so it could be cheesed. Let's get rid of no encounter zones and fountains and force the player to do it the intended way." The end result is still a quest that sucks major ass. The whole killing things is just flavor text, all the game cares about is that you travel on the floor for 3 days. At least it's not 5 days? Still have to walk 2160 steps, but 9 uses of a level 10 Stalker can make it as painless as it will get. Thankfully this quest never returned in later games. Unless you count the remake of EO1, in which case it's mitigated considerably in Story Mode. Classic Mode? Lol get fucked.

Don't worry, I brought a sleeping bag and a pillow, I'm ready to look at this exciting gameplay!

And yeah this took me like 15 mins sidestepping against the wall to reduce lag while watching a speedrun. Not the best way to spend an evening, but at least this quest is outta here.

"Reduce lag."

I want you all to read those words and then realize this is within the context of EO2, a DS game, we're talking about here. God this game's back end is so bad.

Alright, let's set up camp and we'll take it in turns to guard, like mentioned. Uh, are you really going to stay awake the entire time, Ro?

I'll sleep when I'm dead.

Oho! My kind of gentleman! Good night everyone, have fun you four.

First Night

Meh.

Heh, you'll be a great conversationalist I'm sure.

At least we are getting it the over with.

like i could sleep in this mess

...are you gonna watch us this whole time?

I'll be here and there, don't let me disturb you, had enough of this sharing backstory nonsense last time.

He doesn't seem to like his previous guild that much.

He is having the point, we should be opening each other up.

i'd rather you didn't

Who wants to go first? I love stories! You look like you have a heck of a story to tell!

I do, but no. I... have fears to conquer. But it takes time.

ah your gauntlets, you always look at them with such sadness, and i've seen better explosions from a firecracker

Geh... I suppose I'm not very subtle. But it's true, I don't like using these, though to protect the ones you love, your family, your country, needs must.

Oh you are from the Apen Warrings. Ahhh, one day wars will be foughting over me.

Apen! I knew I recognised your outfit from somewhere! Heh, my older sister loved dressing up in uniform and guarding doors for me.

Ah, yeah, the secret's out... it was one hell of a war, mainly the hell part, but we had to to survive.

again with the hands, though you cover them with gauntlets the blood still remains...

Y-You've killed people too?

That I was not the expecting!

uh, well, yes? in a manner of speaking, you can't save everyone in my profession... especially when they die because your supposed better screwed up during treatment and you couldn't fix their mess in time

That, uh, would make sense, yeah.

ugh... it always feels like i can't rely on anyone else, i've gotta come in and help them... well i guess i don't mind

You do like to order the pack properly. Pretty sure you've snuck in a few corrections to Logan's maps too.

Ahaha! He was most the upsetting when that happened!

i don't like doing it sometimes cause i feel like a right busybody, hopefully you guys can step up to your roles... one person i can think of in particular

...what?! Grr, I'm trying, okay! It's just really hard to work through this trauma.

Of doors.

Yes! Come on, we all have irrational fears, I know it's dumb, but... well my siblings took the wrong approach to helping me prepare for this. I know I'm letting the team down!

Ah, p-please don't be getting the upsetting, we are all here to helping, we work together as one!

yeah i'll moan a bit but it is my job to pick up any slack, i don't want anyone to die

Heh, thanks guys. If I want to have an epic adventure written about myself then I've gotta work on some character growth.

Could be worse, could be scared of cabbage.

GAH! I am not the scared of it! And Holly's waving it in my face is not the proving!

you're just too picky, especially since you don't know what fancy means

Heh, it's nice to have a goal, but it's pretty obvious you don't know what it is.

That it may the be, but I do not care, I will restore my family's good naming no matter what! And if I must leave behinding the cold food and the scratchy blankets that was most of my young then so be it!!!

Oh now it makes sense. As someone who lost everything, I get it. But you shouldn't cling to such outdated ideals.

Hrm, I supposing, but I will not let my ancestors down!

so long as you don't go for our furry friends

You have no way of knowing the hour, save by the sun's light fading and rising. Still, you have little choice but to remain until the next guild arrives to relieve you. You have 2 days remaining.

Good morning, everything work out alright?

From my perspective it looked like a group hug. Not that I wanted one, sniff.

Second Night

We will be on guard, hyah, HYAH!

You'll scare me half to death shouting like that.

And what's wrong with that?

Not everyone wants to die.

Though it is inevitable!

True, it would be very interesting to discover how you two would die.

I don't want to know, I just want my body back to make my own choices!

Hey, I thought we were getting along well enough?

Well you're keeping clothes on at least.

Ugh, I still can't believe you nearly did it in front of everyone in the bar!

I was getting too warm and it was getting in the way, honestly I will never understand what's the big deal, I've never worn clothes, you have your natural fur.

Yours was always much longer. We don't suffer well in these cold climates. A small little girl especially so.

And what's wrong with that?!

Well for one thing they're harder to bite.

Please be careful with how you word things, old man. Otherwise you might actually convince some idiots that you're a creeper rather than a wannabe vampire.

Wannabe vampire???

Oh here we go...

Of course I'm not! Everything about me screams vampire, how could I not be?

Well you lay it on a bit thick, I've read plenty of novels and you seem to hit literally every trope, including the contradictory ones! Well except the sparkling...

Oh yes that old posh, the ancients had very vivid imagination.

Well, uh, I only sparkle when I want to. Do not push me further, or you will pay the price!

Ooh, what, what?

Oh don't encourage him, you're too gulliable.

Says the girl that thought stealing my horns would work!

Pfft! No way!

That would be quite the sight...

W-What?! There's no way I would ever- ah dammit, fine, we all know our minds have merged. Ugh, I wanted to be a pretty antler lady but when he started charging towards me I panicked and said... something, I don't know what, it's hazy for the both of us.

You've turned so red you might burn my skin, ohohoho!

Well I can kinda get it, I've dreamed of all sorts of extra features to make me stronger in battle.

Anything to stop you dying so easily.

Come now, it's only been twice this week.

Three times, you wanted to test your mettle against me and I kicked you so hard you forgot about it.

Ah, it is around the time I should be reminding you not to do that again, kathy's making me.

...ah shit. I really don't remember that. Well no matter, just means I wasn't strong enough! I'll take it better next time!

Oh for- do you actually have a death wish?!

No, I just wanna be the strongest there is. What's wrong with that?

Dying before that.

And what's wrong with that???

Honestly I'll be fine, one day I'll be so strong that I can fulfill my dream and arriving just in the nick of time to save everyone. And I'll be making a badass pose and everyone will hoot and holler and shout "ENTER" over and over. Oh I can't wait!

Riiiiight... well this has been an eye opening experience for everyone but the sun is nearly here, let's get everyone up.

Someone doesn't want to share with the class.

Can never get a read on that guy.

The only indication I've ever gotten of his life is when Hart asked him to count some money, damn deer couldn't wrap his head around it. Juthro went pale and then ran off!

Well now I'm even more interested! Killed a lover for money? Stole from a great king?! Ooh, I'm gonna squeeze it out of him right now! Ah shit he heard me...

You'll never catch me alive!

If you can make it through the day, your quest will be complete. Visions of returning to town and collapsing onto a soft, comfortable bed tempt you. You have 1 day remaining.

How the hell is a bard so slippery?

Huff, huff, oh hey Ro... wanna catch him for me?

No time for that now, on with the quest!

Third Night

Ugh, damn beasts are supposed to be watching but they're just curled up asleep. And you two aren't much better!

But they're so soft and cuddly...

Wake meh up when there's summat tae kill...

Purr...

Zzz...

Siiiiigh. Well if a dark lord shows up you better be ready! We won't be able to see much in this light.

That's fine, yaaaawn, we have some candles in the pac- gah! What was that for???

Woah yeh sliced that candle reet in half!

Hm?

Yeep!

Ah, sorry, sorry, can't help it, it's instinctive at this rate. It's... well, I've hated candles ever since my childhood, I was in my mansion and needed the toilet, but a bat had gotten in through the window. It went to attack me and I smacked it with my father's whip that was hanging nearby. Unfortunately I hit it into a candle and it caught on fire. Scared the shit out of me.

Wow that is... a specific trauma. Well hopefully we don't find any of those, eh? That sounds spooky! Wah!!!

Ah come on it was just meh fingers on yeh neck!

Don't frighten the poor thing, he looks like he had a traumatic enough childhood.

Hehe...

Hmm?

I had nothing of the sort! Don't lump me in with all these crazy people that decided they wanted to benchpress a tree to get over something! I just don't feel the need to put myself at risk, I have my life's work to think about.

Oh right yeh little book of maps and notes, how can yeh properly document somethin' if yeh terrified of it?

You're acting like I'm scared of everything. Well, uh, I'm not afraid of you, all big talk and no brain!

Ooh, look who finally got some baekbone! But I know what yer weak teh. How about, uhhhh, this...?

...why you are pinning him against a tree like that?

W-w-what?! You're so c-close and your ha-hands are-!

What yer so scared of, I'm just strokin' yer face and lookin' in yer pretty little eyes. Aha, yeh-yeh are scared!

Are you sure it's not just him...? Anyway, why are you trying to prove a nerdy cataloguer is nervous around girls? I could've told you that.

I'm n-not!

There yeh are again! Quit lying already and face yer fears! It's the only way ye'll ever get o'er them!

Grr... alright, fine, I'm scared of these large, patrolling dinosaurs and freaky birds and house sized salamanders we're up against, but I'm n-not gonna back down from them cause I want to learn about them. Help this guild out... and-and... gaaaaaah!

Woah!

Ooh a reversal. So, uh, why are you pinning her against a tree? Should I be concerned?

Oi oi!

Growl!

Hey now, this might be important. Go on then, Cube Gel legs... what ya gonna do now?

Ah, wait, I didn't mean for this... but... but you can't talk to me like that when you're lying to everyone! I've seen you in the Grand Duchy plenty of times, and I know someone like you isn't sightseeing! Lumberjack! Hah! You don't know how to use an axe, I've been watching you! Uh, wait, not like that!

Hmm, he makes a fair point. And this is very entertaining, so what now?

Heh... worked somethin' out have yeh? Well if you wanna noo... then yeh'll hafta maek meh, noodle boy!

Gah, stop with the name calling! I'm sick of it!

I will do when yeh stop being them! Pasty face! Knee-knockin' chicken! Yeh couldn't hit the broad side of a barn without yeh goggles!

I think you're going a bit far with this...

You-you... so abrasive... so lacking in tact... but you know, I met a nice girl in the Duchy who gave me some good advice and... and I won't take any more of this, I'm gonna stand up for myself and make you regret ever crossing me you... you loudmouthed, stupid sounding, idiotic... CUNT!

...

A-Ah, no, that was wrong of me, I shouldn't have- mmmmmmph?!

My tent. Five minutes.

Aha!

Hmm!

Wha... what just happened?

Guess she likes it when you stand up for yourself. Also calling her a- uh, best not delve into that. The sun's gonna rise soon, so you better... ah dammit I share a tent with her, you better not mess up my stuff!

Yeah... I'll, uh... yeah...

Purr...

Hehe!

Well that was exhausting... huh, you guys are pretty comfy. Hehe, I'm glad that you two are so friendly, I don't think I could've come around to working with animals if it had been anyone else. ... ... ...wow, Holly is saying "Och!" a lot, but if I can just tune them out then maybe I can just close my eyes... for a few... zzzzzzz.

Ahhhhhh...

Mmmmmm...

Your harsh, three-day ordeal is finally complete! You may return to town or continue exploring. Either way, you have much to be proud of.

Fuck you game!

The feat of wasting a lot of time. A proud accomplishment indeed.

Heuh? Wha? What happened, I was taking a nap.

Nice and simple, just how I like it. Did you all have a good night?

Fook yeah!

It was very fun, right Logan?

Yep. Oh yeah. Sure was. Hoo boy. Wowzers. Yessir.

Rowr!

Gahaha!

It's nights like these when I hate my amazing hearing...

And there we go, thank fuck that's over with, probably one of the worst quests in the series, but with Stalker and running away from everything, it's not as soul draining as the 5 day quest.

You'll be unsurprised to hear that, unlike the EO1 quest showing up in EOU again, this quest is not in EO2U at all.

Gracious, yeh're back! You look sore all over. I told yeh this one would be hell. On the other hand, the Nidhogg Guild is on everyone's lips now. Yeh lot are famous! And of course, there's this other reward on top of that. Take it, and enjoy yer rest!

A nice reward at least, but you can see why I tried to put this off for as long as possible, yeesh. Oh yeah, now we can do the mapping quest or whatever.

Life Belts aren't bad I guess but really not worth the task the quest puts you through.

surprised logan isn't all over this quest, is he unwell

I sense dark forces brewing.

Nah, he just seems... happy.

He... hehe... heeeee.

That quest comes straight from the Grand Duchy. Getting pretty cozy with them, aren't yeh? Haw! Yeh know the Grand Duchy does their share of Labyrinth exploration, right? Well, they want yeh to make a map of floors they haven't gotten around to yet. Personally, I think they should do it themselves, but I s'pose the corps can't hack it. Say... how far have yeh lot made it up by now? Don't tell me yeh've gone that far already!

I am here as Logan's replacement since he can't stop smiling weirdly at Holly, someone who only drew ire from him before. I can only guess what has happened.

Oh they fuckin'.

We in the Grand Duchy take this task very seriously. There aren't many we'd entrust it to. But if it's you... well, I daresay there'll be no problem. Now, to business. Own own maps of the Labyrinth are only complete up to the 6th floor. We've reached the next floor, but the corps are having unexpected difficulties. So we'd like to enlist your help in mapping the 7th and 8th floors of the Labyrinth. Once you finish the map, you are to check in with Cass, the bartender at the Stickleback. It's a great responsibility that we place on yout shoulders.

I hope that will be the last time I have to do that dumb quest. Next time, we'll finish our mission, but I wonder what's occurred these past three days...?

Huff, huff, damn this heat. But we've finally made it...

It's not that warm you big softie.

It is this dishonourable culprit that is causing our leader such distress!

Mmm, the tales that will be told for this feat, let's put our plan into action~

It's here. Salamox. Let's kill it.

I'm going to kill Salamox.

RandomKesaranPasaran · Thu Nov 04, 2021 1:07 am

Poor Loopy.

Crosspeice · Wed Dec 01, 2021 1:58 am

Part 12: Revenge is a dish best served bullshit

Part 12: Revenge is a dish best served bullshit

I am a genius!

Okay, uh, while you do that I'll just back away slowly.

We'll see Poseidons on 10F but because they always go for Charge on the first turn, you have two chances to run away, so them wiping your gathering party is low. If you somehow fail that then yeah you're fucking dead, but such is EO2.

EO2 giveth away, EO2 taketh.

Oh, hey, sauroposeidons. They're trivial to deal with in EO2U, because of blast grenades.

20 Open Caps and 5 Hardwood required for Milk Maul, -3 speed.
5 Red Roots and 1 Green Tail required for Fire Beads.
3 Green Tails and 1 Hardwood required for Flame Leaf - Clothing, DEF+30, TP+10, Ice Resist Up 10% - Pyrexic clothes that guard against the cold.

Pretty tame unlocks from this stratum's Chop points, especially since the Red Pine is for the one quest and that's it. But I'll be a bit cheeky and also unlock all the Mine items as well, even though I usually wait until I finish the floor before I do so, if you noticed. It'll make the next part of this update MUCH MORE INTERESTING!

Why would you want gear for your beast that burns them when enemies are near? The flavor text for equipment is so weird sometimes.

Beast armor tends to have a lot more defense. Except due to Loyalty's mechanics the defense boosts are fucking useless! Basically just pick the thing with the best secondary stats. (Dear god no, it is one game too soon for that fucking bullshit!) If you are ignoring Loyalty, then get the best one you can obviously.

1 Armor Bone and 3 Fluorite required for Godhunter, 120% accuracy, +3 speed.
2 Armor Hull and 1 Red Ball required for Breaker - ATK+65, 120% accuracy, +3 speed - This claw cuts as well as smashes enemies.

Before we see the ridiculous accessories we get from the Mine points, I should highlight these weapons, for the slow and inaccurate Gunner and Beast, these are very nice upgrades, being +24% more accurate and getting the Gunner out of the negatives for speed. Unfortunately you can't keep them for too long, the next +accuracy weapon for Gunner won't be unlocked for 10 more floors, but they come pretty consistent after that, while Beast gets pretty screwed, the next weapon like this for them is postgame. Oof. Still, these are very useful considering the game vaguely tells you about one positive, while never telling you about the other.

I wish I had "accuracy up" guns in EO2U...

Don't you love entirely unexplained mechanics? These ones are smaller fries but there are some boss fights that become infinitely harder if you have no idea how they operate. (Quite a few from EO4 come to mind here.)

1 Fluorite required for Arm Guard - Arm Bind Resist Up 50%
1 Fluorite and 1 Open Cap required for Fungus Jet - Paralysis Resist Up 50% - Made after analysis of paralyzing fungal spores. Required for Smithy Thompson's request I
1 Fluorite and 1 Moving Eye required for Bite Piece - Blind Resist Up 50% - Piece made by hardening a carnivorous plant bulb.
1 Red Ball and 1 Green Hide required for Fire Wall - Fire Resist Up 30% - Lessens the damage taken from fire attacks.
1 Red Ball required for Bash Wall - Bash Resist Up 30% - Dampens the damage taken from strike attacks.
1 Blood Rock required for Life Belt - HP+50 - Assists in circulation of the bodily humors.
1 Fluorite required for Warp Stone - Item, Lv1 Return, warps user to the last Geomagnetic Field - Magnetic rock that takes the user to the last used Field.

Phew, lot of good stuff from one little point, eh? You can look at this list and see some nice resist accessories, see the Warp Stone and laugh, and not even notice the seemingly small boost the Life Belt gives.

OBJECTION! The Life Belt is one of the best defensive items in the game because of how it's better than any piece of armour that reduces incoming enemy damage by less than 50HP and the fact that it's stackable. THREE TIMES! Well stacking twice is usually fine since if you become a brittle sponge it's not that useful, but HP stacking is just a good strategy in this game and is very helpful in certain, cheesy, strategies. Later on we'll get armour that can reduce incoming damage by more than 50, but by then we'll get an upgrade to this item. Everyone will have a Life Belt and having high HP numbers is pretty nice, which also gives the Medic a hidden buff as they can now use their overpowered healing! Now then, onto the reason I unlocked these at this point...

I'd probably debate the usefulness of the HP advice at this point. This isn't EO3-2U. Like sure, one accessory could be useful. But due to EO2's multiplicative damage formula, and defense functioning as a divisor, you will notice the lack of a defense stat very quickly. Wear some armor, but don't go stark naked with a bunch of accessories. +150 HP will not mean much when you are taking like 200 extra damage or so due to a lack of armor. Alternatively, you're about to abuse a rather infamous strat.

In addition to the inherent nerf of being unable to stack accessories in EO2U, life belts ate another severe nerf in that their HP boost was dropped from 50 to 20. In a game where enemies deal much more damage and your characters have much more HP. I imagine it was both a nerf to how strong they were in the original EO2, and also a nerf to how strong equipment HP boosts were in EOU.

You say it's returned?

Yeah we were just behind that up and coming guild but because someone let them go ahead, they got the kill.

They asked nicely! I was not going to say no!

Shouldn't take long anyway, we have bigger fish to fry.

Oh, a river system higher in a tree? It would not surprise me~

I guess I should stick in my lane...

Just before we get to the main reason Edda is back, let's actually fight Chimerea properly since these guys are a few levels higher and can actually dish out damage. Except Gerson, rip.

Nothing about it!

How's your vigour?~

Could be worse, so something to improve!

Nice little comparison as well as showing how Hexer's can contribute pretty easily with Revenge even without damage tiles, but we'll get to the full extent of this in just a moment. After all, Troubs have more than one HP boosting skill, right?

Doof! Tough little thing aren't you?

Aww, those flames looked pretty painful...

Because of how much damage we're doing, like with Poison strats it gets locked into doing Blaze pretty predictably, letting Gerson take the heat!

Well, that's a pain, Bijejefjfd, avenge me, blehhhhh!

On it! Flaming squirrel throw!

A few scrapes and bruises, but nothing much to worry about!

Such interesting adversaries even after all this time~

I was starting to get close to 10k, oh noes, so if I'm gonna get some extra cash, might as well make it interesting!

Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.

Yes, good, let my fallen furry comrades fuel my power!

Note: no squirrels were harmed in the making of this LP, I've been generous to them so far!

The time that we can harm squirrels will come. But that day is not today.

Huff, huff, that is some temperature. You sure about this, Cheese?

Yes, let's kill it.

Well if that's what they want, how can I say no?

It would be a great honour to fight with my friends!

Should I partake in a great tale of heroics and foolishness? You're damn right I will!~

Gahahaha! Alright guys, let's bring home the bacon and take this monstrous lizard down!

Alright ladies and gents, it's time for the big event, where the EO2 LP takes down Salamox when you can first encounter it. As you can see from my stats, I'm doing this at a similar level to the main guild and no fancy equipment, just 150HP more Cheese and something I haven't gone over whatsoever. It's just that easy.

...I've created a monster. What have I done?

Salamox

HP: 4,100
STR: 85
VIT: 80
TEC: 65
AGI: 75
LUC: 55
Level: 65
Exp: 0

Skills
Breath: Uses the Head. Deals Fire damage to the entire party and attempts to inflict Leg Bind. Has a spell power of 75, damage multiplied by 130% and has a 100% base infliction chance. Has a 95% accuracy modifier and a 50% speed modifier.
Tail: Uses the Legs. Deals 250% Bash damage 3-4 times at a 20/80 chance, respectively, randomly to the entire party. Has a 35% accuracy modifier and a 100% speed modifier.
Bloodcry: Uses the Head. Attempts to inflict Curse/Instant Death on the entire party. Has a 50% base infliction chance and a 150% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

100%

0%

150%

75%

Disable Vulnerabilities

20%

10%

20%

0%

25%

0%

Drops
Flame Bone: 85% chance, sells for 6,201en.
1 required for Levantine - Sword, ATK+151, Type: Fire - sells for 155,000en
1 required for Soma III - Medicine, LV1 Salve 3, fully heals the entire party - sells for 20,000en, must be restocked
2 required for Megido Gun - Gun, ATK+189, TP+30, Type: Fire - sells for 278,000en, must be restocked

Conditional: Kill with Fire damage
Flame Puff: 100% chance, sells for 30,000en.
1 required for Agneyastra - Gun, ATK+202, STR+5, Force Gain +5 - sells for 331,000en, must be restocked

Here's the full extent of what we're up against, this is an honest to god postgame superboss, something we should be tackling in Part 42 not Part 12, yet here we are. Let's win in 3 turns.

If ideally pulled off, this enemy should be no threat at all and should be nothing more than a DPS dummy.

Barring really extreme RNG manipulation, I do not know of any way to kill Salamander early in EO2U. I'm sure there's a way, but boy is it probably complicated.

You shall not pass!

This is my ultimate rhythm!

Hey, hey you, come here for a sec, my sword wants a word.

Super Soaker Headbutt Mega Slash!

Hey, wait, why does Crusade's status message mention status ailments? None of its components do that.

Eh, needs more work.

I fight for my friends, face my full power!

Oh damn that is some almighty stuff! Where did you even find that curse?

Maybe I should've worn that crown we got from Etria too~

I've seen my share of cursed items and trust me, it only worked for them due to an overflow glitch.

More... MORE!!!

Not so sure about this, but I'm in this deep, so what if I'm complicit?~

DIIIIIIIIEEEEEE... ... ... uh, woah, that was a real power trip.

I'll say! You absolutely blew me out of the water and for that I will not forgive you, but now I have a new goal and for that I will forgive you.

Yeehaw, what a rush! I don't feel like I gained much from that, but it sure was nice to look at. Let's get home and tell everyone, I wanna do this again sometime!

Ah, postgame superbosses don't give exp. Thanks, game. So what the hell just happened? Well we pulled through due to Revenge being one of the most ridiculous skills in the series and Force skills being some of the most ridiculous skills of the series. Of course I haven't shown off Force skills because you get just a few points for doing certain actions in battle, it's much easier to wait until you get Axcelas and really start having fun. But of course if you want to grind them out beforehand, you're gonna see some crazy shit.

Using Painless, Gerson protected everyone from dying horribly from Breath on the first turn, Simone fully bound Salamox with Dominate and Wagner increased everyone's ATK and DEF, but most importantly HP with Crusade. Doesn't matter what your current HP is, your max gets boosted, which can also be stacked with Stamina to get ridiculous HP pools. Aryll was here for moral support, the 5th slot is flexible, you may want to bring a Gunner to stun the enemy for a turn with Riot Gun, but I was keeping with the OGs for this fight and it worked out fine.

And oh yeah, Revenge, (MaxHP - CurrentHP) * SkillPower, so it scales ridiculously quickly and can cap out at around 2500, which if you notice is 60 fucking % of Salamox's HP. By landing a pretty good hit on the first turn and then a real nuke on the second turn, you can outspeed and KO Salamox easily enough on the 3rd turn since it's very likely to be fully bound on the 2nd turn. I believe I outsped it since it was using Breath, you can always bring a 1st Turn Survivalist to ensure the kill, but I didn't have any issues even with a negative speed modifier on my weapon. I hope I've proven how easy it is to do this strat and why I obviously won't use it with Sophia/Hart that much so that this isn't the dullest LP on the forums. Still, what fun, but it's time to move on. We'll see the Edda guild later on, they'll have some interesting builds to show us, but for now, our 3 days is up.

A safer setup would be waiting to use Dominate on turn 2 since disables can't wear off until 2 turns later after the infliction turn. You'd need another copy of Painless or Riot Gun to pull that off.

Theorycrafting this strategy years ago was pretty interesting. At the time no one pulled it off but knowing how absurd some of EO2's tools back then made it a distinct possibility in my mind. Theorycrafted with some other goons back then, and I finangled a bit and it took a few tries, but a successful kill was eventually had. The main question being answered was really "how can I kill this boss in 3 turns?" Since any longer would be throwing the kill into the whims of RNG.

Though from my experience people love to see the games being dominated more often than not, so no need to worry too much about making things dull, ha ha!

You'll be unsurprised to hear that Revenge Curse's math is significantly different in EOU, and EO2U basically shattered it further by making it heal the party based on the damage it deals.

This is also an extremely good example of why Dominate was turned into an extremely high base chance to inflict the three types of binds in EO2U, instead of a fucking vulnerability-piercing guaranteed infliction what were they thinking. A strat like this would've required extreme RNG manipulation to land an early head bind were it not for Dominate.

Man you should've seen it, I think Cheese gets stronger the more we love and cherish them, how ironic, right?

Well that's lovely, but you seem to be missing a couple things. Did it drop anything we could sell so we don't have to eat Crabapples AGAIN, what about the Fire Plume?!

Oh yeahhhhhh, shiiiit. Well, that's my bad, aren't I a stinker? I love you!

Fuck you!!! I love you too!

1 Flame Bone required for Levantine

I can barely hold what these squirrels pestered me for 3 days about but I wonder how much it'll- HOLY SHIT!

We'll fight Salamox properly in the postgame to get its conditional, we wouldn't use the gun it dropped anyway, but yeah your Gunner becomes insane if you grind for the Agneyastra. You know, not that this game needed to be broken further.

The scary part is that the conditional drop snags you something rather game shattering, even if you wait till post-game to buy it.

Three days of my life I'm never getting back, least we can resume dying to giant lizard.

It would be nice if it was not torching my lovely coat any more.

I'm not gonna die here, I've got so much to live for!

Nice to see getting badonked gave you a purpose in life, a tale as old as me, ohohohoho.

Ehhh...

He seems more exhausted than pained, as if he wants nothing more than to take a rest. Once he realizes you are here, he wearily waves to you and approaches your position.

Good morrow, you look like me after a nap.

Hey... are you the guys the ones the Grand Duchy sent? Thanks heavens... we came to map this place, but the monsters were too much for us. I've got part of it done... hope it helps. Sorry about any mistakes... I was so tired...

The guard pulls a parchment from his bad and hands it to you.

There should be another guard up on the next floor... tell him I've gone back. Good luck.

The guard leaves as unsteadily as he came, heading for the Labyrinth's exit. You stare at the guard's map, unsure whether to trust it or to double-check his work...

Damn this magic parchment fusing these together...

A comparison of what their map would've shown us had we done the 3 day quest earlier, they really like drawing walls around chests, huh?

It's fun to compare how the game automatically fills in your map from game-to-game, you can really feel the individual differences in mapping logic change as the design team is rotated.

Note that the series never ever cares about how you aesthetically do things on the map when it comes to map checks. The minimum it asks for are that walls have walls drawn and the same goes with floors. Checks or doors or other similarly wall-y objects? Game doesn't care how you map, put a wall or don't put a wall, it's up to you.

The one time the series actually penalized for more than that (namely painting in water tiles in a certain title counted as giving those areas floors when they counted as having no floors) got people pissed off, so probably for the best they're pretty lenient with map checks otherwise!

His triple flip dodges are so unnecessarily... how are you up, dog?

I should be getting some doggy statues for my mansion.

There are some blank spots... but these areas are currently inaccessible, so no harm done. You painstakingly create a copy of your current efforts, in case the original should be marred. The Grand Duchy should be able to conduct safer explorations with the map you have made. After you finish copying out your work, you place it in your bag and decide to move on. To complete this quest, you will need to map both floors. Only then can you report back. If you have not yet mapped both floors, you must carry onward and complete your map.

Not too bad finishing 7F but we can't finish the quest with the amount of 8F we have available right now, so it's back to dying to Salamox!

Your search comes up empty. The plume is somewhere else.

This is eerie, we weren't gone for that long, but did someone slay that terrifying monster? That would make them just as terrifying!

I think we should count our blessings, but who knows when it'll come back!

Hmm...

I've heard these big monsters keep coming back, it's positively sacrilege, ohohoho!

Only you would liking that thought...

Ahah here it- gah, fuck, that's hot!

Duh!

This game isn't that mean enough to make you warp out or fight Salamox, there's a one way shortcut outta here.

...That's more consideration than I'd have expected from an early EO game.

Looking around, the small, open area seems to be completely barren, even of shrubbery... Yet even here, something seems familiar near the tree growing in the clearing's center. An unmoving arm... splayed legs... in the Labyrinth's context, it makes a grim scene. You take his pulse and confirm that he is gone from this world. His armor marks him as a guard.

Much too late to do anything for him, a shame.

It is a sight you never get- wait, are those... watch out everyone!

Glancing up at the tree, you suddenly notice an unmistakable set of claw marks. By the time you realize something is here and stand to face it, it is too late! There is a thud from behind you as a giant monster leaps from the tree! The monster has honed its claws and teeth on the tree... you have no choice but to fight!

This place is weird, why were deer hiding in a tree?

Less asking, more the killing!

Actaeon

HP: 213
STR: 26
VIT: 20
TEC: 14
AGI: 17
LUC: 19
Level: 25
Exp: 1,062

Skills
Deathorn: Uses the Head. Deals 150% Stab damage to a single target. Has an 85% accuracy modifier and a 100% speed modifier.
Neigh: Uses the Head. Attempts to inflict Fear on a single target. Has an 80% base infliction chance and a 100% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

100%

150%

100%

100%

Disable Vulnerabilities

100%

100%

Drops
Steel Horn: 35% chance, sells for 49en.
1 required for Vine Bow - Bow, ATK+59 - sells for 1,130en
1 required for Horn Plate - Light Armor, DEF+33, VIT+2, Volt Resist Up 10% - sells for 1,670en
1 required for Charm Gas - Item, LV5 Provoke, increases the user's physical defense by 12% and provoke rate by 70% - sells for 700en
10 required for Ice Musket - Gun, ATK+68, STR+2, Type: Ice - sells for 1,610en

Conditional: None

Claws and teeth, huh game? We'll see these deer next floor so here's a little taster. I forgot they had an actual damaging attack cause they usually died before they could go for it, they only have a chance to use Deathorn if they don't use Neigh, with the chance increasing the less health they have. But, uh, they're not particularly tanky and not that common either. Looks cool though!

I think events like this make it clear that they come up with the event text before assigning an encounter to them, because this is far from the first mismatch of the series like that. Actaeons can kinda hit a bit hard if you let them but they're pretty unnotable otherwise. The fear can be annoying to deal with though.

Gaaaah, why are these deer shooting bats from their mouths that also shoot bats from their mouths???

...eh?

You can trust his map and continue exploring, or retrace the guard's steps.

Eh, I'll allow it.

Aside from putting a wall before a chest again, this map seems harmless but we'll see how reliable it is when we get to that point. Anyway feels like we've been on 8F for about three days, so let's finally move on, eh?

A note informs you that the Grand Duchy has temporarily closed the way ahead. It seems there is a task yet to be completed for the Grand Duchy before you may proceed.

We could be rounding this single rope.

Unfortunately we have a narc in the party.

Damn right.

Ugh!

Guess we'll hand this back first, it is starting to burn a hole in the bag.

Simply amazing work. I've half a mind to ask you to train our own guard corps! I assume you were able to avoid contact with the Salamox? There's no shame in fleeing from it.

Cough cough cough.

Take your time, build your strength, and challenge it when you have more experience. It's more than enough for our purposes that you were able to bring back the plume! As a reward for your excellent service to the Grand Duchy. I present you with this.

Wow, I... totally needed that.

The game raelly does not expect you to pull off something rather nuts like that so there's no acknowledgement at all, sadly. In EO3 and 4 they do acknowledge such feats, but that's namely because they have a New Gam Plus feature and this game doesn't, so those cases are more easily accounted for. Though EOU onwards sadly went back to not acknowleding early kills of strong plot enemies.

7 Green Hides and 3 Red Balls required for Zanmatou.

5 Ruby Shards and 5 Red Roots required for Snake Whip.

Just before we finally moved on to a new floor, I did want to confirm that you couldn't finish the mapping quest with just this section on 8F so I stepped on most tiles and gained a couple levels, might as well be a little prepared for the next boss. And yeah, nothing, so on we go!

And back we go because we reached a new floor! It's so stupid whenever they do this, game development man.

Some of the pacing really could afford to be better because it's annoying to basically rush through an already explored floor and have to go back immediately. It's one thing where an odd playstyle just naturally leads to that happening, but EO2 is not really a game where they figured out proper roadblock pacing and it gets really annoying!

The one I was talking about the other day? Nasty thing, breathes fire? Ring any bells? I know yeh've seen it! Yeh think its tail grows back after it's cut, like a regular lizard? I made a bet with one of the patrons, yeh see... if it does, I win! C'mon, yeh can tell me... the tail grew back, right? Spill it! Haw haw haw!

So aggressive, but I'll admit to being curious myself.

Heh, we'll find out eventually, but wonder who killed it. Maybe the recently cheerful Protector I see in here a lot would know.

Ooh, what does the furry guy want?

I don't think you should get so associated with that guy.

Ahhh, that one, eh? It's from that odd duck of a nobleman... remember him? Lord Gascoyne, him who was so keen on that animal hide. His wound's all closed up, but as soon as he went back to the Labyrinth, he got a real scare. Looks like the monsters from the higher floors are heading below to the lower ones. He 'spects if they're heading downward, eventually they might reach the town. He's asked the Grand Duchy for help, but yeh know the guard corps... he needs yeh lot! So yer job is to stop those monsters from getting any closer to good ol' Lagaard. Right now, they're s'posed to be around the 10th floor. Go and show them what's what!

10F, got it! Bit early for this quest, but it helps to be preemptive with this stuff.

The quest distribution also needed more work at this time.

More for me?

Heh, you love it really.

Ohhh... right, that quest. Haw! It must be tough to be so famous, eh? It's another one from that old bat of an innkeeper. They're looking to remodel the Flaus Inn, and they need some building materials. Yeh can hear the rest of the story at the inn. G'luck!

Ah yes, kathy posted this earlier before crashing to sleep. Wonder what they've been up to.

She won't tell me!

Ahh, yeh're here. This request was addressed to yeh from the start. Who's it from? Oh, right... the doctor at the hospital. He said something about not being able to make it, so he'll send someone else in this place. Oh, right... he left a note. It asks yeh to go to central Lagaard at the time specified here. The note reads "Meet at 8 PM in the central city."

Massive blocks is my speciality!

Kicking them is mine.

Not with these legs!!!

Cass probably told you most of it, but basically, we're planning to renovate the inn. I know the Labyrinth has some good stuff, so I thought we might use that... listen carefully, because here's the list of what we're looking for. 3 Red Roots and 2 Hardwoods. Got that? I think you can get them all on the 10th floor. No problem for you, right? When you have all of them, just bring them to the bar and the carpenters will collect them. Now then, off with you!

Again with 10F, like yeah we technically can, but we can just get those from the 7F point as well.

ah no, that's my bedhead, and those two usually look that filthy

Hey didn't you go to bed like 3 hours ago?

more than enough, i'm busy

Well, okay, but we'll take that bath! I'm sick of him making me sleep outside!

You sure get a kick out of exploring. That kind of life isn't for me, but... is it really even for you? Every time I see you you're all scratched and bruised up! That's fine for men, but I don't know if that's any way for a lady to behave! Someone with all those scars would have a hard time finding a husband!

Ah... extremely old fashioned dialogue. And no, the game doesn't check for your portraits' genders nor any other properties of them. She says this regardless of your party makeup. Which has a ton of other issues I refuse to speak on. For the best, later town dialogue tended to be more entity neutral when bringing your party into the subject.

Sigh.

EO2U reworded the final lines, if you're curious. I don't know if the actual Japanese lines are different, but at the very least, Atlus USA realized that's kind of a shitty thing for an ostensibly friendly town NPC to say.

Every time I see you, you're all scratched and bruised up! You're going to get scars like that, you know. I'm sure you boys don't mind, but you girls need to watch out! I don't know much about explorers, but I do know that people look at a girl's battle scars differently than a boy's!

Still kind of a dumb sexist sentiment, but it's...less bad.

Always sound so disappointed.

we both are, you're always in here

How is your journey going? You've been in the second Stratum for a while... oh, you're up to the 9th floor? I must say, I'm surprised. Always be on your guard, though. The Labyrinth is filled with danger. Don't neglect your health.

Oh, my dad wanted me to tell you something... hee hee... he said he feels more energetic when he knows he's making things for you! He's always asking my opinion to make sure he makes it perfect, just for you! You're always in my prayers. Don't overdo it, and good luck in the Labyrinth!

How sweet, so long as you keep my whips in check, I'm a happy customer! How about you?

Uh, well, it's nice he put custom dampeners on my gauntlets...

You're staying at the Flaus Inn, aren't you? Have you met the owner's daughter? She's a pretty one... weak, though. If you should meet her, be kind to her. That's all the advice I have for you. Never underestimate the Labyrinth.

Yaha!

Purr...

She seems pretty lonely with just her Beasts to talk to. Well like I stay for long...

Yeah, uh, do you know much about love-

Ah, but you know so much more about the Labyrinth than myself. I doubt I could tell you much. All I can suggest is not to overstrain yourselves in trying to find the floating castle. That's all for now. Good luck, explorers.

Tenth floor, right. But hey, means we get to slay them instead!

Hmhm!

You gulp, remembering the quest you accepted at the bar. Those monsters are heading for the Labyrinth entrance, and you must stop them. The client believed they were still on a higher floor, but they must be on their way down! Their descent through the Labyrinth will lead them inexorably to Lagaard! There isn't a moment to waste. Ready your weapons and defeat them at once!

Three quest FOEs, so this probably won't be too bad. Let's see what they are.

I am not with the best energy for this!

Hmm, I think if we go here then we should be able to funnel them through and wear them down...

Spectre

HP: 702
STR: 29
VIT: 23
TEC: 15
AGI: 19
LUC: 20
Level: 28
Exp: 0

Skills
Breath: Uses the Head. Attempts to inflict Petrify on a single target. Has an 80% base infliction chance and a 125% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

75%

0%

125%

Disable Vulnerabilities

100%

0%

100%

0%

100%

0%

100%

0%

Drops
None

Conditional: None

Pretty great Bond film, haha. Quest versions of Mystues, so they can be a pain if you, say, have one source of elemental damage, but so long as you don't get caught out by the quest's weird wording and bring lots of Therica Bs, you'll be just fine. We'll be here for a little bit.

I've never seen any James Bond movie.

Because these FOEs are of the gargoyle archetype, they are the only FOEs in the entire game immune to instant death. Everything else? You can use Climax on them. Nothing else interesting to say other than it's a beefed up Mystue. Deal with this as you would do those.

You fail the quest if they reach the stairs, so stand here and you can take them on one by one, they thankfully don't join in. See, this game is nice when it can be.

A bunch of tower defense FOE style quests can be cheesed with this method. Park your butt on the critical path and wait for them to come to you. Simple as that.

Phew, I need a ten thousand year nap after that!

Paper Alastor: The ~~Ten~~ Thousand-Year Nap.

The N64 Paper Mario is a better game, by the way.

In the absence of the intruders, a welcome silence can be felt throughout the floor. Through your quick work, you have prevented the encroaching threat from reaching Lagaard! You may report back to the bar at any time.

Gah, where did she come from?!

Eep!

I'm one of his assistants. He asked me to help you out on this quest. You are the ones who documented Grey Bark Disease, aren't you? Oh sorry... it's the name of the malady affecting the trees withering in the Labyrinth. We reported your findings to the Northern Academy. Unfortunately, they refused to accept our research, even with plenty of documentation. They told us "further study is needed"... but if we wait, the disease will spread! We'll have to go into the Labyrinth and pinpoint the reasons for this phenomenon. If possible, we need to take a sample to convince those hard-headed doctors. We're headed to the south of the 9th floor. It's spreading there... we might find a clue. I'll be tagging along, so lead the way into the Labyrinth!

Uh, right well, we have a couple things to do but the next party will be happy to take you on. Probably.

It's best to trigger the 8PM introduction of Angie before you forget cause you can do whatever the hell you want and you'll forget she's there until you reach that specific point of 9F. I know I did!

The real annoying "come to a location at this time" quests are the ones that are massively far off from an inn sleep or nap. Fortunately there aren't too many of those in this series but the ones that exist just add on some needless annoyance.

Heh, you look exhausted.

So many statues...

That good-for-nothing guard corps is worse than useless... I ask yeh, why does the Grand Duchy even keep them around if they can't protect the city? Still, thanks to yeh, our town is safe. And the Grand Duchy trusts me even more! Haw! Well, here's yer reward! Come by and have a drink sometime, why don't yeh?

Alright, with all that done, are we finally ready to explore 9F with a new team of 5?

Uh, no, cause there's this event I forgot! The Gamefaqs maps are 13 years old and not perfect, but they're useful enough that I don't mind, but I won't be blindly following them as much!

Rule of thumb is to just check every dead end and corner. Though now that I've got access to event scripts, we could theoretically know exactly where all the events of a floor are. In EO3 and beyond. EO1 and 2 use a different format and their scripting is different so I don't know all of this game's events.

EO2 is definitely the most neglected of the EO games, so I can't say I'm surprised the old resources aren't the best. Still, that's kind of disappointing.

It seems ancient... vines are choking the thick trunk and a scarlet veil is drawn over it. As you follow the path of the twisting vines, you spy a large, violet fruit. The fruit seems ripe... if you step forward, you might be able to reach it. It's awfully tempting... so much so that you wonder if you should leave it alone.

Well I am the tallest...

I don't recognise the fruit, so uh, good luck.

Sonia, at the front of the party, walks forward and reaches for the fruit. It's large and plump in Sonia's hand, and seems to be very juicy. Sonia cleans the fruit with a bit of cloth and bites into its soft skin! The taste... it's incredibly bitter! Rather than spit it out, Sonia forces the bitter fruit down. Judging by the reaction, you make a mental note not to try the fruit for yourself. But you hadn't realized that it's commonly used in medicine! Sonia regains health!

Ugh, and here I thought it was a blueberry.

Ooh, would like to be trying whatever that is.

Neat, could be helpful when first exploring the floor, if the first party slot needs it of course.

Some of the AOE healing events in later games can be a bit too overly helpful, but at least they're a lot more useful than "only 1 party member benefits" which in practice tends to not do all that much.

Knock knock.

Who's there?

It's me, with the required materials!

...I guess this is just who I am now.

Enjoy yourself out there?

Uh, sure, here you go.

I have no idea how you even carry that stuff through the Labyrinth, most impressive!

Ah, welcome back! Holy... did yeh really carry all those materials from the Labyrinth? Damn, I'm impressed at yer strength! All right, let's see here... everything seems to be in order. Leave it to me! Here's yer reward! Use it wisely!

Ugh, thanks for the money I guess? Okay, with all that done now are we ready for 9F? Indeed we are. Next time!

Crosspeice · Wed Dec 01, 2021 2:10 am

Alchemist Overview

Alchemist

Can equip: Staves, Clothing

The cool mcfuckers are back, Alchemists were pretty okay last game, due to being the only class that could really make use of elemental damage, especially in the early game. They fell off towards the end, but using a unit's TEC stat for once made them fun to use. Elemental damage is more accessible on some other, even unexpected, classes in this game, but Alchemists have some fun tools like Megido and Analysis, as well as the physical spells. Their main issue is their TP sinking skills, which makes them very costly on the same party as a Medic, as well as their mediocre damage output, not helped by their damage formula, so they need quite a few buffs to compensate. Oh yeah, and the Gunner is a better class in pretty much every way while also having other utility, since the Alchemist does one thing kinda well and that's about it. They're still a fine class to use, but they're also not very exciting and have difficulty keeping up late game due to various factors.

Alchemists were a pretty decent class in the first game, a hard hitting mage archetype that could dish out the pain easily, only dropping down to fairly average by the post-game. Of course because this was a class people actually used, Atlus saw fit to hammer them with the nerf bat. The nerfs are... weird, to say the least. The magic damage formula got a complete rework for the bizarre in this game. In all other Etrian Odyssey games, spells functioned like physical skills, with increasing damage multipliers for each level like you've seen in the previous class writeups. That is absolutely not how magic functions at all in EO2.

Instead, to put it crudely, spells are essentially "weapons" in this game, with leveling up the spell giving you a better "spell attack power" in place of weapon attack power on actual weapons as you've seen in the damage formula previously. This ends up creating an incredibly bizarre power curve for the Alchemist, as leveling up the spells enough essentially gave them a powerful weapon that greatly outpaced the current point of the game they were in, destroying pretty much everything in sight. Up to a certain point anyways.

How Atlus tried to disincentivize this is by making it so that the TP costs of their spells at high levels are ridiculously expensive! Using high level spells meant that while the Alchemist could hit really hard, they would heavily deplete their TP pool in the process so they could only be used a few times at most. This created what is essentially a clunky class to use. Leave their spells at a low level so you can use them more often, but due to the magic formula rework they'll stop doing damage past a certain point due to being far too weak. Or level up the spells so they can heavily contribute, but develop a horrific addiction to Amritas in the process to stave off their TP woes. If you intend on tackling the post-game though, this is a far different story. Alchemist becomes one of the worst classes in the game at that point due to various factors I'll elaborate on in a bit. Hopefully they were able to carry the other 4 party members and give them enough space for them to take control in the post-game.

This looks familiar, their stats haven't changed too much, even with the 70 cap. Their TP is slightly boosted, though it doesn't completely compensate their increased spell cost, their STR and VIT took a slight hit, as expected, but it shouldn't make them too fragile. Right? AGI and LUC are mostly the same, while TEC got a nice little boost. While it would be fun to nearly naturally hit 99 with level 99, there's plenty of TEC boosting equipment that it's not going to be an issue. Overall, what worked last game works here.

TEC is the Alchemist's version of the STR stat, so level up TEC to increase the Alchemist's damage output. Due to their aforementioned TP woes, leveling up their TP pool is an absolute must! Yes their base TP pool may look high, but trust me when I say it's not really enough to make up for their skills' costs. They're that expensive! STR is absolutely useless for them since they are not muscle wizards, but are needed to unlock certain skills. Which suck so they're not a great investment. AGI isn't that important for them, as AGI is not used in the accuracy formula for TEC-based attacks, as TEC also doubles as an accuracy stat there. Not to mention because they're forced to use Staves, their speed hits rock bottom anyways. LUC is also fairly irrelevant for them since they can't inflict anything, and it's already decently high. HP is basically take it or leave it, but Alchemists are squishy even with the HP increase.

However there is one thing we need to be upfront about: the new magic formula. It wasn't too crazy last game, where part of the formula could be ignored due to how little difference "Damage Boost" had, but this time, it's, well:

((SpellPower + 20) * (aTEC + 20) * (aTEC + (SpellPower / 2))) / ((dVIT or (Armour / 3) + 20) * ((((dTEC * 3 / 2) + (aVIT / 2)) / 2) + 20)) * 17 / 10 * Passive Boosts * Resistance / 2.

Yeah. It's a big of a bugger so it might not be completely correct, but it's simple enough once you plug the numbers in. I won't go over all of it, but there are a couple big things to note. Firstly, ignoring everything else, there is a literal /2 at the end. This is why magic doesn't scale too well past the early game. It would be ridiculous at the start of the game if it wasn't halved in damage due to how low enemy's TEC often is, but it also makes it pretty mediocre towards the end of the game when the enemies get stronger to compensate. It's not a dealbreaker, but it is a pain in the arse.

Second, there's of course a bug, there usually is, since one of the factors is YOUR OWN VIT!!! Why that should be a factor in a magic formula is beyond me and it's a pain due to how low the Alchemist's VIT will always be, as well as other classes that usually use elemental damage. Again, it's not a massive deal, it's one factor, but it's another reduction in damage that this class didn't really need. So you need to stack various passives and other buffs to make the damage even remotely competitive. Alchemists will be just fine, but man they could be so much better if they had a formula worth a damn.

Yeah so uh, magic in general in this game sucks all around. Not just Alchemists, enemy spells too suck thanks to this formula. Every bit of magic gets halved due to poor balancing foresight, allowing you to facetank several attacks that would have been complete party wipes in another Etrian Odyssey game. Yes, even that elemental trio of attacks in the post-game for you veterans. Also the VIT bug applies to enemies as well, meaning that their damage gets further reduced because the stronger the enemy is, the higher their VIT is. Meaning that they're mostly punching themselves in the face to damage you, and it's not very effective cause their skin is so thick. Yeah already you can see a huge mess and we're only just getting started.

The last kicker is that when Alchemists hit the post-game, their damage will drop down to Landsknecht and Survivalist tiers of awful thanks to this formula! And they end up being far worse since you won't be able to use their skills as often, while Landsknechts and Survivalists can at least go on for longer before they're forced to chug down an Amrita.

Common Passive Unlocks

TP Up: Lv5: Analysis
STR Up: Lv3: Phys Up
TEC Up: Lv5: Analysis; Lv 10: Megido

More standard stuff, and ones you'd probably invest in anyway, so it works out. Well, except for STR Up of course, you don't need to invest in Phys Up, uh, past level 1 due to how thoroughly awful mastery passives are in this game, and the physical spells are also not particularly exciting. You'll fully invest in TEC and TP anyway and Megido is a pretty good nuke that trades weaknesses for more damage. And Analysis is one of the best passives in the game. So, you know.

Fire/Ice/Volt Up
Fire Up Unlocks: Lv1: Fire; Lv5: Flame, Inferno
Ice Up Unlocks: Lv1: Ice; Lv5: Freeze, Cocytus
Volt Up Unlocks: Lv1: Volt; Lv5: Thunder, Thor
Increases Fire/Ice/Volt damage. Passive.

Well. Here it is. Alchemists are ruthlessly simple and this is one of the main reasons, their passives are pretty pathetic, but it also means you don't need to go past level 5, the increase in damage is negligible and you don't unlock anything else, so these are, yet again, trap skills. I don't think there's much preference on elements, Ice isn't used too much and Fire is pretty taken if you're also using a Ronin, but it's not a big deal, and there's plenty of SP to go around, so go directly to 5.

Unlike in the first game, these passives actually work like you think instead of literally only adding 3 points of damage at max level so they're safe to take this time. However like all other mastery skills, maxing them out unless you have nothing left isn't a good idea due to the miniscule gains.

As for which elements to take, veterans of the series may think you'd invest in all 3 at some point to give them good coverage. That's absolutely not the case in EO2, tribridding is simply not practical in this entry. Instead the elements you mainly want to focus on are Fire and Volt, as Ice is a terrible element past the earlygame. Maybe invest in the tier 1 Ice spell if you're not confident your team can get past the first two Stratum bosses easily, but past that point Ice should never see any use. Fire and Volt cover each other really easily in a lot of cases, and in the times they don't, there's another skill you can use in their place.

Phys Up
Prerequisites: STR Up Lv3
Unlocks: Lv1: Blades/Gravity/Piercing
Increases Blades/Gravity/Piercing damage. Passive.

...okay. The physical spells are a bit weird in this game, they just kinda exist since there's only the AOE spell and it doesn't do a great amount of damage due to the lack of physical weaknesses compared to elemental ones, but we'll get to that in a moment. For this skill, thankfully you only need to put one level into it because fuck me what is the point going further. It's also pretty weird since it boosts the physical spells, not the Alchemist's physical damage, not that it would change much. The STR Up investment prior to this seems completely superfluous and it's just annoying having to waste SP like this to get to something slightly different. Anyway, due to how boring the execution is, you wonder why they bothered.

Extremely questionable unless you're doing a challenge run with 5 Alchemists or a solo Alchemist or something. Chances are you took an Alchemist so you'd have elementals on your side, as several other classes already have the physical damage front covered.

Something interesting to note is that unlike in the first game, all of the Alchemist's spells benefit from attack buffs now. This is because in the first game, said buffs only increased the ATK stat which has no effect on spells, while in 2 they got changed to increase all outgoing damage period. This makes Troubadours and War Magi very good classes to pair up with the Alchemist. Defense buffs and debuffs on the other hand are a little different and I'll go into that in a bit.

Analysis
Prerequisites: TP Up Lv5, TEC Up Lv5
Unlocks: Megido: Lv5
Increases damage of spells when they hit a resistance of 110% or higher. Passive.

For passives, this is one of the best. Here's a bunch of free damage on top of the free damage you were doing anyway. There's a lot of elemental weaknesses and this is a way to keep somewhat on top of damage throughout the game, and you can use a Hexer to forcefully create weaknesses, bonus! This is why the physical spells aren't that great, among other things, as they don't take advantage of this as much as they'd like, but the elementals absolutely love this skill. Once you get your standard spells, beeline for this, it makes so much difference. Unlocking Megido at max level is a pretty great incentive, even if it doesn't make use of this skill at all, but oh no what a shame.

Analysis is a super good passive as it's a free massive damage boost. It turns 125% damage multipliers into 193.75% damage multipliers, 150% into 232.5% and 200% damage multipliers into 310% damage multipliers! Considering how expensive Alchemist spells can get, you'll want every single free damage boost you can get! Get this as soon as you can.

The best part is that you can actually end up creating weaknesses to exploit in this game. Defense buffs and debuffs got a huge change going into EO2. In the first game they manipulated the DEF stat (and had a ridiculously tiny effect due to DEF having a miniscule impact in the damage formula) but here those modifiers are applied directly to the target's damage multipliers making them far more effective. And you can use the Hexer's Frailty skill to create weaknesses for the Alchemist to exploit. Though keep in mind while defense debuffs can help trigger Analysis, attack buffs cannot.

Something kind of bizarre is that when you trigger Analysis, the game notifies you with "Critical Hit!" even though skills can't crit. That's an odd localization mistake, as the Japanese version properly displays that as "You struck the enemy's weakness!"

Fire/Ice/Volt
Prerequisites: Fire/Volt/Ice Up Lv1
Fire Unlocks: Lv5: Flame, Inferno
Ice Unlocks: Lv5: Freeze, Cocytus
Volt Unlocks: Lv5: Thunder, Thor
Deals Fire/Ice/Volt damage to a single target. Spell skill, uses the Head.

Here's the first tier. That is definitely first tier-y. Already the first level costs more TP than the skill did in its entirety last game and it then balloons into ridiculousness at max level, but of course you don't need to, since the next tier skills transition very nicely from a level 5 tier 1 skill. How considerate. Like the passives, going past level 5 in these skills aren't a great idea and these can still be perfectly fine single target damage on the cheap when you don't need to go all out to save TP. Otherwise, uh, yeah, that's it bye.

Your tier 1 spells. Pretty much useful for 2 things. Use them in the earlygame so your Alchemist isn't just smacking things with a stick. Or if you just can't use a tier 2 or 3 spell at the moment due to high TP costs. Invest in Fire or Volt, order doesn't really matter. Though more things in Stratum 1 are weak to Fire. Invest a bit in Ice I guess if you're that scared of the 1st or 2nd Stratum bosses. Still, going from a 6 TP cost at max level to 26 TP is just ouch.

Flame/Freeze/Thunder
Flame Prerequisites: Fire Up Lv5, Fire Lv5
Freeze Prerequisites: Ice Up Lv5, Ice Lv5
Thunder Prerequisites: Volt Up Lv5, Volt Lv5
Deals Fire/Ice/Volt damage to a single target. Spell skill, uses the Head.

Here's the second tier and- hey, wait a minute these are just slower tier 1 skills! Well, yes, the numbers are pretty much the same, which is why they're not fantastic skills, but a 1.5x multiplier is applied to the base damage, so that makes them pretty okay I guess. They get pretty expensive, but they scale pretty well, so you need to max them to squeeze as much damage from this class as you can. Feel free to run the numbers yourself to see what the final result will be, you have all the factors, this is as good as the elemental skills get. Though for pure damage... we could go bigger.

The Alchemist's main damage skills. Level up Flame or Thunder how you see fit, though mind the TP costs. Later in the game they're basically not worth using if you can't trigger Analysis at all, as you'll end up dealing no damage. It's not super vital to have Flame maxed out, though you might want to have Thunder maxed out by the end of the 3rd Stratum, as the boss there is an infamous brick wall.

Inferno/Cocytus/Thor
Inferno Prerequisites: Fire Up Lv5, Fire Lv5
Cocytus Prerequisites: Ice Up Lv5, Ice Lv5
Thor Prerequisites: Volt Up Lv5, Volt Lv5
Deals Fire/Ice/Volt damage to all enemies. Spell skill, uses the Head.

Once you got late enough in the first game, Thor was the skill to spam all the time, since most enemies didn't resist Volt and it was pretty cheap and easy damage to get you out of various pickles. Boy is that not the case in this game, 52 TP!!! What the fuck. It's a rough recommendation to max these skills, but they're not that great if you don't. They don't have the damage multiplier of the previous skill, even 1.2x would've been something, but nope, at their best, they're level 9 tier 1 skills that you need to use on 3 enemies at once to save on TP, which is pretty sad, let's be honest. They're still useful, especially as 4-5 enemy groups start showing up, but these are not skills you can spam without a crippling Amrita addiction. Say no to TP dependency, kids!

Your... encounter clearers, I guess. Boss fights are significantly shorter than a single exploration session, so you won't have to use as many Amritas to get through one of those. Meanwhile you can get into a ton of battles in a single exploration session, and too many usages of the level 5 spell will constantly have your Alchemist zero out their TP pool! Better bring a lot of Amritas, if you're willing to use these liberally!

Inferno is the skill you'll want to "spam" as a lot of enemies in the Labyrinth are extremely inflammable. Thor can be a good secondary if you run into a lot of fire-proof enemies. Assuming you're willing to front the expensive TP costs, cause boy your Alchemist will be run dry with these skills! And you can't leave them at a low level forever as they'll stop dealing any bit of meaningful damage whatsoever the later on in the game it is.

Blades/Gravity/Piercing
Prerequisites: Phys Up Lv1
Deals TEC based Cut/Bash/Stab damage to all enemies. Spell skill, uses the Head.

So everything I just said about the AOE elemental skills? Applies to these and then some. At least the elemental skills will usually hit a weakness and get more bang for your buck, something the physical elements will often struggle with. They're on similar damage output, since the passives behind them are barely any different so there's not really much reason to use these skills over the other elementals. If these had single target hitters then maybe they could see use on occasion, but when are you gonna face 3+ enemies with the same physical weakness that also isn't covered by another party member? In some cases, NEVER! Because we have all the data at our fingertips, we can see that there are TWO enemies weak to Bash and ZERO enemies weak to Cut. Christ what a waste of time, only Piercing will see any actual use and even then it's very niche. It's an interesting idea, but a poor execution. Also still a TP black hole, christ.

Absolutely not worth it. They're not even good as secondary AOE skills as Inferno already roasts a lot of enemies in the Labyrinth and the Alchemist has a much better alternative attacking option if their elements don't cut it.

Megido
Prerequisites: TEC Up Lv10, Analysis Lv5
Deals untyped damage to a single target. Spell skill, uses the Head.

Here's the big skill to use when there's no weaknesses to exploit and no Dampen allowed so the game has some semblance of difficulty. Megido is the most expensive skill in the game, as well as being much stronger than the strongest elemental spell, so it's great to use on enemies with no weakness. However, of course it's a ridiculous TP sink so you can't spam it, it's 20TP more than the tier 2 spells for god's sake. It also does less damage than the same spells with max Analysis, so there's no point using it then. Also Dampen is just so good and if you have no qualms about using it, then this skill is much harder to recommend. Still, when you wanna nuke, you gotta nuke.

Megido is basically their big damage skill to use if using a tier 2 spell is a bad idea. Unfortunately as it's Untyped, it bypasses the damage multiplier check entirely, which includes positive multipliers, meaning it can never exploit weaknesses. So the likes of Frailty does absolutely nothing for it. Fortunately attack buffs still boost this skill, so it's not all bad. And this skill basically covers all the remaining situations that roasting or zapping an enemy can't cover. However it's pretty expensive, so be prepared for your Alchemist to develop a severe sugar addiction if they max out this skill.

And now that we've seen this skill, here are the basics of how to Alchemist. Assuming all your tier 2 spells and Megido are at the same level anyways and you have Analysis on your Alchemist. Does the enemy take 150% or more damage from your chosen element? Use the tier 2 spell. Does the enemy take 125% or more damage and are under the effects of Frailty as well? Use the tier 2 spell. In all other cases, use Megido instead.

Return
Returns, heh, the party to the last used Geomagnetic Field. Does not work for Geomagnetic Poles or the labyrinth's entrance. Field Skill.

WARRRRRRRRP STOOOOOONE!!! That's about it, why the fuck is it 30TP??? This is useful if you forgot both your Warp Wire or your Warp Stone. ...why did you forget both? Even still, this has weird limits on it, even if you'll use Fields for a good portion of the game, but why doesn't it work on Poles anyway? You can put a point into it for emergencies, but this game makes you quickly realise having 2 Warp Wires is a pretty good idea.

The extra restrictions added into this game make it an even more questionable investment in this game compared to the first one, and it's literally useless in the first Stratum. And as the game teaches you, you should be packing multiple Warp Wires at once if you can. I'd probably avoid this altogether, as even in a vacuum, this is a very questionable safety net.

Eschaton
Deals untyped damage to all enemies. Force skill, uses the Head.

And we end with a big bang, kind of attack. Eschaton does a lot of damage and is quite a good emergency button, but also isn't very exciting, like the entire class. It's slightly stronger than Megido, but also has the damage multiplier despite being AOE, so it can be used generally if you happen to build up the requisite Force. That's about it.

It's Megido, but stronger, faster, and more accurate, on top of being AOE as well. Not much to say about it. Use it whenever it's up. Though you can grind up Force super early in the game to cheese a bunch of things that shouldn't be easily possible to take on at that point, such as FOEs. And for more cheese, the first Stratum boss can be one shot by this if the Alchemist's TEC stat is high enough, and they have a damage buff from the Troubadour and/or War Magus. A neat little trick to know if you're willing to Force grind. However due to how magic works in this game, don't expect this to hold up for the rest of the game.

Because yeah, Alchemists are so, so simple compared to the slight Poison utility they had last game, even if it didn't amount to much. They do one thing pretty well, but suffer from a few nerfs and endless TP issues. They're a little tricky to spam but when you want to sling spells... use a Gunner, but this is a fine second choice! Oh there's also the Ronin's elementals... a fine third choice! Out of three.

Alchemists ate a ton of nerfs going into EO2, turning them into a fairly clunky class to use. You basically have to watch their skill levels closely, which no other class really demands in this game. The other problem is their role as an elemental attacker is easily taken up by two other classes, the Ronin and the Gunner, both of whom have far more manageable downsides to deal with. While they can be a force to be reckoned with in the main game, being only held back by their expensive TP costs, in the post-game they pretty much turn into one of the worst classes in the game, so if you intend on tackling that, you may be better off dropping them for something else.

RandomKesaranPasaran · Wed Dec 01, 2021 6:11 am

I have to wonder how much of that alchemist nonsense was the dev team being drunk/bad at math and how much of it was EO2 having basically no development time because yikes that spell damage formula is bad.

Crosspeice · Fri Apr 08, 2022 12:58 am

Part 13: Down and Up Nine and Eight

Part 13: Down and Up Nine and Eight

Ye ready or woot?

Sorry, sorry, took some time with bathroom etiquette.

Cause you kept raising your leg up!

I can't help it, it's natural!

Mmm!

Well with that delightful time out of the way, let's get moving.

With a grin like that, someone was impatient.

Feels like we've been on 8F for months, so with the final exploration team of the stratum, let's move on already.

Kicks!

Flames!

Owchies!

That's a great start when you don't have a Medic. Thankfully we do have a Hexer.

A good offense can make a good defense.

Don't think they'll flap much if I put a bolt through them. Though why do they even have those wings to begin with-

Spin teh win baby!

Gryphon

HP: 183
STR: 21
VIT: 20
TEC: 21
AGI: 42
LUC: 42
Level: 26
Exp: 1,072

Skills
Fangs: Uses the Arms. Deals 150% Cut damage to a single target. Has an 85% accuracy modifier and a 10% speed modifier.
Claws: Uses the Arms. Deals 75% Cut damage to a single target 2 times. Has a 70% accuracy modifier and a 100% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

100%

150%

100%

100%

Disable Vulnerabilities

100%

100%

Drops
Steel Beak: 35% chance, sells for 36en.
1 required for Broba - Axe, ATK+68 - sells for 1,150en

Pure Quill: 25% chance, sells for 33en.
1 required for Oval Aspis - Shield, DEF+16 - sells for 945en
2 required for Wing Plate - Light Armor, DEF+31 - sells for 1,140en
4 required for Jelly Helm - Headgear, DEF+12, TP+3 - sells for 780en

Conditional: None

New floor so new monsters, Gryphons either do 150% damage to one target with Fangs, or ~150% damage to one target with Claws. That's... the game alright. The main annoyance is it dodging hits due to being pretty fast, but otherwise that's about it.

Claws is worse than Fangs because it has more chances to miss. I don't know why the skills are nearly identical. And it's more likely to use Claws than Fangs as its HP gets lower, so it actually gets weaker. Oh and despite a skill being called Fangs, it uses the arms.

Other things to note is that a battle with a sole Gryphon is always going to be flagged as a blindside. Otherwise not much to em other than you cursing their evasion because of their high evasion stats.

lol what is this enemy design. not the visuals but the skills

9F C6 Take Point

Ambush Chance: 10%
Ambush Encounter:
60% Poseidon x1
40% Bigcap x5

Mint Leaf. 60% chance. Sells for 65en.
1 required for Medica II - Item, heals the target by 200HP - sells for 200en
1 required for Charm Gas - Item, Lv5 Provoke, Provoke Rate Up 70%, DEF Up 12% - sells for 700en

Mugwort. 25% chance. Sells for 70en.
1 required for Metopon - Item, LV1 Erasure, dispels 1 buff from a single enemy - sells for 100en
3 required for Blind Gas - Item, Lv1 Blinding, 15% base infliction chance - sells for 450en

Tri-Fruit. 15% chance. Sells for 175en.
1 required for Fire Jar - Item, Lv5 Fire, deals Fire damage to a single target, with a spell power of 43 - sells for 300en, must be restocked
1 required for Ice Jar - Item, Lv5 Ice, deals Ice damage to a single target, with a spell power of 43 - sells for 300en, must be restocked
1 required for Volt Jar - Item, Lv5 Volt, deals Volt damage to a single target, with a spell power of 43 - sells for 300en, must be restocked

Gathering point I'll never use, yadda yadda, the first part of this floor is full of slow Firekings, but to conserve you for the longer journey ahead, we can walk into the back of them to reset the encounter orb.

Damn dodgy immobile plants!

Uhuh.

Clearly, your weapons just slide off the enemies, like they're coated in grease or something.

What's around this way, boy? Oh, I see. A wall.

Behind the wall ya numpteh!

Neat.

Let my songs give you strength!

I feel my flames getting hotter, you really know your stu- blehhhhh!

Remember to move away from the opponent after you attack it.

9F D6 Chop Point

Ambush Chance: 5%
Ambush Encounter:
60% Poseidon x1
40% Bigcap x5

Red Root: 45% chance. Sells for 70en.
1 required for Self Bow - Bow, ATK+56, STR+2, AGI+2, +15 speed - sells for 1,440en
2 required for Pumpkinhat - Headgear, DEF+15, TEC+2, TP+10 - sells for 1,820en
5 required for Snake Whip - Whip, ATK+, STR+2 - sells for 1,680en
5 required for Fire Beads - Collar, DEF+62, STR+2 - sells for 1,580en
1 required for Toward a cozier inn

Red Pine: 35% chance. Sells for 250en.
1 required for Quid pro quo

Hardwood: 20% chance. Sells for 75en.
1 required for Flame Leaf - Clothing, DEF+30, TP+10, Ice Resist Up 10% - sells for 1,550en
5 required for Milk Maul - Stave, ATK+65, HP+15, -3 speed - sells for 1,530en
1 required for Toward a cozier inn

I don't want to walk over and show you it. My crutch for this last LP was recon squirrels telling the party where things were, now it's Beasts with super senses that I assume they all have. Gotta craft a believable narrative, y'see.

Efficient gameplay I see.

Both pale in comparison to Byeahs.

Gah, fuck! Has she been with us the whole time? I mean, uh, sorry.

Easy teh blend in all that protectin' fur!

Purr!

It appears the doctor's assistant sensed no danger... she seems to have had a nasty collision with the retreating Juthro. You apologize to her, while keeping an eye on your surroundings. You stand there for some time but all that you hear now is the soft falling of leaves. As you inspect the trees nearby more closely, you notice that they're in a withered state.

What's this strange liquid...? And this scratch, too...

You notice she is investigating the very place where you felt the strange presence... you step closer to her, seeing that she's using tools from her bag to scrape off the liquid. Several other trees are coated with the liquid, and you can see a pair of scratches on them. The markings and liquid must be related to the disease... but what was the presence?

Well, don't just stand there! I have the sample we came for. Let's hurry back home...

The assistant stores some of the liquid in her bag and prepares to return to Lagaard.

But that'll probably mean we'll have to get another sample, so be careful on the way back.

why

Don't bother her, she's a professional.

Oh, and uh... I forgot my Warp Wire... sorry to ask, but please don't use yours, or I'll be stranded out here all alone. Let's do our best and head back to Lagaard!

You nod in agreement and leave the area.

Can't we just hug her real tight and still use the wire anyway?

Alas due to the dimension warping properties of teleportation, more than five people isn't possible without things getting dangerous, so we must walk all the way back.

...?

Tha' makes sense.

Grrrrrr...

So I hope you had enough resources to walk from the 8F Geo to some of 9F and then back to 6F, so we'll see how it goes. Angie heavily implies that if anyone dies you'll have to come all the way back here to get another sample to then go BACK, so try not to do that, eh? Thankfully going into that room is optional until you're ready, so you can bring Angie with you exploring as long as you want.

Oh god, gotta love arbitrary restrictions. Yeah even if you have spare Nectars, it counts as an automatic failure. That being said if you can revive dead party members in battle, you'll avoid triggering the fail condition. A lot of quests in this game are annoyingly saddled with failure conditions, and I'm thankful later games cut down on that.

Meanwhile, in the EO4 LP, Ariadne threads can affect entire skyships.

Actually, no, that's not even the LP, that's just EO4. You can use an Ariadne thread while you're just flying around on the skyship, and it'll return you to Tharsis.

Very handy way to get back to the stairs.

Getting tempted to use that wire...

We're nearly there, hold strong!

But as expected without a Medic and using most of your healing items on the first blindside... I was resigned to just leaving the labyrinth and trying the quest again, this time with way more healing items! But, uh...

I'll head back first. Let's meet up at the central city.

The assistant nods to you as she teleports back to Lagaard. You can remain in the Labyrinth to explore, or follow her back.

Yeah uh, I just used a Nectar after the battle and finished the quest fine. Maybe she only steps in to help if you have multiple deaths? I ain't fucking complaining! Oh, and if you came from the Field to start the quest, you can just use a Warp Stone to instantly come back here from 9F. Probably not the intended way, but hey, one of the few uses for them I can think of!

"Few?" Sounds more like the only one to me.

...I'm genuinely baffled. What the fuck happened here? How'd Cross avoid the failure condition? I have absolutely no idea other than sheer force of luck!

The only possible theory I have is that it had something to do with the turn being a blindside, because blindside code is a huge mess in this game, so that might've interferred with some flags? Don't take this as the gospel, I'm purely spitballing here as I'm just utterly baffled at EO2 being EO2 in ways I didn't think possible.

Impatient little fu-

Shut up! Ow, I just kicked myself...

The assistant gives you a wry smile and talks with you before returning to the hospital. The quest is complete! Report your success to the bar whenever you wish.

Were yeh on a date with her, strolling through the forest? Yeh lucky skunks! Now I wish I'd taken the job instead! Haw haw haw! Jokes aside, here's yer reward. Come back anytime!

Isn't Angie like 12?

That's Abigail, not that I think Cass cares for such things...

Well that wasn't fun. As for the reward, Laudanum is a tincture made by dissolving opium poppy in alcohol. Oh, and it removes 1 buff from all enemies, like Lv1 Nihilo, can be handy!

5 Moving Eyes and 5 Fluorite required for Battle Axe, +0 speed
1 Steel Beak required for Broba - Axe, ATK+68 - Battleaxe with a wide, crescent-shaped blade.
2 Pure Quills required for Wing Plate
1 Pure Quill required for Oval Aspis - Shield, DEF+16 - Round shield for front line warriors.

Back to the Labyrinth, boy howdy going through 8F is getting old.

I wonder how many times I visited B8F in the EOU LP for the healing spring.

C'mon, let's kill this fannae already!

No thanks.

Just after where Angie found the samples is stairs going back down, yes it's another joint floor just like last game. It's not as integrated this time, it's mostly side areas.

8F F4 Mine Point

Ambush Chance: 3%
Ambush Encounter:
60% Poseidon x1
40% Bigcap x5

Fluorite: 70% chance. Sells for 70en.
1 required for Fungus Jet - Accessory, Paralysis Resist Up 50% - sells for 2000en Required for Smithy Thompson's request I
1 required for Arm Guard - Accessory, Arm Bind Resist Up 50% - sells for 2,000en
1 required for Bite Piece - Accessory, Blind Resist Up 50% - sells for 2,000en
1 required for Warp Stone - Item, Lv1 Return, warps user to the last Geomagnetic Field - sells for 100en
3 required for Godhunter - Gun, ATK+66, AGI+2, 120% accuracy, +3 speed - sells for 1,920en
5 required for Battle Axe - Axe, ATK+65, STR+2, VIT+2, +0 speed - sells for 1,480en

Red Ball: 25% chance. Sells for 75en.
1 required for Breaker - Claw, ATK+65, 120% accuracy, +3 speed - sells for 1,020en
1 required for Fire Wall - Accessory, Fire Resist Up 30% - sells for 1,500en
1 required for Bash Wall - Accessory, Bash Resist Up 30% - sells for 1,500en
3 required for Zanmatou - Katana, ATK+62, Type: Fire - sells for 1,480en
5 required for Katzbalger - Sword, ATK+63, STR+1, VIT+1, +15 speed - sells for 1,550en

Blood Rock: 5% chance. Sells for 200en.
1 required for Life Belt - Accessory, HP+50 - sells for 1,000en
1 required for Quid pro quo

These just get more and more out of the way!

Haven't missed this...

Blech!

Also we're being chased, but you've gotten used to that by now.

Watch where you point that thing!

Just having a look... really wanna smash it for some reason.

And that's all that section had, so warp out and go back to where we were. Again.

I'm helping!

Eh.

If I had a nickel for every time I got blindsided just before the 9F stairs, I would have two nickels. Which isn't a lot but it could be due to static RNG.

Another day, another door.

And there's all of 9F! Ahah, yeah, let's keep going.

You're surprised to find a large beast! It's heavily injured and breathing heavily... the beast is so large that you haven't the first idea where to begin treating it... if only you had someone skilled in the healing arts, you could diagnose its condition...

Does kathy even know how to heal this? Ow.

Hopefulleh. Notice that yeh didn't say Alasty first. Och!

I don't think even he knows how to heal himself. Ow!

The class exclusive shortcuts are annoying, and will get more annoying, but they can be pretty creative.

I do appreciate the unique flavor text for these if nothing else. Also no, Angie can't do anything about this in case you had ideas.

Beyond the low grass is a small field with patches of wild strawberries growing in places. You give thanks for the blessing and enter the field with your comrades to enjoy the snack.

It's packed with strawberries preserved in syrup, strawberry jam, AND strawberry jelly. I don't know how to describe it...

Mrow!

Ahh, this brings back memories, let me just bend over...

Not like that!

You wade into the field and feast on the strawberries. A worry flits across your mind that a monster may ambush you, but it proves to be unfounded. You enjoy your fill of ripe strawberries before returning to your exploration. The sweet forest strawberries have calmed your nerves! Eleanore, who gorged the most, seems to have entered a transcendent state!

Ahhhhhhhhhh, this place is great. I remember the last time I was here, before I met you guys, bleeding from my head, one leg missing, this cured me right up.

One day we'll find oot how high yeh climbed up before.

Hey diddle diddle, the cat did a piddle!

Stop pulling songs from my childhood!

It's really hard not obliterating the difficulty with Hexers, but I can use their busted skills on occasion, as a treat.

A movement puzzle with a Fireking, but I got lucky, so see ya!

Urrrrgh!

Urrrrgh is right, weirdly coherent animal.

It seems to have died leaning against the tree roots, with its legs splayed out. Could another explorer have slain it? Perhaps you could scavenge some raw materials... but you'd have to ignore the stench to search the corpse... you may simply want to leave.

Go fer it, Hart.

Smells pretty good!

Help me...

Blinking back tears against the awful stench, you take a careful look at the corpse. But it seems you weren't the only one attracted by the smell...! A monster with a taste for rotten flash hangs from the trees above you, baring its fangs!

Always the damn trees!

Uhoh!

Get away from my lunch!

Pretty sure we fed you before we left.

Grab whatever you can and leave the area before you lose the contents of your stomach!

Well that was fun, anyone for seconds?

Fuck you!!!

Language.

Let's not tell Logan about how accurate the map was.

Yeah good enough, you'll get this later since I walked on a lot of tiles from the first section, just in case I could finish this early.

Don't forget that you can use Patrol or Guard Soles to walk on the damage tiles with less damage to map the areas properly.

Oop, doon, oop, doon, where's the big bastard we gotta punch?

We're getting closer, it smells... fiery.

Purr!

According to Hart's understanding of beast talk, he's saying "try finger but hole"?

You're such a tease game, just let me craft these already!

Be thankful it's not EO2U where you have to wait till Stratum 4 to craft it. (Or worse, Stratum 5 if you're playing Story.)

I'm yelping! No, uh, helping.

It's the first shortcut since 6F! Still have to go through 8F to reach this, but not the pointless parts.

9F A4 Mine Point

Ambush Chance: 10%
Ambush Encounter:
30% Mystue x3
30% Gryphon x3
30% Addleowl x3
5% Poseidon x1
5% Bigcap x5

Fluorite: 60% chance. Sells for 70en.
1 required for Fungus Jet - Accessory, Paralysis Resist Up 50% - sells for 2000en Required for Smithy Thompson's request I
1 required for Arm Guard - Accessory, Arm Bind Resist Up 50% - sells for 2,000en
1 required for Bite Piece - Accessory, Blind Resist Up 50% - sells for 2,000en
1 required for Warp Stone - Item, Lv1 Return, warps user to the last Geomagnetic Field - sells for 100en
3 required for Godhunter - Gun, ATK+66, AGI+2, 120% accuracy, +3 speed - sells for 1,920en
5 required for Battle Axe - Axe, ATK+65, STR+2, VIT+2, +0 speed - sells for 1,480en

Red Ball: 25% chance. Sells for 75en.
1 required for Breaker - Claw, ATK+65, 120% accuracy, +3 speed - sells for 1,020en
1 required for Fire Wall - Accessory, Fire Resist Up 30% - sells for 1,500en
1 required for Bash Wall - Accessory, Bash Resist Up 30% - sells for 1,500en
3 required for Zanmatou - Katana, ATK+62, Type: Fire - sells for 1,480en
5 required for Katzbalger - Sword, ATK+63, STR+1, VIT+1, +15 speed - sells for 1,550en

Blood Rock: 15% chance. Sells for 200en.
1 required for Life Belt - Accessory, HP+50 - sells for 1,000en
1 required for Quid pro quo

That's all we can do in 9F, I hope those two closed doors won't be so for long! Also to our left is a bulging wall.

Sharp is right, nearly split my head open when I fell on one of these.

Alright, if my senses aren't failing me, then the distinct copper tang of the Pole indicates it's much deeper into the Labyrinth.

Ah bloody 'ell!

So that 9F shortcut was an indication that you weren't gonna get a nice little shortcut to this floor. In fact, it's directly outside the boss room because there's no shortcut to quickly get from one side of the floor otherwise. It's pretty annoying. Now, we're not gonna warp out right away, there's a couple things to do on this floor while we're still pretty fresh. But also, need to double back quickly cause there's an important NPC we nearly missed!

Ah, explorers. Nice to see you... good luck... good night...

The guard seems to be filled with ennui, lacking anything resembling motivation.

I'm stuck here all day, it's hard to stay awake...

He yawns brazenly, rubbing his eyes as he does. If he's this sleepy in the daytime, you doubt his ability to stay awake once night falls. You leave the sluggish guard slumped over the rock and depart from the area.

We should probably check on him later to make sure he's not a bag of bones.

Ugh!

Upon inspection, it seems to be a small, furry animal in the shadow of a large plant. The animal shows no fear of your party and scampers right up to you with a bright squeal. It's so cute friendly, you almost want to reach out and pet the furred rodent.

Hello fluffy friend, I'm gonna call you Sally and love you and hug you and pet you-

Grrrrrrrrr!

What's with the wild one? ...hey didn't we have a squirrel before that- oh shitzen!

You reach out to the small, furry animal, coaxing it to your side. But it backfires when the animal takes this as an invitation to run up your arm! The squirrel jams its head in your backpack and runs off with something in its mouth. Panicking, you rifle through the pack to see what you lost to the creature. It seems it ran off with a Warp Wire... one of an explorer's most vital tools! The creature is long gone by now... you sigh and resolve to take greater care in the future.

Not again! Why must my furry friends betray me???

That's nae the issue ya dumb cunt!

This was probably the worst time for this to happen, we're out of wires!

Frrk...

Well no point fretting about it now, perhaps we'll find one in a chest, we're not in any immediate danger.

I'm still not sure what a Warp Wire is, do we eat it?

...wow I wasn't expecting that to work twice. They seem a bit screwed, but I think they'll be alright. Probably. Let's keep looking around Guehfeuf- er, Sally.

Did you learn your lesson the first time? How about now? Unlike last time there's no Warp Wire in a nearby chest, but perhaps for some there is a way out. Let's keep going.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on you.

10F A4 Take Point

Ambush Chance: 5%
Ambush Encounter:
30% Mystue x3
30% Gryphon x3
30% Addleowl x3
5% Poseidon x1
5% Bigcap x5

Tri-Fruit. 55% chance. Sells for 175en.
1 required for Fire Jar - Item, Lv5 Fire, deals Fire damage to a single target, with a spell power of 43 - sells for 300en, must be restocked
1 required for Ice Jar - Item, Lv5 Ice, deals Ice damage to a single target, with a spell power of 43 - sells for 300en, must be restocked
1 required for Volt Jar - Item, Lv5 Volt, deals Volt damage to a single target, with a spell power of 43 - sells for 300en, must be restocked

Mugwort. 25% chance. Sells for 70en.
1 required for Metopon - Item, LV1 Erasure, dispels 1 buff from a single enemy - sells for 100en
3 required for Blind Gas - Item, Lv1 Blinding, 15% base infliction chance - sells for 450en

Mint Leaf. 20% chance. Sells for 65en.
1 required for Medica II - Item, heals the target by 200HP - sells for 200en
1 required for Charm Gas - Item, Lv5 Provoke, Provoke Rate Up 70%, DEF Up 12% - sells for 700en

Well this is no help for our current predicament, as per usual.

Mmm mmm!

Red Gel

HP: 183
STR: 21
VIT: 21
TEC: 21
AGI: 21
LUC: 21
Level: 26
Exp: 850

Skills
Acid: Uses the Arms. Deals 75% Untyped damage to a single target, healing the user by 50% of the damage dealt. Has a 90% accuracy modifier and a 100% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

25%

0%

200%

200%

Disable Vulnerabilities

150%

200%

150%

150%

Drops
Red Core: 30% chance, sells for 34en.
1 required for Nodachi - Katana, ATK+63 - sells for 1,180en
1 required for Jelly Helm - Headgear, DEF+14, TP+3 - sells for 780en
3 required for Zanmatou - Katana, ATK+62, Type: Fire - sells for 1,480en
3 required for Shard Mace - Stave, ATK+60, TP+10 - sells for 1,880en

Conditional: Kill with Ice damage
Ice Fiber: 75% chance, sells for 48en.
1 required for Snow Axe - Axe, ATK+66, Type: Ice - sells for 1,690en

Didn't feel like we were on 9F for that long, so 10F has a couple new enemies to spice things up. If the only elemental has been your Ronin's Kienzan then this guy might stick around a while due to how they can heal for a chunk. A solid turn of attacks should keep it down and it doesn't really do anything, but it'll be there!

The gel is a now established as an archetype of enemies you can encounter in this game. It's uh, still not particularly notable other than it has an immunity now.

...you 'avin a laff, bruv?

Wait, wait, wait, let's hear what he has to say before you punch his lights out.

It's the rare fool who makes it this far up and forgets to bring a wire... but of course, it has been known to happen! That's where I come in! A helping hand for those in need!

I love this game.

Same. It's just hilarious in so many ways.

His price is 1000en per--pure highway robbery for explorers in need! You suddenly realize that you are without a Warp Wire! It will be extraordinarily difficult to trek back to town from here without one... weighed against your life, the price suddenly seems less appalling. You dither on whether to pay a premium for security or walk all the way back to town.

Hmph!

Hmph! is right, that's a lot of money, whatever that is, for a Warp Wire, whatever that is.

But we do kinda need one.

Boy I wonder why!

You receive a Warp Wire in return for the nigh-criminal amount the quasi-guard asks.

Heheh, thanks! Hope to do business with you again...

The sleazy guard does not budge, apparently intending to continue his practices. You shake your head as you walk away with a much lighter wallet.

Even I'm tempted to deck him for that.

He's on t'list...

So here's your salvation from squirrels... if you're playing a password game. Forgot about that? Well it really doesn't matter past this point, but yeah if you're not, then you're pretty screwed. Still, this means you can explore without worry, especially cause there's a good spot to return to town in just a little bit...

If you or a loved one are veterans of exploring trees, you may be entitled to being taken in by highway robbery.

Why is this locked behind using an EO1 password? What the hell?

Huff, huff, getting a bit drained, we gonna head back soon?

If you wouldn't mind my indulgences, there is something with quite the smell up ahead.

For once I actually concur.

Guardians of the Sorrowful Ice

Woah!

Grrrr!

......

The figure standing silently before you is an old man with a gun in each hand.

W-What do yeh-

I hear a lot of things about Nidhogg. You made it here, so you can be half bad.

The old marksman's voice is deep and cold.

Not half good either, though. Why not leave this place to us and retire while you can?

The marksman's words are shot through with spite. You can respond to him in kind, or ignore him and move on.

That isn't very nice, we won't give up over something like that.

The old man's mouth twists into an eerie smile at your retort.

How many have I gunned down for saying that? I don't know, but I could send you to meet them.

You sound deranged, old man, who the hell are you?!

You ask the strange old man to identify himself, and he responds with a mocking laugh.

Since I'm the last man you'll ever meet. I should introduce myself. Listen well! Wilhelm is my name, but they call me Der Freishütz!

I think we've heard enough from him, no use hurting another explorer, let's ignore him.

You ignore the strange old man and step around him to continue your exploration of the forest. But you haven't taken five steps when a bullet whizzes into the ground at your feet!

Wilhelm, Der Freishütz, never misses twice, children. Leave here if you value your life.

The old man takes aim with both guns. You draw your own weapons and prepare for battle!

They forgot the umlauts in EO2U. Well, I say "forgot," it's more like "it just isn't in the font."

Now this way we might stand oonderstandin' each other! Bring it oon, Der Cunt!

Grah!

You picked the wrong herd to mess with!

You prepare for an epic clash against the man they call Der Freishütz! Just as the battle is about to begin, a voice echoes through the area. "That's enough! What are you thinking, picking a fight against other explorers!?" The voice coming from behind is that of a young woman. You turn to face the girl.

I'm sorry. My guardian must be overdoing it. That man...

She flashes a glare at the old marksman and to your surprise, his menacing demeanor softens.

Overdoing it is a ridiculous understatement, what the hell is going on?!

How do I begin to explain this one...?

She takes a long look at you and then stares at the ceiling, deep in thought.

Let's get introductions out of the way. We're Guild Esbat... you must know the name. I'm Artelind, a war magus, and this gunner is my guardian. We explore the forest together. And believe it or not, but my guardian was trying to help.

...

There's a nasty beast on the Labyrinth's 10th floor. It's not like anything you've seen. We don't want anyone without permission from the Grand Duchy to get themselves killed there. So he meant well... he was only concerned for your safety.

You find this hard to believe, but the old marksman has said nothing since the girl arrived. You finally nod to show that you're willing to let the matter drop. The girl continues.

If you want to go on ahead, you'll have to talk with Dubois at the Duke's Palace.

Artelind waves goodbye to you, as if impatient for you to leave.

Well, see you later!

You walk away from the sullen old marksman and the impish black-haired witch. It seems you have no choice but to return to Lagaard and visit the Duke's Palace.

But if yeh could let me smack 'em up...

Come on let's go back already!

Right, right, I know you want to go on ahead... but I have to be firm on this. Just get permission from the Grand Duchy, and you can waltz right on in.

The girl has no intention of moving aside. You have no choice but to return to Lagaard.

That's why you gotta push yourself sometimes to hit a story gate, so next time, we've got the whole of 10F to explore.

You think they would have let things slide if you were robbed at stumppoint by a squirrel and had no Warp Wires to get back to the Duchy with?

Incredibly funny how character limits forced them to just drop the "e" off Artelinde's name.

Crosspeice · Fri Apr 08, 2022 12:59 am

Troubadour Overview

Troubadour

Can equip: Swords, Bows, Light Armor, Clothing

May I compare thee to a summer's day? Hey that's how I started the EO1 Troubadour overview, oh wait, that's because they're basically the same. Before, they were relatively passive buffers that lasted all battle and were only really useful for Bravery and Relaxing. In this game... well they're nearly the same, they got hit with the nerf bat like most of the pretty alright classes, such as no longer having Relaxing and Healing. The last one wasn't a big deal, I couldn't really recommend it since it took too much investment, but losing Relaxing kinda stings. Now I didn't use it because I was rotating the party pretty often and when you run out of TP that's usually a good time to head to town, but for standard playthroughs, man it's such a good skill. Otherwise they still have Bravery, so that's what we really care about, still the only skill that actually matters, as well as having some out of battle utility. They're exactly as interesting as last game, though they now have some competition in what they can do and that means they're not as amazing as they were before.

Troubadours got some hefty changes between games, but overall mostly play out the same way they did in EO1. They're not really a must-have class anymore, but they're a pretty strong support unit to bring along. A few things bring them down, but they're one of the top tier classes from the previous games to not get utterly nerfed into the ground, thank goodness!

Like most classes, Troubs have lower stats overall from the previous game at level 70, such as STR, which they didn't use, and TEC, which they didn't use, as well as slightly reduced AGI. That last one does matter since they don't get as big a boost to song speed as the previous game, which will come into play on occasion. And by that I mean maybe 1 or 2 allies might attack before you get Bravery up, and that's about it. They got slight buffs to HP and TP, but they should be in the back not taking hits and they will rarely run out of TP, so whatever.

Troubadours are far from a stat hungry class. In fact, due to the way they operate, there's only one stat they remotely care about, and that's AGI. Which is already pretty sky high. Their skills don't really depend on stats, but getting them to move faster is pretty important since they're strong support skills. Their STR took a noticeable hit, so they're not really that great at dealing incidental chip damage anymore, though I guess if you really want that you could invest in STR. Though really a better investment might be their defensive stats since they're not really an attacking unit. They'll definitely want a TP boost, though due to the way songs function it's not a huge priority. And HP increases are always appreciated as well.

Common Passive Unlocks

LUC Up: Lv10: Divinity

Troubadours are a ruthlessly simple class, Songs does all the heavy lifting, so there's only one other passive that makes a difference. Due to how much spare SP this class has, I guess you can max out fucking LUC Up for more exp. This game isn't very difficult and the only class unlock is very early on so you don't need to grind much, but hey, what else are you gonna do? Due to being a support role with SP to spare, you can give them some much needed VIT or boost their AGI a bit, but 10 points can only do so much.

Songs
Unlocks: Lv1: Bravery, Shelter, Mercury; Lv3: Stamina, Recovery; Lv5: Erasure, Nihilo; Lv7: Blaze, Frost, Shock; Lv10: Ifrit, Ymir, Taranis
BUGGED: Description incorrectly states skill does nothing.
Increases song speed. Passive.

Hey look it's this skill, the skill that they need. This is one you should max out, even if the game wrongly says it does nothing, since even if it's not as good as last game, every bit helps when it comes to song speed. Technically a Troubadour only needs 1 point in this for Bravery, making this class SP optional past level fucking nine, but I guess you could go all the way to the elemental resistance skills, even if Dampen makes them pretty pointless. If nothing else, you should get this to level 5 for Erasure and Nihilo, but like I'm gonna say multiple times, this class has never had SP issues, feel free to get whatever the hell you want.

It's a pretty minimal effect mastery, but Troubadours don't really have a lot of skills they want, so they have SP to spare. So take it up to the various points you need to unlock the songs you want, or max it out. Up to you. Probably should be maxed out last if you opt to do so, as the speed increase is rather minimal.

Divinity
Prerequisites: LUC Up Lv10
Increases experience gain. Stacks with itself. Passive.

This is a skill that can go either way, while LUC is better in this game than previous, Troubs don't really need 10 extra points into this and the game isn't particularly challenging due to all the busted classes and Force skills, so extra exp isn't that important. Since it stacks, you can use it to get to level 99, but we'll hopefully do an intervention before that can really get going. It's always best to get this early and if you want to make the game even easier, by all means, but I don't believe it's necessary, especially since bosses give you so much exp to compensate for none from FOEs.

Hey, it's the grinding skill. In the last game it could see some use since you were pretty starved for experience points overall there. This game? Not so much. Grinding in this game is far easier, and bosses are experience point feasts in this game. So rather than spend points into this, you can just kill bosses a few times. Though you could theoretically use this to level up to 99, but for the love of god please never attempt such a thing! You don't need to grind that much, 70 is enough, and there's no reward for getting all the way up there!

Bravery
Prerequisites: Songs Lv1
Increases the base damage of the entire party. Affects untyped damage. Song skill, uses the Head.

Ahhhhhhh~ god I love this skill. It's something you should go for immediately, and you'll max it out very quickly, since it's such a great ATK buff that can make this easy game even easier! One turn to lay a buff down for the entire battle is still so stupid, especially since your Troub will kinda twiddle their thumbs for most of the battle after this, but it's great to lay down as soon as you can. Last game, this class had alright STR so could contribute with imbues and buffs, but since all that has been nerfed, they'll be an item monkey forevermore. A bit of a shame, but this is why you're using this class, it's good, so they're good, everything else is honestly just a bonus. Now, in fairness, not only do level 11-15 skills no longer exist, which does hurt, but this is weaker than last game. It's still really good, so I'm fine with it.

The Troubadour's bread and butter skill. Pretty much should be the first thing you should max out without question. Lay it down and pretty much the Troubadour's main job is done. Especially since they lost Relaxing, so they don't really have a must have secondary buff to put up (though still plenty of good candidates in this game). And like Cross mentioned, their STR went down the gutter, so they don't really contribute good incidental chip damage anymore. So they're pretty much stuck thumb twiddling unless an emergency happens.

Something to note is that this game changed Bravery from a direct increase to ATK to being a general damage boost. Which affects everything by the way, even Untyped damage (though not Revenge due to its mechanics.) This means that even the Alchemist can get in on the action from being buffed by this, and a boosted Megido or even Eschaton can deal a ton of damage, as well as their other big hitter spells.

Shelter
Prerequisites: Songs Lv1
Reduces damage taken by the entire party. Song skill, uses the Head.

It's back, and it's a bit different to before. Last game it boosted your final DEF value, which didn't really help since ATK and DEF had such a wild disparity, especially when it came to lategame enemies. But now it's been changed, for the better, to be a general damage reduction. This is actually important to the balancing of stats to make things a bit more consistent, enemies can hit pretty hard, but it's also important because this is the only defensive buff the Troub gets access to, since their Force skill is... bugged. Still, killing enemies is better than surviving them, so Bravery is still preferable, but this ain't a bad skill to drop down.

The changes to the buff mechanics in this game make Shelter a much stronger defensive than in EO1. Whether you take this or not is up to you, but due to the changes to defense buffs, you'll definitely want at least 1 point in this to clear defense debuffs, as they're far more threatening now that they actually increase the enemies' damage by a noticeable amount instead of a few points. Though at level 10 it's effectively a 25% decrease to most damage taken. It doesn't work against Untyped damage because this is effectively a multiplier applied to the party's damage resistances. So that's something to keep in mind.

Mercury
Prerequisites: Songs Lv1
Increases AGI for the entire party. Song skill, uses the Head.

Another song that's a bit better in this game due to a couple factors. AGI was miserable to boost before due to it getting the nasty habit of /5, which made it tough to actually get enough to make a difference. This game doesn't have that issue, though some weapons like staves completely tank a class's speed modifier. But again if you use this skill and you're still not faster, you look like an idiot, and there's not many cases when going first will make much difference. I've never used this skill, and I don't fancy starting now!

Probably the worst of the main 3 buffing skills. While speed is a more notable mechanic this time around, the kind of buffs this skill has to compete with make it much less appealing, especially when its competition got buffed. Granted, this is an increase to AGI, so you do get more accuracy and evasion out of this, so that is something that can benefit certain parties. Especially since accuracy is actually a concept that exists in this game now instead of something that makes you wonder why they bothered implementing it. Of course the weapon speed mechanic in this game can make this buff nearly meaningless, so uh, probably not a good idea at all if your party is full of slow people.

Stamina
Prerequisites: Songs Lv3
Increases max HP of the entire party. Does not recover the health gained. Song skill, uses the Head.

A bit of a weird skill that is harder to recommend due to the loss of Healing, but can work out, maybe. You've gotta have a heal on standby, but due to speed modifiers, you'll have this skill start the turn and then the heal end the turn, not too great. It gets much more utility lategame when you can really boost up the numbers and hit the 999 cap, but it's also not necessary either, so it's hard to say when a skill like this could be useful. Overall some tanky classes would love this, but you also need to toss them a heal in short notice to really help them tank stuff, especially Beasts, christ.

It gives more effective HP than Shelter, but you'll have to maintain it through active healing, which drags it down a bit. If your party is lacking in that for some reason, stick with Shelter. Another thing that makes this skill not particularly appealing is the 999 HP cap, and nothing can break that cap in this game. Which is especially a big factor when the HP Up passive gives so much more HP when maxed out that this buff ends up not typically having much effect and eating a buff slot for something better. Up to you whether you take it but it's personally a slight pass for me.

That being said, if you have a Revenge Hexer, this is a very easy way to give them a big damage boost. The increase from the old max to the new max HP isn't healed up, so that's a good chunk of empty HP the Hexer can use to fire off even more powerful Revenges. If you actually intend on using that strategy, this skill turns into a very good pickup because it's such a huge DPT boost to Revenge.

Blaze/Frost/Shock
Prerequisites: Songs Lv7
Unlocks: Lv3: Ifrit/Ymir/Taranis
Imbues an ally's regular attack with Fire/Ice/Volt damage. Song skill, uses the Head.

Imbues were pretty great last game since composite attacks were as if you were attacking twice and helped Troubadours contribute in battle when they didn't have much else to do. Ah, that's no longer the case, your normal attack is just replaced with an element, so can be useful on certain enemies, but usually you'll just unload a bunch of elemental skills on them and leave the normal attacks to those who do a pitiful amount anyway. It can be useful if you're out of TP, just to squeeze more damage out, and you can create weaknesses with Dampen, but when you want to use a lot of elemental attacks, you're fully rested and taking on a big boy with lots of HP. It's also not worth investing in them, since there's not much to gain from it, especially since the last thing you really worry about is whether it has a good enough speed modifier.

Oh boy. A rework to how composites worked basically nerfed imbues as a whole to oblivion to a huge part of the series. In 1, using imbues gave a damage boost, as an imbued party member attacked with both their STR and TEC at the same time when using a regular attack. Not so much in 2. And the rest of the series. All it does is add the respective element to your regular attack with no damage boost. Yeah, and skills start getting way more powerful than regular attacks, so it's not a good idea to use these. At best these can help snag conditional drops more easily if you're not using Dampen, but for the most part, these are not worth using.

That being said, there is one possible use case for these skills. Creating fodder for the Landsknecht's chaser attacks, especially if you don't have a lot of elemental attackers otherwise. Though you could probably use items for that instead.

Ifrit/Ymir/Taranis
Prerequisites: Songs Lv10, Blaze/Frost/Shock Lv3
Increases elemental resistance for the entire party for the entire battle, and reduces enemy's elemental resistance for 5 turns. Song skill, uses the Head.

Oh boy these skills are a little lame. Last game they could actually be used in some circumstances over the Protector's antis, but they're too mediocre this time to really do that, which is a shame. They can help in creating weaknesses, since there's more elemental damage to make use of in this game, but Dampen does the same thing, though not to the same degree. These skills are a little pointless, especially for how much you need to invest into them to get any kind of use out of them, but since they're a double effect skill, they still have some utility.

Hoo boy, these skills got mega nerfed. They were fantastic defensively against elemental attacks, and a fairly alright elemental damage boost. Now, the defensive portion is rather crappy, going down from a 70% reduction to a 30% reduction. Ouch. That being said, magic in this game sucks, but chances are you're better off throwing down an elemental mist instead to deal with those defensively.

The offensive portion on the other hand, got buffed from EO1, as the 50% damage boost can be applied naturally without using Boost. Very handy if you're using an Alchemist, as these do stack with defense debuffs and can heavily increase their damage output.

Erasure
Prerequisites: Songs Lv5
Dispels buffs from a single target. Song skill, uses the Head.

Guess who's back, Erasure has very niche uses, but it's a very good niche in slapping down whatever the boss wants to do. It only needs 2 levels in it, there might be one time you would need to remove 3 buffs from an enemy, but you really shouldn't have let it, but there will be some cases when 2 buffs are annoying. Overall, yeah it's alright I guess in that it does one specific thing.

You'll definitely want to take at least 2 points in it, as more big enemies are prone to buffing themselves compared to the opposition in EO1. Though no more than that should be necessary. 3 buffs on an enemy isn't happening unless you let it happen, and that's really just sloppy playing at that point if you really need to erase 3 buffs at once.

Nihilo
Prerequisites: Songs Lv5
Dispels buffs from all enemies. Song skill, uses the Head.

And it's the same thing again, but less useful. Regular enemies will very, VERY rarely ever have 2 buffs, let alone 3, so you can put one point for a few edge cases, but that's about it. At least these are both cheap, easy skills to use, so definitely pick them up and hopefully you won't have to worry about enemy buffs ever again.

A one point wonder at best. You shouldn't see too many group enemy buffs, and you're very not likely to see 2 or more. Maybe get 2 if you're really scared of buffs, but level 3 and beyond really shouldn't needed, ever.

Health
Reduces the base chance of status ailment infliction on the entire party. Affects Instant Death, but not Binds or Stun. Song skill, uses the Head.

This is what replaced Healing and it's different, and also pretty damn good. It's a straight subtraction from the base chance, which is always 100% before LUC is factored into the formula, making it a 20% base chance of infliction at max level. That's pretty damn incredible and not only does it not need any kind of investment, not that you really need it earlygame, but it also lasts all battle! What a fantastic counter to some enemy's tricks and definitely something to pick up to save of Theriaca Bs. Its scaling is pretty wonky, so you might not need to invest all the way, but even from level 1 you'll notice the effects of this buff.

Health is a fantastic defensive, preventing ailments and instant death from landing on the party so much in the first place! If you're worried about your party being disabled, putting this up can heavily decrease the chances of that happening, making a number of encounters far less dangerous. Also bizarrely one of the few skills in the game to have reverse exponential scaling for some reason.

Recovery
Prerequisites: Songs Lv3
Increases the rate of status effect recovery for the entire party. Does not affect binds. Song skill, uses the Head.

So after a skill that has a really good chance of blocking status effects, here's a skill that reduces the time you have them...? Okay, sure, this wasn't a great skill last game and while it's better this time, since this is added onto the final recover chance, making you instantly recover from ailments at max level, it's still not as good as preventing them entirely. Also you'll still have, at least, 1 turn with an ailment, which is still a pain. It's cheap and you can see the effects pretty quickly, but it's hard to recommend over Health.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And that applies big time here. Health is way better since it has a huge chance of just stopping the ailment from landing in the first place. And no matter how fast this makes you recover, you'll still be stuck with the ailment on the turn it was inflicted and the turn after that. Which is basically the same time it takes to toss a Therica B to someone and doesn't eat up a buff slot. Just use Health instead if you're worried about ailments.

Danger
Increases danger value of tiles. Field skill.

Danger. High voltage. I feel like there's enough encounters in a regular game that we don't really need more. It's good for grinding or hunting for a specific enemy, but if you want more exp, just beat a boss. Also it gets annoying having a fight every 3 steps, but that's just me.

Encounter reduction skills aren't too great outside of gathering parties, so surely encounter increasing skills would be great, right? Not really. It would honestly make things more annoying for yourself if anything. The game's encounter rates are already well balanced to keep you on the curve, and there are far far better ways to grind for levels in this game if you need to do so. At best you'd use this to hunt certain encounters, but it's not really a skill that should really see much use.

Luring
Lures non-red FOEs in a certain radius to tile used and stuns them for a set duration. Field skill.

Oh hey it's Dark Hunter's Racket. Like I said then, you can use items, or you can use this, though Troubs have the SP to spare. It's pretty whatever though.

There is one section of the game where it can be handy for Troubadours to have this. Otherwise, take it or leave it, and nothing is stopping you from using items instead there.

Slumber
Stuns non-red FOEs in a certain radius for a set duration. Field skill.

Oh hey it's Racket without the lure. Again, items, but these two skills give Troubadours some nice field utility, since they can be useful here and there to avoid FOE fights. And you'll want to avoid FOEs in this game for sure. It's pretty whatever though.

Once again, take it or leave it. It technically wastes less "FOE turns" compared to Luring, though it's easier to use as it stuns FOEs on the spot, and you won't have to worry about dodging them as they come towards you. But again, there are items to deal with that.

Crusade
BUGGED: DEF buff doesn't define what it works against, so does nothing.
Increases ATK, DEF and maximum HP of the entire party, in that order. Force skill, uses the Head.

Goddamn morons... Crusade is a pretty good skill, but the bug holds it back for a few reasons. It would be a great way of casting a greatly boosted Bravery and not have to think about using Shelter or Stamina, but because of the dead DEF buff, it's probably easier just using Bravery instead. Because of how the buffs are cast, any further buff you use will remove the ATK buff, so you can't stack this skill with Bravery, annoyingly, and it means the dead DEF buff that, again, does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, is in the middle and needs 2 other buffs to remove it, right pain. And of course this fills up the buff slots of the entire party, which can annoy some classes, while also making some bosses really not like your buffed face and thus punch it really hard. This skill is great for the ATK buff alone, but it has quite a few issues that hold it back.

Crusade seems powerful on paper, but there's quite a bit that makes it not as good as it seems. The bug makes 1/3rd of the skill a huge annoyance, as it basically does nothing other than shield you from defense debuffs. And the ATK buff is strong, but that's about all you're getting damage wise. Can't be stacked with other ATK buffs or even different buffs if you want something else. And the amount of buffs it gives causes certain bosses to go ballistic and smacking you down hard because you have too many buffs. Just be mindful about using this, because it'll also clear out any existing buffs on your party as well, especially if you had important defensives up like mists.

And that's the end of the album, Troubadours have their uses, mainly Bravery, and while they're not as good as last game, they can still contribute in many ways. Like Medics and Alchemists, they're very dependant on their Head and really don't do much outside of buffing, but they have some great utility and have a lot of freedom in SP as well as turns in battle. Since they weren't changed all that much, they're still pretty good, thank heavens.

The loss of Relaxing, their TP regeneration song, hurts, but overall Troubadours didn't get too many direct nerfs. They did get some indirect nerfs due to changes to enemy behaviours and other mechanics, but overall they're not really a bad class to stick into your party.

Crosspeice · Fri Apr 08, 2022 1:00 am

We're nearly at the next boss, so it's time for voting, omg. Since our guild is actually starting to invest in skills properly, we can now do a proper overview of who to vote for. But first, let's look at the upcoming boss.

Hellion

HP: 2,100
STR: 40
VIT: 40
TEC: 42
AGI: 42
LUC: 32
Level: 30
Exp: 54,000

Skills
Roar: Uses the Head. Attempts to inflict Panic on the entire party. Has a 25% base infliction chance and a 150% speed modifier.
Inferno: Uses the Arms. Deals 110% STR-based Bash and Fire damage to a single target. Has a 100% accuracy modifier and a 120% speed modifier.
Embrace: Uses the Arms. Deals 75% Bash damage to a single target, with 90% splash damage and attempts to inflict Fear. Has a 100% base infliction chance, a 90% accuracy modifier and a 15% speed modifier.
Kingfire: Uses the Arms. Deals Fire damage to the entire party, has a spell power of 90 and damage multiplied by 75%. Has a 95% accuracy modifier and a 100% speed modifier.
Atrocity: Does not use a body part. Deals 75% Bash to the entire party and dispels all buffs. Has a 90% accuracy modifier and a 10% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities

100%

0%

125%

75%

Disable Vulnerabilities

20%

10%

20%

0%

25%

5%

Drops
Red Wings: 90% chance, sells for 1,680en.
1 required for Malice Rod - Stave, ATK+73, TEC+8, Type: Fire - sells for 5,510en
1 required for Hamao III - Medicine, fully heals the target's HP and TP - sells for 20,000en, must be restocked

Conditional: Kill with Instant Death
Sharp Claw: 100% chance, sells for 30,000en.
1 required for Bomb Axe - Axe, ATK+196, Type: Fire - sells for 267,000en

Definitely looks dangerous but since we've gotten some skills compared to Chimeara and have more options available, it's not too bad. Not having a ticking timer with mobs as well as mediocre Fire damage helps too, but can definitely lay in the hurt if you're not expecting it. Also this fight can be super easy if you know which specific Dark Hunter skill to use to remove half her health, but well, we won't be using that. Mainly cause Sonia doesn't have that skill maxed out. ANYWAY, here's who you can vote for.

Holly: Definitely use her before she falls behind and off a cliff, she has chasers to follow up on Ice attacks and does some piddly damage with Tornado. She's mainly going for Counter right now which eats up a lot of early SP, but it's the main way to make her unique, so uh, a ringing endorsement I know.

Logan: Has 1st Turn for emergency healing or a quick smack, as well as piddly damage with 2-Bolt. Again, nothing all that crazy but he has his best skill already so it's mostly downhill from here.

Lily: Hellion's attacks are all physical aside from the mediocre Kingfire, so Lily can Front Guard this monster all day, Antifire isn't that necessary even though she does have it. Add in Provoke to tank the deadliest skill, Inferno, and you've got a pretty solid member.

Sonia: Yes, she has Climax, no I won't use it, but she can bind arms with Cuffs and attempt to inflict Poison. Definitely one of the less flashier members to bring but she'll do her job and dammit do it well.

kathy: Has Salve 2 to ease off Embrace and Kingfire but otherwise can't do much else. A very reactive member that can definitely combo with Logan for fast healing, even if we also have a fast healer... still nice to have!

Corinth: You might think he has big Ice damage to do, but since he went for Analysis first he won't be using tier 2 spells just yet. Still, he's one of the best ways of damaging the boss and due to only getting one vote we haven't seen him since the last boss!

Juthro: Bravery and Health yes please. Hellion uses Atrocity if you have 11+ buffs so you can use two Troub skills and nothing else, which will depend on the party. Since Fear can be a right pain I might go with Health if we have another buffer but it depends how strong the team is.

Eleanore: After maxing out Kienzan it's time to use it against a... Fire immune boss. Well thank god she just learned Midareba. It won't be a boss melter just yet but she can still hit really hard regardless, Ronin are still ridiculous.

Hart/Sophia: Probably the worst times to be using a Hexer since it's unlikely you have a lot of their busted skills unless you were super gunning for them. Hart/Sophia can try to land Sleep or Poison and not much else, they're even going for head binds, so not much use there. Even if they had Revenge I wouldn't use it anyway.

Aleksandra: Can do some nice damage with Iceshot and even a middling Richochet, but the main draw, heh, is Medishot to heal status, assuming she doesn't get tagged. Bit early and a bit squishy to be using Riskice anyway.

Alastor: With pretty okay speedy heals and some singular boosting in Warmight, definitely a fine option. Will be doling out Nectars instead of Revive, unfortunately, but can also stab at things if need be.

Rajah: No Loyalty? Then he's usable for this fight! Wildcut has been very nice for mobs but alas he'll have to rely on the quite expensive, but very powerful Bodyslam. Should've gotten Devour earlier but hey that's what the healers you'll vote for will do. R-Right?

Vote for any three you'd like

and we'll soon be out of this damn stratum.