sirsystemerror | Jan. 19th, 2019

Jan. 19th, 2019

1F-5F | B1 | 6F | 7F | 8F | 9F | 10F
11F | B2 | 12F | 13F | 14F | 15F
B3 | B4 | 16F | 17F | 18F | 19F | 20F
21F | 22F | 23F | 24F | 25F | B5
26F | 27F | 28F | 29F | 30F (1) | 30F (2) | 31F

The ruins! The first part of this floor, I did with a tertiary party since it's intended to be completed with those levels. It was easy to sleepwalk through even with Level 4 characters. The boss was no exception, dying in no time flat.

The second part of this floor I did with the main party. The puzzle of the floor didn't even occur to me until partway through. I was just marching right up to all the big boars and killing them all - ShieldBeast used Front Guard until its arms were bound, then swapped over to Hit Taker. Poison that does well over 400 damage quickly shredded them. The only problem was when Arm Bind didn't land, but even that wasn't a problem unless it used Swing twice in a row. One thing about Venom Curse is that it's expensive, so I had to make some retreats to refresh TP. It's a trend for this party anyway.

Of the two monsters on this floor, the small boars were no threat, easily tanked and sometimes instakilled by the poison. The Haggis (!?) monsters had a nasty electric attack when they woke up, but the tertiary party managed to spawn a Volt Wall grimoire, which came in handy if I couldn't bind their heads or didn't put them right back to sleep with the Hexer. They couldn't be poisoned until the sleep was gone, making that option impractical.

The boss took a bit of skill expending. Spoilers, don't read if you haven't gotten this far.

The main hook of the Basilisk fight is that when you damage below certain thresholds, around 80% and 40%, its eyes begin glowing. If you don't destroy the eye within three turns, it will begin throwing out petrification across lines. I had to give the Beast Tiger Drop (3 hits that are stronger depending on HP) in order to have enough DPS to knock it down, but this one adjustment was enough. Other than that, many of its dangerous moves can be blocked by Arm Bind.

My winning fight was a hilarious comedy of errors. I started off with Creeping Mist Venom Curse for whatever reason. Then I misunderstood what Tiger Drop's formula was, having the Beast triple its HP with its Force Boost before using the attack, AND pointlessly had the Gunner use her Force Break to finish it off while still attacking with the Beast. I even canceled out Medic's Guard Slash by having the Hexer use Frailty Curse (20% damage reduction and a lot less turns vs 30%), although this was the right move for weakening the eye anyway. That was important, and the Poison, which happened to last forever, was doing most of the damage for me.

Things got really screwy when it used a Max HP halving move called Doom Breath at half health. It would've been easily counterable with the Beast's Endurance and Hit Taker, and in fact worked on a repeat I did for testing. But defending with the shield and a bit of luck was enough on that front, with them barely surviving. I was able to inflict poison again, and though the eyes were gleaming, I just kept going on the boss itself, including landing a second Arm Bind. The Dark Hunter used her Force Break, and other strong attacks like Guard Slash (Medic, the hardest hitter!!) pushed me through before the petrification could come.

I couldn't get away with not using the Beast's stat points, but I did repeat the battle for posterity. With a routine down, this became much more straightforward battle that was effectively on lockdown. I used the Force Boosts and Breaks properly. On this victory lap, I actually couldn't stop the eyes the second time even with additional stuff, but it was too little too late. The boss died after petrifying the back row, and they got experience anyway. Still, I had to use an Amrita in this fight for the Beast, so I didn't keep this result.

Next | Index

1F-5F | B1 | 6F | 7F | 8F | 9F | 10F
11F | B2 | 12F | 13F | 14F | 15F
B3 | B4 | 16F | 17F | 18F | 19F | 20F
21F | 22F | 23F | 24F | 25F | B5
26F | 27F | 28F | 29F | 30F (1) | 30F (2) | 31F

The floor didn't put up much resistance. I used binds to my advantage as I normally do, especially helpful against the Giant Moas' legs. About halfway through, Varda got to Level 18. This let her pick up her first level in Ecstasy. I immediately employed her new technique I've been building towards the whole game so far against the local FOEs. Strategic spoiler...

***

The Tree Sponges spin when they're hit with a physical attack, and unleash Spin Drive on their subsequent turns. Otherwise, they only have a weakish single hit physical attack that Ichigo could easily laugh off. I used the setup turns to have Devaki lower its offense just in case, followed by having Azura use Blood Fortune via a Grimoire I snagged, Venom Curse (need to do this beforehand, else the poison from the subsequent action takes priority), then unleashing Varda's Force Break to get down as many binds as possible. The important one being the arms - as long as those were locked, Spin Drive was useless. If all three parts were bound, Ecstasy would do over 900 damage in tandem with Guard Slash's defensive reduction! Of course, due to the Force Break, I could only fight one at a time safely, but it's nothing to go back or just avoid them.

To wit how fast this party can kill things when things line up...

This is it after I'm ready to begin the assault, having around 4800HP

This is it three turns later.

***

Of course, Ecstasy and the binds do completely burn through her TP supply...the latter cost 8TP a shot and the former 12TP. Impractical overkill most of the time. I fought a few in my way, dodged some others, picked up some items along the way, and went up the steps. So far, the (second?) return to this game has been going so good.

Next | Index

1F-5F | B1 | 6F | 7F | 8F | 9F | 10F
11F | B2 | 12F | 13F | 14F | 15F
B3 | B4 | 16F | 17F | 18F | 19F | 20F
21F | 22F | 23F | 24F | 25F | B5
26F | 27F | 28F | 29F | 30F (1) | 30F (2) | 31F

Shortly after entering this floor, I achieved Level 20. More Grimoires to equip! Let's go over those, I suppose.

- Varda got a Fire Wall Grimoire with Bind Up. The skill wasn't so important (but the Grimoire itself lets her equip Shields), but Bind Up was. She also has a Whip Mastery Lv1 with Cut Up2, and Curse Mastery Lv4 to give a bit of an increase on landing binds. Then I learned that doesn't work, so I swapped it for...Rolling Lv3 Cut Up. A bit of an odd choice - it was between that and Battle Instinct Lv5 (35% odds of blocking ailments). I went with this because I have only one source of Bash attacks otherwise, and besides being my strongest available option, the Cut Up stacks and certainly helps a bit.

- Ichigo got Guard Order Lv3. A janky choice, but couldn't think of anything better, was considering a defensive buff anyway (a Bull Charge one also an option) and this works with the below. He has a Front Guard Lv1 as an extra defensive option, and Auto Lick Lv4 Cut Up2 to buff that skill and his claws.

- Kei got Front Guard Lv1. The idea is synergy with the above - the Beast can get up a buff or attack while she guards instead. She has a Guard Slash Lv10 because luck with a Premium when raising a secondary team for it, and Fire Wall Lv1. Even with Varda having it, I reasoned that she's unlikely to be using it. The redundancy is nice anyway. I have a Salve Lv5 to add onto her own, but I'm not at the point yet where it's really needed. Might've also gotten War Edge Mastery to let her use a staff and that, but didn't have one.

- Azura got a Warrior Song Grimoire. One thing I am lacking is buffs, so here we go. A bit oddly placed, but she's the best user of it for lack of any other place to put it. She also has a Speed Up Lv4 (mainly to patch up some of her accuracy issues a bit), and Blood Fortune Lv4 for lack of anything else and as a helpful situational buff.

- Devaki got a Fire Formula Lv2 Grimoire for lack of anything else - she hasn't been spawning good Venom Curse Grimoires. She also has a Volt Formula and Flank Shot Lv5, the latter mostly for adding bows as an option. The elements will probably be getting switched here and there. She's my only other source besides Azura.

I also had a bunch more skill points to spend. All I ultimately got was investing four points into Leg Snipe on Azura, locking it in after beating the resident FOE, which I'll get to in a bit. Was on the fence about it, and after the save was ultimately all right with it. It does only boost the infliction odds by 10%, but it does help support Varda and there's not much else besides buffing the elemental bullets. Ricochet is a scam, Charged shots are situational (and elemental ones don't even convincingly pass up the normal ones without investment), although Medic Bullet might be one.

So this next floor was again routine. The birds could still be a threat if I didn't leg bind them right away. There were also statues I wanted to Arm Bind, mutant plants which could be panicked, and boars which...were more HP sponges than actual threat. Naturally, I took the time to challenge the resident FOEs. Shoving this behind a spoiler.

As you might expect from their name if not certainly from what they do on the field, Baby Salamanders use fire to attack, and unfortunately Fire Wall was still not enough to stop them from one-shotting Varda with their breath. The two key binds here were the head to stop that, and the legs to stop another move, a multi-hit one which can.hurt if it hits the same person multiple times. However, binding the head was far more important. As long as I got that down before it used it, I was golden.

So turn 1 was Gag, Guard Order, Front Guard, Blood Fortune, Sapping Curse. Once Head Bind was down, I usually tried to split Varda and Azura between arms and legs. Ideally, legs are bound on turn 2, so Ichigo can use Hit Taker with impunity. Throw down a Venom Curse preferably on turn 2, then Guard Slash on Turn 3 if reasonable. Once legs or arms are down, Trance, Devaki Guard Breaks, and begin using Ecstasy. Hope it lasts a while. Possibly use Azura's Force Boost with Ice Bullet to help topple the last bit of HP.

Just getting over the rump was the hard part with these. Once I was through that, this was simple enough.

Sometime during this floor, I also went and completed a quest on the previous floor featuring a miniboss. It has only 2100HP or so, so Venom Curse melted it in a matter of turns. Binds weren't reliable at all here, but when everything lines up with them...

Under the best of circumstances - all three binds active, Warrior Song buff, Guard Slash debuff, and Trance, Ecstasy did 1400 damage on the FOEs!! These conditions don't unfortunately come around that often. Hard to land all three binds. The somewhat more reasonable instance of 2 binds did around 850 under otherwise the same circumstances.

This floor's gimmick is based around those things. They're stationary except for turning, but shoot fire that blasts you back and acts as damage tiles for a few turns. You need to go around them for the most part, unless you're like super strong like I am.

I fought a couple just to see if I could, and fought two more to clear out room instead of walking around the intended path. Also in particular on this floor, I found a double gold enemy encounter. Managed to kill them both and without dying, particularly due to killing the one quick and leg binding the other. That paid out a healthy sum of EXP.

The party hit Level 22 at the end of this floor. This opened up the possibility of Level 5 Ecstasy for Varda, but the slight damage increase was not worth the 6 extra TP. A few numbers from deer hunting: all three plus Guard Slash and Trance did 1804 at level 1 and 2033 at level 5. Two with Trance and without Guard Slash did 796 at level 1 and 885 at level 5.

Next | Index

1F-5F | B1 | 6F | 7F | 8F | 9F | 10F
11F | B2 | 12F | 13F | 14F | 15F
B3 | B4 | 16F | 17F | 18F | 19F | 20F
21F | 22F | 23F | 24F | 25F | B5
26F | 27F | 28F | 29F | 30F (1) | 30F (2) | 31F

First up was a puzzle to solve based on an even bigger version of those Baby Salamanders, very similar to another puzzle in Etrian 1. I figured out what you had to do...and I failed because you need to end up in a very specific spot when it's exhausted. So I just pushed through until I made it, which worked brilliantly and had no risk because there were no random encounters in the room and I could just Salve anything away.

I unusually gave the experience from this mission to some of my secondary units. This allowed them to produce Grimoires for the primary party to use, at the cost of losing out on a level. However, being able to pick up two handy new skills made it worth it. Tawny the Highlander procced a Stigmata Lv7, and Oran the Survivalist and one of the few boys among the units got a Curb ATK Up Lv6. They went to Devaki and Varda respectively, replacing a formula and Rolling. I also got some stronger Fire Walls in the process. This took a few hours. But was it worth it? I also noticed Chimera respawned. Getting its condition is not worth it as I'd need to grind out 400k+ for what you can make with it.

One annoying thing about this floor was that although Kei's Fire Wall came in handy on a particular enemy, it only blocks one a turn. But that's right, Varda has it too because of that Bind Up! But hers was barely adequate, hardly reducing the damage at all! Luckily, Kei spawned a second for her to use. Didn't have Bind Up, but surviving these encounters was more imporant, and Curb ATK Up helped make up some of the deficiencies. Figured there was little better on her, so may as well buff the chance of stubborn binds landing.

SPEAKING OF WHICH

---

The resident FOE has two skills, both of which use the head. Fire God's Fury which does a ton of fire damage, and Fearsome Roar, which attempts to inflict Fear. However, it's somewhat resistant to head binding, making acually getting them down annoying.

7043 is the largest pool of HP I've had to take down yet, but thankfully, Ecstasy and Poison (which it's quite open to) made this simple enough in-theory. Approaching from behind, my first attacks would be Gag, Guard Order, an attack for nothing better, Blood Fortune, and Creeping Curse Venom Curse. I used to do Stigmata on this turn, but the problem is if it head binds Devaki, she can't use her Force Break or Venom Curse. Second turn, Fire Wall, Front Guard, Guard Slash, Warrior Song, and Stigmata. Hopefully with at least two binds, unleash the Ecstasy. If Fearsome Roar shows up, use the Medic's Force Break.(didn't feel worth it to get mass Refresh for its cost)

Stigmata was annoying not only for that reason, but also for how it can fail to inflict the binds on the enemy while still binding the user. Hexer is the best user of it, but the self binds can be a problem. At least Ichigo and Kei can undo them if need be. Might actually take Lick Wounds to Lv10 eventually, as it removes 3 binds for 10TP. Compare to the horribly wasteful Unbind, which takes until Lv9 to do that for a row, and balloons to 35TP for Lv10 and a full party effect. Or even War Magus' Displace, which heals everything for 10TP at Lv1.

I actually fumbled through pretty far in my first attempt even when I forgot Guard Slash, because poison lasted forever and I kept landing timely binds. It failed at the last second when the Beast died and I forgot about its Force Boost, however. Several more attempts followed. My winning run was almost killed itself at the very end, for that matter. I couldn't get up Flame Wall because of Fearsome Roar, but Kei survived and recovered. I had her use it and revived the Beast while using Medic Bullet. After wondering what to do from here when I realized it would've been better to revive Varda, I had the Beast Force Boost and Hit-Taker. Kei got off Revive no problem, and by this time the Hexer's Force was back. A boosted Venom Curse sliced the last of its HP, and that was that.

The second one I fought went much smoother, even though I forgot to reapply the Poison x2 after swapping dishes to get some foodstuffs faster. Nothing really to report on it.

---

One thing that was not annoying about this floor was the damage tiles. The game gives you three sets of Scout Boots for free between a chest and a quest, so there's little trouble in using them to navigate.

Varda and Azura got weapon upgrades here, as did Devaki later. Kei and Ichigo stuck with the weapons we got from the Beowulf guild. A notable enemy that showed up in the latter half of the floor were these big turtles. I had enough elemental damage to get around this, thankfully, and Ichigo could contribute too while Kei took up guard duty. All this redundancy is really helping!

The FOE rush was the final obstacle of the floor. I took out the first, then beat the second. I was told I would have some idea of how to proceed when I stepped into the room with #3 and #4...but I just winged it there because I didn't. They seem to go around in circles, you probably need to get into there and walk along with them. Also, there was a locked door here.

And one last random funny thing - Abigail mentions your party leader's clothes are ruffled and fixes them for you if you talk to her after the first quest. However, she does this even to a Beast with no clothes with no dialogue change.

Level 24 across the board at the end of this floor.

Next | Index

1F-5F | B1 | 6F | 7F | 8F | 9F | 10F
11F | B2 | 12F | 13F | 14F | 15F
B3 | B4 | 16F | 17F | 18F | 19F | 20F
21F | 22F | 23F | 24F | 25F | B5
26F | 27F | 28F | 29F | 30F (1) | 30F (2) | 31F

So starting this floor up after some prep, I actually got a third encounter with the local Yggdrasil plant, second after the fixed one. I forgot to mention these before. Unlike with the DLC, you only get these one at a time. There's a fixed spawn the first time you come to them, and then the rest you need to be lucky to find.

And I found them with my farming party no less, aka the one that makes the sprout's reward fairly obsolete in regards to gathering materials - though it's certainly handy for drops. Or in Story Mode. They actually had to fight a few times when I kept getting an unusual amount of ambushes at gathering points, but they were up for the task of doing that or running away.

I also used them to get a preview of the floor using an Owl-Eye Grimoire I had on me from a trade. Before long, it was time to start 9F proper...and again, I failed to switch back to the Poison x2 food. Which would make the FOE that was waiting for me soon after entering a bit harder to deal with.

---

Theoretically.

Um, yeah. When all three binds are on you in the presence of Varda, just forget about it - you are already dead. Most important was to lockdown the arms so it couldn't use its skills. Stigmata got the head and legs on turn 2, and Azura managed to bind the arms. Kei Guard Slashed, and with Warrior Song to boot, the subsequent Ecstasies did 1700 damage on average! They even lasted the whole fight without Hexer Force Break! Now granted, this is still nowhere near enough to achieve the conditional of killing it in one turn, but still!

I'd kill the other ones in the same way, also landing all three binds on them. Even with my playing on Expert, tough enemies are still falling before my party's insane might. When things line up.

---

The Gun you can make from its drop gives Luck+5. Since Devaki's Curses are based on this, I actually switched her over to this. However, this meant giving up Flank Shot Lv5, my only means of mass damage besides Venom Curse. Because of this, I shuffled her Grimoires around slightly - she got a Medic Bullet Lv1 with Bind Up - the best option just for that - and a Spark Formula Lv3 to replace Flank Shot for immediate mass damage. This meant no cheap formula/element use, but she still has the gun itself for damage.

When fighting the third of these FOEs, Azura got a Premium Chance. I had her use Action Boost so she produced two Leg Snipe Lv5s! If only I'd used some of her stat points, could've potentially had some Lv10s to play around with there. With this and the second kill, I proved this was no fluke. The third fight also had a double Grimoire Fever, but sadly stopped short of the triple/Premium Fever.

Speaking of, I did spend 10 of Devaki's 11 on maxing Curb ATK Up. Why this? Factoring in the 11 points she already had, Evil Eye/Suicide Word would take several more levels to reach, and several more after that to make Suicide Word worth it. It can only target one enemy as well. Meanwhile, boosting Curb ATK Up to 10 gives a flat 125% multiplier to the chance of anything status or bind landing. It's essentially pumping everything's odds of landing all at once - including Stigmata. This boosts it at its current level to a 106% base chance of landing, and boosts the non-Venom Curses by around 10% each factoring in her Curse Mastery level, and Venom by 21%.

What about Sapping Curse/Fraility Curse? The reduction the former gives only goes from 10% to 15% at Lv4/Lv5. Might push it to 4, but it's inefficient and too costly TP wise to go further, at least for now.

By the way, I forgot to mention this, but Stigmata uses no Body Parts. It owns. If I can grab Displace off War Magus somehow, this will be a simply sadistic combo. Bind self, and if the binds don't go through, heal them and try to throw them at the enemy again.

So moving on. I actually kept on Ingredients++ throughout this floor, just because Venom Curse was effective enough on its own, anyway. The fourth Cactus was a gold one. Not even it could stand up to my strategy, and it paid out a ridiculous 29000EXP. The floor ended suspiciously early after this- just three rooms of these things - but I found out that it is indeed that short. All those things that I marked with Owl Eye are in an area I can't get to yet.

There were two quests opened up by this floor, one a simple fetch quest, and the second a material-gathering one which I haven't fully finished just yet due to the short nature of that floor. I also got a free Ruby by helping a choking baby bird. Cool?

One last incident to report was that Devaki got her first Premium Chance here. However, I was robbed of using it. This actually annoyed me enough that I used the Premium Chance DLC. I don't intend to use this until the late game where you really want Lv10 Grimoires, but it felt like an appropriate "fuck you too" here after waiting so long to see one. The result? A Lv6 Venom Curse. Far from the Lv10 I wanted to see, but still over Lv5 which is okay. This buffs the base poison damage from 190 to 245 (it's 310 at Lv10+10). Giving some hard numbers, using Venom Curse on a Tree Sponge...

- Lv10: 500 with double poison, 252 without
- Lv16: 632 with double poison, 322 without

Not terrible, but the skill costs only 2TP more to deal 130/70 more damage, so it's quite a bargain. Not sure if I'll stick with it, though.

One last floor to go in Stratum 2! Hit Level 26 on this floor, strictly because of that gold FOE. Otherwise, it'd be only 25.

Next | Index

1F-5F | B1 | 6F | 7F | 8F | 9F | 10F
11F | B2 | 12F | 13F | 14F | 15F
B3 | B4 | 16F | 17F | 18F | 19F | 20F
21F | 22F | 23F | 24F | 25F | B5
26F | 27F | 28F | 29F | 30F (1) | 30F (2) | 31F

And once more, unto the breach.

The gimmick of this floor is those Baby Salamanders from before, except everything else is here and can be instantly killed by them. I of course fought everything I could. The first room was a Tree Sponge and Baby Salamander. I actually had to retreat from the former once because Arm Bind refused to land. Not having Poison x2 around didn't help either, so after somehow fighting these two in a row, I went back and got it back up.

I was blocked by some old German gunner, told him off, and prepared for battle...only I didn't battle and had to go back to the city to get a mission to face off against Hellion Flame Demon. This thing has apparently been defeated many times before by other guilds including him and his War Magus buddy, but it always keeps coming back. The team hit Lv27 on the way back since Ariadne Threads are for chumps and I needed to get some drops anyway. In one of these battles, I got a lot of junk Grimoires to sell...and again just short of a Premium Fever even though counting everyone getting one at the start, I had three in a row. Though I'm kind of glad I didn't, since Devaki had burned through her TP. I'll break this diversion for cleanliness reasons.

---

What this did give is the chance for Lv10 Ecstasy. The numbers here when going deer hunting - 1950 something at Lv1, 2446 at Lv10 - all three binds and no Trance/Guard Slash. Which became over 3000 with a Warrior Song. The cost goes from 12 to 22. Worth it? Maybe. Varda only has 112TP, which makes it a bit questionable to pick up. On the other hand, no use in getting sword skills with her, and the skills for pumping Whip Mastery beyond - Viper and Crimson Rouge are both questionable - the former cannibalizes Venom Curse, and there's few situations where I'd want to spread binds.

I'm actually not sure what to do with her beyond. Bait is theoretically fun with Ichigo, but the skills themselves is terrible - needing 10 points of investment to counter more than twice, and a Grimoire at Lv10 for 4. Snake Eyes could be okay for redundancy. Perseverance seems a good backup.

However, in the end, I do end up spending a bunch of points on skills - if only because I plan a reset in a bit to tweak a few things. Varda's 9 points go into Ecstasy. Ichigo has 11, two go to unlocking Self-Defense, and nine go to maxing it. Also with this, I swap out his Guard Order (which is incidentally just as effective buff-wise as Protection Vow) for Healing Rhythm. Kei and her 11 took the longest to decide on - she got several points into Healing Mastery to unlock Chase Heal, which she took to Lv5, before sitting on three points. Azura maxed Ice Rounds and Cover Fire - now by defending, she would heal the front line by 60-70 points apiece! Devaki sat on her 3 points for now[

---

There's two quests here. One of the involves getting Tree Sponge's drop, up to three times. I absolutely destroy them the first two times - patching the hole in my strategy from before by simply having Devaki inflict it without using a physical. I go for the Strawberries from before to get extra TP to obliterate them again, but when I realize that might not be a good idea with the double Flame Lizards around, go back and fight the third as-is. Venom Curse wears it down, and binding its arms allows the others to pitch in periodically. Arm Bind makes it helpless - its regular attack is overwritten with a Spin Drive it can't execute. Before that, the disgusting Chase Heal + Hit-Taker combo did the trick. It's pretty absurd, especially factoring in Healing Rhythm and a 24% chance Auto-Lick. This got 5 Axcelas, items that restore Force.

Then there's a birthday present finding quest for Quona, the innkeeper girl who has taken a shine to me. Abigail suggests a Small Flower because she's a girl, Cass suggests I loot a caravan that was attacked, Regina says she'll help cook something up, Marion suggests a sword because the world is a dangerous place and when we just stare at her, suggests some berries (which magically became jam after fighting some monsters). Dubois is the best and worst: he says it is a very difficult problem, and that no matter their age, women are complicated and mysterious...and can't help me. I walk through the labyrinth and fetch them all. She loves all the gifts, then Regina arrives with a cake. The result is giving her her best birthday ever. :3 The reward is 5 of each Therica. I copied this scene down for fun.

---

Cass: "Ahhh, Velichiye! Perfect timing!"
Cass: "We're having a birthday bash for the innkeeper's daughter!"
Cass: "Why don't yeh join us? Yeh can give her the present yeh found!"
Quona: "Ah... members from Velichiye... You came for me... I-I'm glad to see you..."
[You handed her Small Flower as her present!]
Quona: "Wow...!
Quona: "......"
Quona: "It's pretty... and it smells good. It's so nice..."
Quona: "This is a great present... Th-Thank you..." (Thank you!)
[You handed her Quality Jam as her present!]
Quona: "Ah...!"
Quona: "......"
Quona: "Wow... it looks delicious. Can I share it with my mom?"
Quona: "Thank you... This is a wonderful present... Haha..." (Um... thank you. That made me really happy.)
[You handed her Scented Candle as her present!]
Quona: "Whoa...!"
Quona: "......"
Quona: "I hope my mom won't get mad at me for having this..."
Quona: "Ha ha... It's a great present! Thank you!" (Thanks.)
Regina: "Looks like I made it."
Quona: "Wow... Is that... a cake?"
Regina: "Mhm. A birthday cake for you."
Quona: "This is amazing... Thank you... Miss Regina..."
Regina: "If you're gonna thank anyone, thank Velichiye. They sort of gave me a quest, you see."
Regina: "...Since I made my delivery, I'll go back to my store. Happy birthday."
Quona: "Okay...!"
Quona: "Uhm... Thank you very much for the party..." (Uh. Excuse me...)
Quona: "I think... this is my best birthday ever." (This is really fun!)
Quona: "Thank you very much..."
Quona: "Eheh... that's all."
Cass: "Well? Did yeh get a nice gift? Yeh sure look saisified! Haw haw haw!"
Cass: "All right... It's time we got down to business, Velichiye."
Cass: "Here's the reward for doin' the job. Nice work!"
Cass: "The girl has her gift, yeh have yer reward, everyone's happy! Cheers!"
Cass: "Thanks for helpin' out!"

---

Heading back into 10F after this, Artehilde the War Magus gives me an Amrita and believes in me when I tell her we can't lose. I clear the next room of FOEs because I'm just that kind of player (a Cactus that dies quickly and a Baby Salamander that dies not as quickly), then after a retreat...Azura gets a Premium Chance on the next FOE! And I just got her a usable Lv10 skill too! I naturally Action Boost so she gets two...a Lv8 and Lv7 Ice Rounds. Disappointing, although I do get a Lv9 Dust Tail in the same battle.

Also, you can make some serious cash once you've upgraded the resturaunt enough.

I take some of my high level stuff and try to do a Grimoire Recycle. Some Fafnir trades me a Lv10 Weapon Free? At the cost of a quarter of the damage at this level, skills from any weapon can be used.. I wasn't going to use this...but it's actually interesting in regards to Varda. I don't have a means of paralyzing an enemy, but this and a single point of investment there would open that as an option. And for whatever reason, this didn't occur to me at the time when they were prevailant enough to snag one. Another possible reason to grab this is Scorpion - it's the only player way to inflict Petrify, although even it is limited. So in short, this is one of the more usable results I could've gotten. Although frustrating in the sense that I do want to keep it because of it and yet could do better!

Being able to paralyze came in handy when Griffons showed up. Or it would've, if anything could get through Chase Heal + Hit-Taker. Before too long, I found myself facing down the boss of this Stratum. I did a bit of Grimoire reshuffling before going through with this - I gave Varda back Curb ATK Up, Azura got Lv8 Ice Rounds, and Kei inherited the Blood Fortune Lv5 Grimoire. Devaki also got a Lv5 Link Order that I'd traded for to play with over Medic Bullet. May as well see what the deal is! Statwise, I buffed Kei's Refresh and gave Devaki Lv5 Chained Benefit. Level 29 going into this fight, as well as coming out of it.

---

Hellion Flame Demon was not a tough opponent with my setup. The simple math and absurd quadratic scaling of Ecstasy didn't change even against a boss - once all three binds were down, Varda quickly got to work absolutely destroying this thing and its 8790 HP.

The only tricky part about this was landing the Head Bind, which it is quite resistant to. This is why I decided to pick up Chained Benefit - turn 1 saw Varda use Gag, Ichigo Self-Defense, Kei Blood Fortune, Azura Warrior Song, and Devaki Chained Benefit. Considering nothing stupid happened with its first move - attempting to Panic everyone (Kei had an Owl Earring on to stop this and heal it), turn 2 would be whatever, Hit-Taker, Unbind (Devaki), Warrior Song/Medic Bullet, and Stigmata. Once I got the head, the rest of it wasn't too hard to get down. Begin the Ecstasy once all three binds are up.

For a monster of fire, it's surprising that it only has one telegraphed Fire move. Nevertheless, you apparently need multiple Fire Walls if its sentries - who look just like the Gel monsters - are around. The winning run got all three binds in short order, and even without Creeping Curse (which was an accident). Nevertheless, I healed Devaki and had her Force Break ASAP so she could Black Mist and make those binds last longer. Varda managed to get off three full-power Ecstasies...well. Full power without Venom Curse/Guard Slash - didn't have time to get that off. I did eventually throw it down, which also wiped out an annoying Gel enemy. Azura's shots were doing around 270 each, which was actually more with her Force Boost. Link Order did around 190.

As you can see, it died on Turn 6 without accomplishing anything significant. Far from the one-turn kill you need from its conditional, but still insanely fast! It went from what you saw on Turn 3 there with all the binds up, to a sliver of health at the start of this turn, to dead.

Apparently after this, it is deceased beyond a doubt. And no longer will it rise to terrorize High Lagaard's explorers, until it respawns that is. The subtext? We killed it so hard it's staying dead this time.

And yet would you believe there's even more ridiculous strategies out there? Might look at some of them for the postgame. Onward to the winter stratum! Or rather, B2. And as an aside, completing this changes all the spoken dialogue in town except for Regina's, which I'll go over next time.

Next | Index

1F-5F | B1 | 6F | 7F | 8F | 9F | 10F
11F | B2 | 12F | 13F | 14F | 15F
B3 | B4 | 16F | 17F | 18F | 19F | 20F
21F | 22F | 23F | 24F | 25F | B5
26F | 27F | 28F | 29F | 30F (1) | 30F (2) | 31F

This playthrough was originally posted on the Bulbagarden Blogs before they exploded. I figured to port it here in its original form because why not?

I only (re)started the playthrough from Stratum 2, so this first one is a "roundup" of what I remember

Figured I'd do a brief summary of what happened before I started doing a "if that guy can do it..." for the fun of it and for the record, even though my memory is really hazy on some of this stuff.

I actually had a few different ideas for a party at first, considering Highlander in particular. I ultimately settled on the party of DH/B/M/Gu/H that I did. The reasons being twofold. One, knowing that there's a lot of damage to tear down made me search for something good, ergo Ecstasy. And two, not wanting to use any party member I did in EOU or would in EOU2. That leads to the healing conundrum - I felt it unwise to go without one of the two. I chose Medic for a nicer portrait and an increased amount of it over War Magus, even though the latter synergizes more. May class change her eventually. To beat the name, boss, I used names that mean colors - with the exception of Ichigo the Beast (companion)

Build-wise, Varda (DH) unlocked the binding skills and began slowly building them up - I believe I started with getting Cuffs or Shackles to 5. Ichigo used his first three to unlocked the all-important Hit-Taker and I believe sat on it for a bit from there. Kei unlocked the bread and butter at first, then focused on getting Revive up and running (also to make those skills less pricey TP-wise). Azura got up to Gun Mastery Lv5 (to unlock her own binds), then got Ice Rounds Lv5. I forget the exact path Devaki took, but she unlocked Venom Curse Lv10 as soon as she could.

1F and 2F weren't too noteworthy. Battles consisted of locking down strong attacks with my binds while using Hit-Taker almost all the time, while having Azura use the appropriate elemental attack. The FOEs on these two floors were no exception - Shackles/Leg Bind for the deer, Gag/Head Bind for the dinosaurs. I believe I was able to take them on shortly after completing each floor. These became really trivial after getting Venom Curse up and running - it was doing over 400 damage at that point, less than it is now, but still more than enough to melt faces.

I also had at least one of each other class of party member. I used these - dunno if it was before or after - to get some extra skills for the rest of my party. In particular, a War Magus was able to proc a Premium Chance. I used Guard Slash, and it turned out max level! It went on Kei. I also got a collection of elemental grimoires for Devaki's use so she could add a bit of extra damage. I also got a Front Guard to give a Shield to Ichigo, as well as give him another option when taking all the attacks wasn't desirable.

I stopped for a long time around 3F, then continued in the weeks before FE14 came out. I couldn't take on Terrible Hunter right away, though! 4F was annoying to properly map, but I got it done. The bats were more or less the same as everything else - bind them, poison them, shock them. Sometime during this, Grimoire Trading was unlocked, and I was able to snare a Flank Shot Lv5 which went on Devaki as much for the weapon as it was for the alternate means of mass damage. Ichigo was able to generate an Auto-Lick Lv4 sometime during this, which helped a lot.

Not overspending on TP was key here. Though I could make skills very strong, they would also become impractical to use normally/in travels as they would drain reverses in just a few battles. Venom Curse was an exception, as it was a single-shot murder machine on anything it landed on at this point and Devaki had the TP to spare.

Sometime before the boss, I was able to take on Terrible Hunter. It was essentially more of the same, just on a grander scale - bind the head, wear it down with Ice and high damaging poison. Not much to say. It was in a sense a good warmup for the boss.

I tackled Chimera at Lv14. Stats in-brief, and because I actually have a savefile from back then...
- Varda had all her binds over Lv5
- Ichigo had Lv5 Lick Wounds, Lv5+4 Auto-Lick, and Lv1 Protect and Hit Taker. Had Front Guard.
- Kei had just gotten Salve, also had a level of Heavy Strike. Also had that high-level Guard Slash I lucked into off my backups/builders and a Fire Wall.
- Azura had 5 points in Ice Rounds. She could've gone 10, but that was too inefficient.
- Devaki had maxed Venom Curse and had not much left.

My party was not yet the murder machine it would evolve into when Varda would unlock Ecstasy, yet it could still pull its weight enough to get this done using only 3 of the 4 holes. The first order of business was the clear the room of the bats, which was simple enough - just get the big guy stuck and beat them up.

When it came to fighting it, this took a while, but it wasn't too dangerous. The keys were to keep its legs in particular bound, although Head Bind was also very much welcome. Sapping Curse was also a useful tool. The former stopped the dangerous Snake Pile, and could happen automatically when the battle started. The latter stopped a medium-strong Fire attack - the Fire Wall could help stave this off, at least. Blind was a useful status ailment to inflict here as a backup. Azura's Ice Rounds did around 100 damage apiece. Varda's damage output was more modest, but became better with Trance and more binds. If all three binds are down, go on the full attack.

I actually *almost* got the conditional drop without even trying, where the boss needs to die from Poison damage. I was running out of resources towards the end of the battle, having used all three of my Amritas to make it this far. I threw that out while Devaki had activate Creeping Curse as a desperation tactic, due to its heavy resistance to having it inflicted, and got it to land. The big plays worked and helped bring it down the rest of the way, although the boss died from Ichigo's Force Break counter (last turn of its boost, may as well use it) instead of the poison.

Next | Index

1F-5F | B1 | 6F | 7F | 8F | 9F | 10F
11F | B2 | 12F | 13F | 14F | 15F
B3 | B4 | 16F | 17F | 18F | 19F | 20F
21F | 22F | 23F | 24F | 25F | B5
26F | 27F | 28F | 29F | 30F (1) | 30F (2) | 31F

As not to be put out of a job, I guess we'll continue this. So why 11F before B2? Because, I want to get the Premium Chance Grimoire! I don't use pay2win stuff!! Much! Unless it's EMD and the hold onto stuff when you die food, which is really pay2notlose and also because that's really stupid!! Even though I didn't need it!! I'm going to use that before a rest, to get some very high level Grimoires for my personal use.

Also due to advancements in technology, I'm now able to cap screenshots 'properly'! Here it is in-action with showing off one of the newer quests. As you can see, I went a little crazy with it here, but hey, no problem. All it took to beat this one was going to the store and paying some money that's ridiculously easy for me to make even without pay2win. Probably easier, actually.

Not much to say about this new floor. The new sprout was actually found at the start, but I decided to go through anyway. Venom Curse still melted absolutely anything it touched in the worst case. There were these weird land fish enemies who were better off with their legs bound, same for the bulls. Blinding Curse was nice insurance against them, in case both Gag and Head Snipe missed.

This led up to the next FOE. The game said that I could either 'proceed with caution to stay out of its line of sight' or 'simply dispathc it to remove the obstacle'. Quite naturally, I took the man's option.

---

Ambush Wolves. What's there to say? This thing has a ton of HP, which as usual quickly disappeared when it came to being ravaged by Ecstasy. Binding its head is important, which Devaki can do. Essentially, I employ the same basic strategy I did with the last stratum boss.

I also managed to take one out with more limited resources after taking down a second on an earlier trip, only able to get two of the three bindings down - and one of them not being Head, the important one. Ecstasy still did around 1600. Force Boosts and Force Breaks, as well as Venom Curse, got it down to low HP. I killed if when it was panicked for a special staff which gets a ton of stats - although I may still prefer Devaki to have a Bow as to increase her offensive options.

The direct reward for killing them was a drop that allowed me to make a new whip. Very nice for Varda. Boosted her attack from 139 to 187. Next time I fought one, I was doing 3031 per Ecstasy.

The bonus drop is to kill them while panicked. Simple enough, and I even managed to get a twofer thanks to Grimoire added effects. This gave up a staff, which had nice stats, but I preferred to have Devaki use a Bow. Maybe for Kei if I give her War Edge Mastery, though.

---

Besides this, there was a quest to haul three large boulders back to the Geomagentic Pole. Meaning just walk back and forth a lot.

There was also a miniboss beyond the wolf floor. A bunch of these small snow enemies who were no threat throughout the floor combined forces to form the Snow Swarm.

Of course, it was still easy. It freaked out when I actually attacked it. And here it is facepalming.

One slider tile puzzle later, I was able to enter the next floor, finishing this one proper. I got to Lv32 so the upcoming rest wouldn't reduce anyone's Grimoire slots. With that, it was time to finally get Grimoired up. The good news about this was, this was simple. Ichigo bowed out for a bit in favor of Tawny the Highlander. Under this special tea, all Grimoire Chances are Premium, giving a much higher chance of it being higher level. Very good, especially during Grimoire Fever. Even better, I lucked into a second of these, though unfortunately wasted the extra due to miscalculation.

Everyone in the party had at least one Lv10 skill - Tawny had Stigmata (got a decent one for Devaki's use earlier, but not a Lv10 one), Varda had Ecstasy, Kei I gave Refresh (which showed/proved to me that unless it's Lv10+10 that is absolutely not efficient), Azura had Ice Rounds, and Devaki had Venom Curse.

I got Venom Curse Lv10, Stigmata Lv10...and even managed to trade for a Cover Fire Lv10 which was a pleasant surprise. Though I went back from using the first a bit too soon, I noted during the second that due to the TP restoring spots around the labyrinth, I could stay around indefinitely.

The bad news about this was, I actually eventually got too many of them, so had to have fun discarding lower level ones after every battle. Not only that, but Ecstasy Lv10 was just refusing to show for some reason. Two hours of this, I just gave up. I got plenty of stuff anyway...

...and then these guys were waiting for me when I got back. Traded with them for posterity. Their Grimoires all have special effects; in this case, HP restoration when damaged, and increasing of Force automatically at the start of battle. The Link Order one was especially nice, as I have that skill on Devaki anyway.

Next | Index

1F-5F | B1 | 6F | 7F | 8F | 9F | 10F
11F | B2 | 12F | 13F | 14F | 15F
B3 | B4 | 16F | 17F | 18F | 19F | 20F
21F | 22F | 23F | 24F | 25F | B5
26F | 27F | 28F | 29F | 30F (1) | 30F (2) | 31F

As was the plan, I Rested everyone to get back some ill-invested stat points. This reduced everyone from Lv32 to Lv30. After a bit of thinking, this is what I came up with for stats.

---

Varda had Ice Wall Lv4, Curb ATK Up Lv6, Weapon Free Lv10, and Ecstasy Lv8 since that's as high as it went. Really all self-explanatory except maybe Ice Wall, which was more for the shield equipping than anything. Her skills are unchanged. 7/7/7 on the Whip Mastery, 10 Ecstasy, and 1 in Sword Mastery. 2 points unspent.

Ichigo had Healing Rhythm Lv5, Self-Defense Lv9, Auto-Lick Lv5, and...had Front Guard Lv5, but after some luck with recycling, swapped to Shield Mastery Lv10. The second of those was a lucky spawn, and gave him the full Lv10. Couldn't think of anything better for this slot, for now. I had Self-Defense pumped way high, but had a bit of a different spread this time: notably, 5/5 in Beast Roar and Preemptive Roar. This gives a 50% chance of reducing the physical attack of any battle. If I land a Lv5 Grimoire, that's a 100% chance. Seemed cool enough to try. 7 points unspent. Wasn't sure if I wanted Tiger Blow/Wolf Fang like I had before. I also considered something I call Cat-ana with a Clear Stance Lv10, but this wasn`t much stronger than its claws, so I just threw it back into the trading pool.

Kei had Front Guard Lv7, Blood Fortune Lv5, Guard Slash Lv10, and...Refresh Lv6??? I had some Lv10s and Lv9s, but I went with this due to it making the skill reach Lv9, for multi-targetting while staying affordable. at 10TP. I wasn't sure how to spend her points, but ultimately it looked much the same as before. I thought about getting Scavenge Lv10, but that seems unnecessary. I did upgrade Salve to Lv5, as that might help. 3 left unspent.

Azura had Warrior Song Lv3, Speed Up Lv4, Curb ATK Up Lv7 (Volt1), and Cover Fire Lv10. Skillwise, she's a lot more balanced: all the elemental rounds were set to Lv5, none of the binds were pumped, and Cover Fire Lv10 was obtained as before. 4 left lying around

Finally, Devaki had Flank Shot Lv5, Link Order Lv8 (AutoHeal), Stigmata Lv10, Venom Curse Lv10. Her skill points pumped the usual. Also, it occured to me a bit too late that Chained Benefit Lv5 may not be that big a step up over Lv1, but eh. Something to fix in another rest, I suppose! 5 unspent.

---

Cover Fire Lv10+10 is really ridiculous. It's a full-heal at this point on anyone in the Front Row. Forgot to take a picture of it, will do so next time. Autoheal is also pretty good; most hits on Devaki just healed away. Gave me a really nice secondary healing option, and one that always triggered at a round's start due to the nature of it. Venom Curse Lv10+10, on the other hand, wasn't that much better than Lv10+6 or so as I was using, but was still a bit better. Not "needed", but nice to have.

With new areas comes new FOEs. You can go around them, burn their webs to instantly kill them, or fight them. So of course I was going to fight them. Right now? Right now!!

I got caught by the first spider, and wasn't expecting to start with everything bound - though it might just be legs. But there were some things that I could use even though that was the case. Namely, Cover Fire and Stigmata. So there was a point where everything on the field was horribly bound. Eventually I recovered and was able to work this thing down.

Subsequent fights, well...the strategy is the same as always. Nerve Bite also came in handy here due to their paralysis vulnerability. These things are resistant to binds, and yet Devaki could still inflict them all. Just completely bodied them. I also tried fighting one under more normal circumstances. This one ended up closer to the first fight - slow and annoying, but a stalemate that I'd eventually win. Also during one of these, I got a triple Grimoire Fever, leading to a quintuple Premium Chance. Ended up with another Venom Curse Lv10. Varda also got a natural one here. Still dick all. She may be a destroyer of worlds but she kinda sucks at making Grimoires.

There was a notable incident in the room with two. I handled them just by brutalizing the one before the other could reach me. Oddly, when the one that died respawned later (these things respawn very fast for some reason!!), when I got into a random near it, it tried to use its web. During this incident as you can see, the other spider just came in to try to join the fight. I was preparing to greet it, but had to Venom Curse the thing I was facing to death instead.

After my first trip in when fighting those things, I got the aforementioned Shield Mastery Lv10. A character who takes most of the hits having a chance to no-sell some is nice. I also got a Warrior Song Lv10 when recycling. It's cool on-paper, but you absolutely cannot use this. It costs way too much TP (40!!!), and isn't even that much better than the original. And a second Legendary Sovereign, with AutoHeals on Clearance and Link Order.

One of the more notable enemies here were the Red Haggis. Like their predecessors, these cute things do not take kindly to being woken up and will burn you. Dealing with them wasn't too bad, even without a Flame Wall Grimoire. I could just bind their heads, and if I wanted to be extra-safe, could do it with Devaki. The originals also showed up here, but were no threat - Fire Rounds plus Link Order took them from full to dead.

There was also that funny looking guy with-them and a somewhat bigger guy who apparently has six arms. Neither got a chance to do much with their arms good and bound, though that guy could use a debuff that makes healing less efficient, and the latter I'm assuming uses a general high-powered attack. Same goes for these white gorilla/tiger things.

There was an Unbind Grimoire on this floor. Probably maybe will come in handy. Most of the floor consisted of spider rooms, and that included the boss. Everyone was sitting at Lv30. Like I said, those spiders took up like half the floor, so leveling kinda stalled for a while.

---

17000HP is a lot to clear...and I think you're not even supposed to actually straight-up fight Arachne this way. Again, you're supposed to light the web on fire, this time to stun her and reduce that HP value by around half. But I thought this team could handle it! I was originally entering battle binded and so had everyone use Thracia As, but it turned out not to be necessary with the right positioning/movement.

Indeed, the math was no different against her. However, I can't Guard Slash her easily, and even at full power, I would have quite a lot left to clear. The solution was just waiting for Force to respawn and going again! I used my Amritas when doing the Grimoire grinding, which annoyingly limited me some. It really wasn't hard, I could deal with her attacks easily enough. Even when she used a Poisonous Swamp attack to deal damage at the end of each turn, I wasn't concerned. This fight looked to be in the bag...until her second cycle of toxic swamp. It was slightly stronger, which wasn't too big a deal. However, I died here when her Poison Fang attack suddenly became much more powerful. What the-!?

Hm. Maybe add a second Front Guard? Varda can carry that. I also thought it might be better to use Ecstasy at full-power every time instead of using some weaker ones, to converse on TP. This especially applied when it went down to a single binding. After all, if I'm waiting the whole fight anyway, may as well wait to unleash full power once more, right?

Well, I failed again after getting to this phase, but came up with the simple solution - Hit-Taker plus Force from the Beast means she can't do much. That seemed like it'd be enough to outlast her and get around to a second cycle of pain. There was also a small lack of synergy at work-here: Varda's new weapon would trigger Link Order. I was stuck on whether to just Defend with her or not mind. Didn't do the calculations to see which is truly best.

I also decided to try some reshuffling of less useful skills for the fight to better deal with her. Most importantly, Varda swapped out all but her high-level Ecstasy for Bull Charge Lv5, Whip Master Lv1 (Cut+), Pre-Initiative Lv3. A bunch of spare Grimoires I had lying around to try to buff her damage. Azura and Devaki got Fire Rounds Lv5 and Curb ATK Up Lv5 (Fire+) respectively, to boost that element. I wanted Kei to have Frailty Curse, but I'd thrown those all away. o.o She had to settle for just a bit of extra TP from War Edge Mastery Lv6. I already had Venom Rings and had switched to HP boosting food; nothing better and Venom Curse was useless.

Surely, the battle to come would be one of epic proportions!!

...or I'd just destroy her due to luck and the power of my reshuffling. The triple bind lasted all three rounds of Varda's Force Charge, plus one beyond. Bull Charge Ecstasy was ridiculous. The subsequent ones did a little over 4000. The fight went something like this.

- Turn 1: Attack/Beast Roar/Blood Fortune/Warrior Song/Chained Benefit, she attacks Varda,
- Turn 2: Bull Charge/Beast Roar/Cure (Varda)/Warrior Song/Stigmata (Force Boost), she attacks Varda
- Turn 3: Ecstasy (Force Boost)/Self-Defense/Attack/Warrior Song/Thracia A, she does nothing because bound
- Turn 4: Ecstasy/Self-Defense/Attack/Fire Rounds/Frailty Curse, she does something irrelevant
- Turn 5: Ecstasy/Hit-Taker/Attack/Fire Rounds (Force Boost?)/Link Order
- Turn 6: Ecstasy/Hit-Taker/Attack/Fire Rounds/Link Order, dead after the Ecstasy (which still did over 2000)

In summary...B-b-b-bodied. The experience put everyone back up to 31. I accepted this. I'm fairly sure the enduring strategy would've been able to win out, anyway, and even kept a save file to check for later. Already had what I felt really was the last piece of the puzzle. Onward and upward, then!!

Next | Index

1F-5F | B1 | 6F | 7F | 8F | 9F | 10F
11F | B2 | 12F | 13F | 14F | 15F
B3 | B4 | 16F | 17F | 18F | 19F | 20F
21F | 22F | 23F | 24F | 25F | B5
26F | 27F | 28F | 29F | 30F (1) | 30F (2) | 31F

Note that the screenshots in this part are a bit faux, due to them not saving properly the first time. Had to retake those that I could.

I'll start this off not with 12F, but with a few quests. The first one was to get Abigail...something. I don't know what. Apparently I already got her the materials. Second was the first of the DLC boss quests. Didn't realize it opened up at this point, and I'm at the right level, so let's go. The objective is to go into a previously-inaccessible section of 11F and dig up a hot springs. You find a spot, which, after some digging and accidentally destroying a tree root, pours heated water out and magically fashions itself into a hot springs. In the story mode, this also unlocks lewd outfits for the girls. Here, all it does it make you fight the Gentle Toad that shows up to crash the party.

---

lol.

Okay, let's do this fairly. No binding, not even Poison x2, although that was more accidental than anything. On the way back for round 2, as this quest is actually repeatable, I got another Premium Chance Bud. So that's going to be nice. Note I may have been a level higher when fighting this thing, especially the second time. Again, had to recap these.

Really, the toad's attacks really aren't all that threatening. Periodically, it becomes fixated on what I'm assuming is one of your female party members, proceeding to Lick or Hug them. Guess whose party is all-female? Including Ichigo, apparently? Although regardless, Ichigo couldn't stop the licking, which could also panic. No problem, I could just pop a Medic Bullet or Refresh. The frog also becomes excited after licking or hugging sometimes, although only if it successfully gets them off (not if it's bound).

Did I say its attacks really aren't all that threatening? I meant there was one move that could be a thing - its Hydro Jump after it becomes excited. Nevertheless, Ichigo took one for the team here on this unexpected shot, Kei's Force Break got us back in action, and Varda's Ice Wall made sure that couldn't happen again, as shown in this screenshot. Stupid tool malfunctioning! If it wasn't for that, a shot of my half-dead party might be here. As for damage, most of it was dealt by Azura (Fire/Ice Rounds) and Devaki (Venom Curse/Link order).

It gives up 25000EXP a fight, and 40000EXP for completing the quest. The second time, I gave the quest experience to some of my other party members/sources of Grimoires. With this, everyone in my main party was at Lv32, around the same level of experience they were at after the Grimoire grind. Sadly, the hot springs you dig up here don't seem to be usable.

Also, didn't notice it had a conditional until I actually did it over again, even though I used an Analysis Scope! It's to kill it with Bash damage, although the reward is hardly worth it.

---

Also, showing off Cover Fire Lv10+10 before I forget.

Onto 12F proper, the objective is to navigate a maze to find some flowers. One enemy of note here were the armored beetles, common enemies throughout the Etrian series. Because of them and their conditional, it was best NOT to have the Poison x2 food on here! A Venom Curse put them exactly into position to be killed by Bash damage from Kei or Ichigo - I finally switched the former from Hrothgar's Sword over to the conditional from the Ambush Wolves. The HP and TP bonuses were just too good to pass up. This meant switching Refresh Lv6 for War Art Mastery Lv6, so she could continue to use Guard Slash.

There's a bunch of dragons around here (like the ones from B1 except not chumps) that are sleeping during the day, but you need to go there at night to actually get the flowers. The dragons are on the move during the night, but don't chase you.

These things are FOEs, which means it's time for a FOE pound-up.

---

This was just bullying during the day, really...them being asleep gave me all the time I needed to set up. To make matters worse for them, I also got a Frailty Curse Lv1 Grimoire to replace the ones I'd senselessly thrown away. On two of the three ones I fought during the day, I was using Guard Slash to weaken their defenses. For final one and where this screenshot is from (albeit with higher levels because of the screenshot issue), I instead used Frailty Curse and had Varda kick it out of sleep with Ecstasy, leading to these numbers. Lower than here, but still over 90% of their HP. Even in the instance of the first two, where I didn't do this one ultimate shot, they were too screwed up from the binds to do much. They were quickly worn down and defeated, just over the course of multiple attacks (Azura in particular could pitch in with elemental bullets).

I fought one proper during the night though, and this was much more annoying. Its signature move, Venom Heads, necessitated Venom Rings on the front row party members AND poison-resistant food. Even with that out of the picture, this move hurt!! It was mostly a matter of surviving it long enough to get the binds down. Even that wasn't quite enough on its own. This one took a bit of luck and some use of Nectars and Kei's Force Break. But I got it done.

Now, I fought one more during the night. One of the chests here had a Petrify Gas, and it just so happens these things have a conditional drop that requires petrification. I had a good strategy here: Ichigo uses Force and Hit-Taker, and otherwise follow my strategy of buffing Devaki...except have her use the gas instead!!

To my surprise, this worked first try! I wanted to try doing it again with a drop+ Grimoire, since the items you make from this can give you an EXP boost from a battle. I saved this result on a different slot beforehand because I had a funny feeling...and it's a good thing I did, because that turned out to be a huge fluke. I eventually just gave up and took the one. Would've loved to get a shot of the petrification being a success...but agian, they screwed up, so showing what I get form it will have to do.

---

After killing the last one, I rested until night, and set out to get the Snow Blooms without incident. And got the motherload of experience in the process - a little over 100K, which equaled one full level. Just to feel like TouyaShiro for a moment, and because I can't access the regular experience+ food yet, I try it with the pay2win DLC experience tripler. And holy crap, that was two and a half levels. And that's only my main party - the rest of the guild/Grimoire generators got 1/5 of this each as well!! But that's silly, so I didn't ACTUALLY do that...

I do a quest after this and incur a funny reset - handing it in with the wrong party. I'd almost accept that, but they really didn't need the extra EXP.

Moving on, I find Artelinde who's "still" standing here despite my seeing her for the first time in this spot. She asks us what we'd do if she asked us to leave, and drops some lore when we tell her we wouldn't be able to do that. She also warned of something terrible past here that no one can defeat. And that she won't stop us if we keep going.

"Not yet, anyway."

Also at the last minute, this floor introduces sliding block puzzles!! Joy. I grab the last treasure chest, containing Chinese Food 3, and move up to the next floor.

Putting that ugly mess of screenshotting behind...the party sits at Level 35. Don't even know how to spend all these points some people (or tigers) have. Well, doing fine as-is anyway, so probably will continue to do fine moving forward! And if not, I have the points to spare to make it fine!!

Next | Index

1F-5F | B1 | 6F | 7F | 8F | 9F | 10F
11F | B2 | 12F | 13F | 14F | 15F
B3 | B4 | 16F | 17F | 18F | 19F | 20F
21F | 22F | 23F | 24F | 25F | B5
26F | 27F | 28F | 29F | 30F (1) | 30F (2) | 31F

This screenshot tool sucks!! Just saying. At least I think I know how to make sure that it doesn't bug out, now. idgi otherwise, it worked fine for B2 and 11F. At least I had far less to retake here.

Reaching 13F opened three quests: the sequel to the one I just did that I reset on, to kill a monster that killed a woman's fiancee on the northern end of the 12th floor, and to explore a cave on the 12th floor. The second of these was a snap. Just needed to fight a slightly stronger version of those walking fish enemies. I bound its legs as I do for those things, used Venom Curse, and then it flopped over dead. With these stats; even without the Poison x2 food, it was toast.

The last of those and second I tackled was to find a hidden treasure within a cave. There's a suspicious guard here. I go Ace Attorney on his ass and get him to leave, although have to fight a group of five of those armored beetles. No problem. I killed 4/5 with Bash damage to watch those Crushed Carapaces keep piling up. The last quest unlocked by 13F was to gather materials on 13F, so may as well start it proper now!

Right away, I run into the local FOE. They're these big floating eyeballs who are not impeded by the ice. Well, let's beat'em up.

---

These things are really dangerous!! Its Eye of Madness can drive a whole row into panic, and Onrush, as shown here, is simply an incredibly painful attack. They're vulnerable to blind (loleyes), stab (putting their eye out?), ice (freezing their tear ducts? they do drop Giant Tears as a food item), and bash (got nothing).

And of course, they're vulnerable to the same devastating strategy I've been using as of late. It's just that getting it off was a pain. As long as Devaki remained unpanicked, I was fine - even if all the front row got hit, I was usually fine. Something like that happened in this example fight - Ichigo and Kei got owned, and Varda got Onrushed. I had Varda use Medic Bullet on Ichigo and left Kei alone, also reviving Varda with a Nectar. Also, with their amount of HP (8354), it was slightly more efficient TP-wise to only use two Ecstasies and work it down from there.

Binds were a good idea anyway - head bind (though it resists this) stops Eye of Madness, and for some reason, binding the legs of the floating thing stops Onrush.

---

The only problem with these things is, much like the spiders, it takes only a day for these things to respawn. It made dealing with them directly a bit annoying.

That said, this was a really uninvolved and short floor. These crabs were a new enemy, which had a conditional for being killed with something other than a physical attack to deal the final blow - hello, Venom Curse!

There was also a small event on this floor where I had to fight an Evil Mammoth to save a raccoon. I actually Ecstasied it out of safety and due to its high health, although subsequent random encounters saw me using Poison Curse instead of Blinding Curse as that was even better. They have so much HP that these options were wise. Though binds still helped in any case - particularly head binds to stop their charge attack.

Yeah, I really wasn't kidding. The second eye I came to in the south advised maybe finding a detour. Well, you actually need to take this route, and despite saying if you have trepidations about it you don't need to, you must push that ice block in the southwest. This wipes out the block and the FOE. They only follow you shortly out of their patrol radiuses.

Short floor, but the party still climbed to Lv37 during it. Also, man. Cass is just cruel, as I found out when turning in that last quest.

Next | Index

1F-5F | B1 | 6F | 7F | 8F | 9F | 10F
11F | B2 | 12F | 13F | 14F | 15F
B3 | B4 | 16F | 17F | 18F | 19F | 20F
21F | 22F | 23F | 24F | 25F | B5
26F | 27F | 28F | 29F | 30F (1) | 30F (2) | 31F

Two more quests from reaching 14F. One of these is to look into some suspicious attacks on 13F that see the victims looted after death, and to get Cass some stuff. For the first, I was looking around and making my way to a conspicuous corner that had nothing going on in it.

I instead get jumped out of nowhere after a battle, taking 80 damage at the start of the fight, and have to fight an advanced beetle. The Beetle Lord had 2300HP and an attack called Sweep Strike that it never got to use because I hit it with Arm Bind, and even if not, could've used Front Guard or Hit-Taker. Not a difficult fight, Speaking of which, I get a Grimoire for it after completing a quest to develop recipes that'd been sitting idle for a while. A Lv1 one. What a ripoff...

Also the scene after that one quest is funny with a Beast. He tries to poison us, but fails. And we knock it from Ichigo's "hands" on instinct, who "demands an explanation". He also rages about why we can't just die and how the monsters he's controlling are too weak.

I mosey around 14F for a bit, spotting the new FOE but showing some restraint for once, don't immediately jump on them. I do pick up an Almighty Ring here - +2 to all stats! This replaces Devaki's old Luck Ring, because why not? I also immediately run into Old Man Gunner, who acts very suspiciously! I'm sure this is not an omen of any kind at all. Nope! Not at all.

I sure have a ton of money. I proceed to piss most of it away upgrading the South Ward due to some Gourmet King coming in and buying food for everyone. A ton of workers are going to eat all the food! Not like it's hard for me to make money even without pay2win, though...although my methods are almost as cheap. Also Regina wonders why more people aren't coming. I tell her to make the food with LOVE, and it resonates with her.

So 14F. This is just another ice puzzle/slider maze. It features the next FOE, Blue Gels. This thing just bounces ice blocks back if you try to kill them the same way you kill the eyes. Obviously this will not stand and we have to bind and destroy it, right?

---

Well, you'd be wrong! NYEH-HEH-HEH!! Also, check out how things look during a day/night transition.

These things really aren't all that threatening. They have two moves - a move that boosts their elemental attack, and a "screw you too" attack they do on death, much like their non FOE predecessors. Obviously since Varda has the Ice Wall to say "nope" to that, we can't have her going nuts.

But that's fine, as it lets the other shine. Ichigo could keep its buff down with Beast Roar - somehow despite it lowering physical attack and this move raising elemental attack. Since it has no skills, he could just Hit-Taker to his heart's content, backed by Kei's Chase Heal if need be. Kei could also use Guard Slash after Devaki poisoned it, which it is weak too. Again no Poison x2 (I was using Ingredients++ for most of this), but with that, Warrior Song, and some Fire Rounds/Link Order, this thing soon died. Also, I really want Varda to get a stronger non-elemental whip; she couldn't actually attack as it would cannibalize the Link Order. Total lockdown.

One small quirk as you might have noticed above - was messing around with Varda's swordskills, and managed to panic it, overwriting Venom Curse. She could've chipped in with her whip skills, but it simply wasn't necessary.

Was doing around 550 a round with Azura/Devaki, and an extra 441~ on top of that if poison was active. As you can see, this suicide attack would've HURT if not for Ice Wall. But Ice Wall exists, so suck it. To add insult to injury, if it died from poison, it wouldn't do this.

---

Notably, I got a triple/platinum Grimoire Fever when fighting the second of these. Getting quite a few of those lately...none of which have been any use but telling me I need to discard more Grimoires.

These Redfish enemies were the ones I needed to kill for the quest. Ice Wall or binding their legs stopped their special moves. Not too troublesome to deal with. There were also more of those mammoths, and regular enemy versions of those big snow guys like the one I faced on 11F. They have a conditional to kill them with ice damage - very easily done with Azura, as her Ice Rounds still deal a lot of damage. I actually got a Lv8 Hailstorm Grimoire from them. A pretty meh attack, really - it's multi-hit, but only hits a target once at most.

There was also an event where I got a special necklace, although took a ton of damage (100HP each) in the process from a small avalanche. Just needed to pop a couple Salves, there.

Also, what the hell. Wasn't expecting that much of a return. I promptly spent this upgrading the South Ward to max capacity, since that guy was still there.

So this was another short floor. Only other thing to note was where I marked a question mark - a mysterious emblem of some kind is on a random floating block!! I was warned by gunner guy that the next floor will be my tomb. Obviously, some serious crap is going down next time!

Next | Index

1F-5F | B1 | 6F | 7F | 8F | 9F | 10F
11F | B2 | 12F | 13F | 14F | 15F
B3 | B4 | 16F | 17F | 18F | 19F | 20F
21F | 22F | 23F | 24F | 25F | B5
26F | 27F | 28F | 29F | 30F (1) | 30F (2) | 31F

Two quests from reaching 15F: to support the naval Troubadour troupe, and to help some hexers. Also worth noting, Regina is the talk of the town. As is 15F, including the sole survivor of a group that tried to one-up us, failed, and everyone but one guy died, who returned horribly wounded. With bullet wounds. Nope, not foreshadowing at all. Also us to some extent: Velichiye is as strong as a lion, swift as the wind, and sturdy as a great boulder. Sounds about right.

By the way, I swear this guy whining about Lilly and doing anything for her is a reference to something. Been seeing scenes like it throughout the game in the bar.

For the first quest, it's apparently the same angry woman who wanted vengeance. All she needs is a Mammoth Bow XL, so I get her that. The second is to head into 15F to find a certain shrine, so let's do that. There's an event shortly into this that involves helping someone who's trapped in an avalanche, netting me 5000en.

I grab a Hero Orb for Varda halfway through. Makes her a bit less sturdy, but that's what Ichigo and Hit-Taker are for. And +50TP makes it very much worth it. Also, don't get nearly as much as from the South Ward second go with the King - only 32856en.

I'm warned of an ominous presence before entering a room shortly into the floor, just beyond a room with Ambush Wolves and a Hell Dragon....

---

It's these two clowns. They whine about their friend who got her humanity taken from her and turned into a monster in exchange for eternal life, who is the boss of this stratum, but still vow to defend said horrible monster to the death.

Here's their codex page. Clearly, only one of them watching my guild's progress (which, to be fair, is one more than usual), as while Artelinde is immune to all binds, Wilheim is not. The usual strategy with Bull Charge, and he was brought from full health to dead in a single blow.

Kaboom.

So how about her? She uses various status and binding skills. Sweet & Sour Moa was nice to block her first move - a "low" accuracy attack that inflicts random status ailments. However, once Wilheim is down (or if she's around 30% HP), she becomes mad and activates something that's like a Force Boost, which also changes her hair color. Kind of like a magical girl or something. It even looks like a magical girl transformation pose. It lets her attacks inflict their ailments 100% of the time. Wilheim is the same way, except his technique turns his moves into multi-hit ones.

Both will commit suicide in a dramatically overpowered way at the end of three turns, but if I have Ichigo use his Force Break...

This is kind of a problem some people have with bosses in this game. A lot of them are puzzle-based. To wit in the original, it was just a straight-up fight. No force/suicide gimmick that forces a speed kill or to line it up right. Speaking of which, I tried a fight with that and Poison x2, but Artelinde can actually remove ailments.

The only trip-up about this fight was that I had Ichigo overwrite his Sweet & Sour Moa buff. It wasn't a problem though, as he wasn't needed until that final moment. Blood is everywhere, but they're still alive, and just tell us to kill the overlord in the castle in memory of all his explorer victims.

---

Very shortly after beating the boss, I hit Level 40, unlocking another Grimoire Slot. I'm really not sure how to use it for everyone, although Varda introduces Bull Charge into her lineup fulltime. I also gave Devaki a Grimoire with Fafnir's Absorb (3), a skill that removes binds and builds Force Gauge. Perfect for someone who inflicts them on herself! The drops are also nice, giving me some welcome new equipment.

The shrine in question for the quest is in the room beyond. Just need to place the offering and go out of sight, because the guardian can't do it while I'm watching or something. Also, this part of the floor was annoying!! It was a pain to navigate (I actually blew up the two eyes in the room), and I kept running into those giant snow enemies which got tiresome to fight very quickly.

But before long, I found myself in front of the boss door. One last trip to town to prepare, and it was onward!!

Got a nice Grimoire from trading, too. Filled Ichigo's fifth slot. I also ended up with Frailty Curse Lv10, which might come in handy for those instances. Like Chimera, the battle against Scylla technically started before it actually started.

---

First of all, you need to solve a little puzzle in the room, or just charge blindly forward. This involves those ice blocks, but she brings out some tentacles to try to make sure you can't hit her, like those gels. Need to skate quickly around the room to hit her before she can block, and at that point, you're free to just shove the rest into her without incident. This knocks off a decent chunk of her HP and lets you get a preemptive against her.

Very good idea to do this too, as she has a lot of HP.

Scylla does a lot of things, which you can read in walkthroughs or TouyaShiro's blog (which is dead). None of it was relevant for me, because she didn't even get a chance to act. I was being cheap before, but now I'm just being straight-up unfair to the bosses. The fight went something like tihs.

Turn 1 (Preemptive): Analysis Scope/Self-Defense/Blood Fortune/Warrior Song/Chained Benefit
Turn 2: Bull Charge/Thracia A (Devaki)/Frailty Curse/Swap Step (Devaki)/Stigmata (Force Boost). Scylla is triple bound, does nothing. She summons a tentacle.
Turn 3: Ecstasy (Force Boost)/Hit-Taker/Swap Step (Devaki)/Whatever/Torpor Curse. Scylla takes massive damage.
Turn 4: Ecstasy/Hit-Taker/Swap Step or Healing or something/Volt Rounds (Tentacle)/Black Mist
Turn 5: Ecstasy/Hit-Taker/Swap Step (Azura)/Analysis Scope/Whatever. Just to make sure I get the Ruin Creeper's codex entry.

The initial Ecstasy, boosted by Bull Charge, put out its impressive numbers. Between that and the ice blocks, she was already down to 25-20% of her HP. And better yet, due to eating a particular food, this did not wake her up. The two beyond did around 5200. This wasn't even optimal, either - should've had Azura using Frailty Curse, and she could've killed the tentacle with Force Boosted Fire Rounds or something.

Absolutely no chance. This is just getting silly at this point!! If it was optimal, could've done it one less turn.

---

For killing her while she was asleep, this also netted me a conditional drop. I can use it too - it's armor for a Dark Hunter, I believe. Might actually be able to make it in a reasonable amount of time if I save up enough.

Level 40 across the board on finishing this stratum.

Five new quests are unlocked by reaching the new stratum, with its fantastic music that's one of the most famous in the entire Etrian series. Give the original a listen. Before I go there though, I'll be heading down to B3. After a period of inactivity, I am just rocketing through. Maybe this time, I'll kick the odd habit of putting the game down at around the start of each stratum.

Next | Index

1F-5F | B1 | 6F | 7F | 8F | 9F | 10F
11F | B2 | 12F | 13F | 14F | 15F
B3 | B4 | 16F | 17F | 18F | 19F | 20F
21F | 22F | 23F | 24F | 25F | B5
26F | 27F | 28F | 29F | 30F (1) | 30F (2) | 31F

Two new items from beating Scylla. The first is the Snow White bow. Might get this for Devaki eventually, but content with her Dragonfly one. Then there's Bindings, the Dark Hunter's ultimate Armor. Costs a ridiculous 205,000, but I can get there!

Five new quests unlock from reaching 16F, including the one to descend into B3. Guess I'll tackle them all this point. Also notable, Abigail in particular is very happy to see us back. :3

The first of these is the third in the series of that vengeance bride-to-be. This time, it turns out that the murdering fishman is actually an army of them, and they're all around 11F. I have to go there and beat them up until the boss shows up. They're just as feeble as before - I even throw Inferno Strike onto Varda and use Poison x2 to make sure the battles all end in one round.

The big boss himself, I fight old-skool for once. It's really not all that difficult, especially with its legs bound. Except when its legs aren't and it uses a rush attack, but Ice Wall helps solve that. Ichigo got owned once from it due to getting hit twice, but this was ultimately not hard.

A second third in the series quest was to deal with that thief from before. Dubois himself joins in on the action, though we don't get to use him. He's trying to attack the town with monsters he's controlling with another flute. Thanks to going Ace Attorney on him earlier, I don't need to fight two of them due to my own flute.

Not that these Brainwashed Worker (ant) enemies are any threat. They showed up as yellow on the map, but I could just autobattle them. Next up is a scorpion enemy. Remembering the original (or Untold 1), I know to bind its legs to prevent it from using its stinger. It really isn't that difficult, it just ended up more drawn-out than usual due to holding back and the fact that there's a third type of enemy to deal with, to save the thief from a grisly fate.

Another bug from EO1, I showed this thing none of the respect I showed fishman or the scorpion. Particularly after I had to reset when it turned out faster than I thought and owned Devaki before she could get off. I responded with Kei's Force Break, and tried to outsmart it when I couldn't bind its arms when it tried the move again with Ichigo's Force Break. It inflicted instant death and killed Devaki again anyway.

I'm also asked why I did this. While I did it for the extra money you get from it and for a codex entry which seems to not exist, I chose the FF9 option, which seems to piss him off the most.

Third quest is to investigate a part of F4 that I haven't been able to get to for the longest time, pertaining a man who mysteriously blacked out after stumbling to a secret area with a treasure chest. The FOE noise and even an exclamation mark appearing over the box gives it away before it happens, but regardless, it's a pound-up time.

---

Really, there's nothing special about these things except for their Glutton attack. This does insane damage that could even one-shot Ichigo. But they died like anything else. If I needed a moment - say, when I was fighting two at once, which was the only way these were interesting, they were weak to panic.

Here's how fighting two went.
- Turn 1: Frailty Curse/Hit-Taker/Blood Fortune/Warrior Song/Chained Benefit
- Turn 2: Bull Charge/Hit-Taker/Swap Step (Devaki)/Head Snipe (new Mimic w/Force Boost)/Stigmata (first Mimic).
- Turn 3: Ecstasy/Hit-Taker/Whatever/whatever attack/Absorb
- Turn 4: Ecstasy/Hit-Taker/Swap Step (Devaki)/whatever attack/Stigmata
- Turn 5: Just finish it off.

Occasionally the mimic would recover from any Head Bind, but it's no big deal. Fight was easy to get in-hand.

---

With TP Up food and fighting randoms, I could restock and beat down the next one in line. One room had five of the stupid things!! Not wanting to fight three at once, I fought two at a time before checking the north chest...only for them all to respawn instantly at midnight!! I could've checked and ran, but killed them all again out of spite.

The reward for getting through this mess is the Yggdrasil Key, allowing me to open locked doors in the labyrinth. I'll do that before 16F or something.

Also around this time, I get a Temporary Workers event at the resturaunt. Sadly this only pays out 8235en.

Final quest was to be good big sisters (and pet) and escort Quona to a certain in 14F. I would say this had no notable encounters...but it did. Hello, Bud! Went over there and beat it up, netting me another session of Premium Chance time.. I also got to write my guild's lore - we come from a place far far away, and we'll take Quona there somebody.

She gives us a handmade Flower Pin made of white clover, wishing us a safe journey. Really adorable quest and character. And indeed, I prefer Quona over Hanna.

I also pay a visit to the Gentle Toad once more for its conditional...and hilariously, end up with a Lv10 Hug Grimoire. This might actually be interesting for Devaki, considering it doesn't bind her, but is otherwise a bit less effective then Stigmata.

This just leaves the next ruins exploration quest to deal with. And B3 is a magical place. Need to enter it during the night, and when you do, you get the following message from a disembodied voice.

---

Voice from somewhere:
"...This is holy ground. Those without
the seal are forbidden to set foot in
these blessed halls..."

Startled by the disembodied voice, you
cast around for its source, but it
simply continues, calm and placid.

"But the creeds of the past carry little
weight today. This land's role will
soon come to a close."

"Child of man. Unsealed ones. You are...
not the ones that I have been awaiting."

"However, your presence here cannot be
anything but fate. Show me, then, the
strength that dwells within you."

"Perhaps...the extinguished light of
hope may yet be rekindled."

The voice fades away, its parting words
as cryptic and confusing as the first...

---

Lore! There's three Return Flutes behind you, and when you go through the next door, it's like "oh yeah one more thing"

---

"Children of man. The unsealed ones.
There is something I must relay."

"This place was created as a trial--a
solemn gauntlet by which one might train
themselves. It thirsts for life energy.

"A barrier was here cast, long ago. Even
with your might, you cannot escape it
until you have withstood its ordeals..."

Its grave proclamation finished, the
voice fades once more into silence...

If the voice is to be believed, you will
be unable to return until you have
cleared these trials...

---

Welcome to B3, among the trolliest of Etrian floors. It is absolutely fantastic blind, or like me, to watch someone play blind. It begins with Troll #1. You can't leave. You're in here until you get through the floor or die. Hope you prepared. To this end, I upped Ichigo's Hit-Taker to Lv5. Now he'll take up to three hits a round and be more resistant to damage. He had 20 unspent skill points, and still had a ton left after this. Might go to 10, but that's pretty expensive TP-wise. It was 2TP to start off with, and I can afford 5TP a casting now (150TP), but 10TP is pushing it. Of course, Amritas are obtainabe routinely now.

There were four kinds of enemies here. Illbears are palette swaps of the backscratcher guys from before. They too use an attack that reduces the amount of damage that can be healed on a target, but this doesn't affect Cover Fire. When they showed up, it was great to sit around and let TP restore itself - I took that food with me. Although now I'm at the point where Amritas are going to become plentiful enough. The second type are mantises like the one in the quest from before. And like them, an arm bind helped. They were good targets for Ecstasy, actually. Troll #2 were pumpkin enemies. A minor one that can inflict panic on a line, but a troll all the same.

Troll #2: These...things, also in that shot above. They can and more than likely will do this. Not a fun thing to see. If you don't realize what's going on, they'll always do so. But as I learned when farming those guys, if you just leave them alone, they commit suicide and fully replenish your force, even if it was previously broken.

So there's a hallway here. A chest off to my right. It has a Soma in it, a decent find. We'll just head back and-

oh god the walls

---

Troll #4. Once these things spot you, they'll move two tiles at a time to try to get to you. If you don't know to keep your eyes on them (they don't move when you're turning). Troll #5: if you do get caught. you can't run, unless you know to do it when they use a certain attack or use a Return Flute or similar skill.

These things are no joke. Their Crush special does ludicrous damage to all party members. Ichigo could tank it with Hit-Taker and Force Boost (although Devaki would still get hit, as would've Azura if I didn't upgrade), but this was tricky.

My usual strategy could work, but there's a couple problems: first, it resists the physical elements, so it'd only do around 4000 - less without Bull Charge. Second, I don't have the tools needed to make the alternate work. Third is its Reflect Guard ability that you can see above, which it uses every three turns and lines up/obstructs my own attacks. If it's attacked during this time, it takes no damage and throws out a devastating counter (funny enough, it also happens with the Beast's Force Break's resultant attack, thankfully it still works after that). The binds could wear off during this period...regardless, this isn't even this strategy's final form, but I can't reach that yet.

So I switch strategies with some Grimoires. I found some nice ones during trading. Devaki and Ichigo get an Ice Prelude/Ice Circle and Frost Fantasia Grimoires respectively. Kei and Devaki have their Link Orders, and Azura takes up an Ice Rounds Lv10 she made. The idea is to pile on the ice damage for maximum carnage. I get this strategy to the point of where it's infallible.

Turn 1: Ice Prelude (Azura)/Frost Fantasia/Frailty Curse/Warrior Song/Venom Curse (Force Boost). The wall does a physical if there's no preemptive. If it hits Devaki, just switch her position.
Turn 2: Ice Circle/Hit-Taker (Force Boost)/Link Order/Ice Rounds/Link Order. The wall uses Crush on this turn.
Turn 3: Defend/Beast Roar/Cure (Devaki)/Warrior Song/Black Mist (Force Break). The wall has Reflect Guard up.
Turn 4: Ice Circle/True Endurance (Force Break)/Link Order/Ice Rounds (Force Boost)/Link Order. The wall uses Crush on this turn.
Turn 5: Ice Circle/Whatever/Link Order/Ice Rounds/Link Order. It dies before it can move again.

Being at full health was important, or someone could die. With this, the only thing to do was break the walls down. All of the walls. With the little guys around to restore Force, I could do this to all of them.

---

So yes. If you screw up, hope you can Flute or make it to a way out in time. Dodge or fight your way to the end of this mess, and you reach a Geomagnetic Pole where the voice speaks again.

---

You have cleared the trials of this
ancient place, even while forbidden from
returning to safety...

I have witnessed your strength. Thus, I
lift the barricades of time, and allow
you safe return to your present...

However, if you wish to know the truth
behind this place...

Continue onward through these sanctified
halls. Cross the Door of the Boundary, and
once you overcome the next obstacle...

I shall show you the true purpose that
lies behind Ginnungagap.

---

You damn right I did. Strength! And I guess there's more to go through in this leg, with the promise of more lore, so let's get that taken care of next, I suppose. I like reaching out to the truth.

Lot more than I expected here. Megaupdate, as it were.

Next | Index

1F-5F | B1 | 6F | 7F | 8F | 9F | 10F
11F | B2 | 12F | 13F | 14F | 15F
B3 | B4 | 16F | 17F | 18F | 19F | 20F
21F | 22F | 23F | 24F | 25F | B5
26F | 27F | 28F | 29F | 30F (1) | 30F (2) | 31F

So here's a shot of the status screen. Still in good shape, but materials are piling up in the inventory, and Kei's a bit low on juice. May as well go and heal/restock.

From this trip and the restaurant, plus selling Devaki's current armor, I have just enough to get a new shield (from the Wall enemies) that gives some nice resistances and Bindings. On that last one, I decide, why not? Already whipping this game as it is, literally. May as well go that extra mile. Her defense goes up to 198 as a result of this.

Although I do screw my own ass a bit - I spend so much money on this that I need to sell a few things to stay at the inn. I also accidentally use the Blood Fortune Lv5 Grimoire in a trade for something for later use (saw that Kei had created it and figured it a duplicate), although still have a Lv4 one. Not too big a deal, since the multipliers are crazy enough on Devaki and I can just get another or higher very easily at this point. Good thing it's not too hard to make more money in this game!

Back into the ruins, through a door that certainly is not ominous at all. I go down a geomagnetic pole (!?) and end up on a floor with a much different atmosphere, and different music to boot. Also, more lore. Dunno why I copied it all down before, but I'll continue to do so this time.

---

"These are the deepest recesses of
Ginnungagap... normally unreachable by
those of your world."

"...But, as surely as time flows, the
will of this world is also fading."

"My only course is to relay the truth
to those who seek enlightenment...

"Unknown adventurers... if you seek the
truth of this place, then I bid you
overcome yet one further trial.

"Release the four seals within this
land, and stand against the illusions
that yet remain!"

"Your ordeal lies beyond the door to
the south. I bid you prepare."

---

The enemies on this floor are the same as the floor above. Not unwelcome, I suppose. This floor is a huge mess. A superconfusing maze, but thankfully, not a very threatening one. It'd be worrying if these enemies were actually a threat, at least until I lock them down with binds! It soon comes to pass, but I get the feeling something's going to happen when I press those switches, so I go back and save before pressing one. Or rather, grasping an invisible power!

And sure enough, even out of nowhere, F.O.E. These things are weird - they move counterclockwise around the labyrinth, and will phase to the other side of any wall they come to. Of course, dodging them isn't my style, and I've apparently corrupted TouyaShiro into playing the game this technically improper way as well. I can now say I'm a bad influence. :^)

---

So how to deal with these things? They're immune to all my binds, so that's out. They resist the elements, so a Link chain wouldn't be ideal.

The incredibly silly solution saw the star of the show being Ichigo, becoming a monster in Diablo 2's Hell. He could Hit-Taker indefinitely, effectively for 2TP a casting due to TP Regen Food. He would soak up all the damage, and would never ever die because Azura's Cover Fire could restore him for free. Even when he was Arm Bound (these things like binds), the pumpkin couldn't do much.

The only threat came from the lesser pumpkins it would summon at around half health. But an elemental rounds/Link Order combo beat down one, and I could usually get the other with Venom Curse. Speaking of, it could be used, and simply sped up the fight.

The wins were slow, but inevitable. The others even had the courtesy to stop and patiently wait for me to beat their friend every time. What polite enemies.

---

I cleared out the four that showed up, and after a bit of stalling to restore TP, went back to save in preparation for the next set. The next set didn't show up, so it was just a simple trek around to get the remaining switches.

With that, the door to the south opens up, where there's more lore.

---

"Welcome, adventurer." (sic, he just says "adventurer")

"You now witness the remainder of
Ginnungagap's power. This is all that
remains of the might it once held..."

"But even that... is enough to measure
the abilities of a mere human."

"Whether pursuing ancient riddles, or
simple curious... for whatever reason you
now stand here in this realm of isolation..."

"The time has come to show me your power."

"You now face an illusion of Ginnungagap`s
conjury. Its power far exceeds that of the
man that once walked these halls, long ago."

"If you can overcome it, I shall teach
you the truth of this land."

"Come forth, Incarnation of Fafnir!"

---

Except, yeah, we have yet another final challenge!! Will it ever stop?!

---

So this awesome-looking thing has a lot of fire-based moves. Could`ve gone out and fetched a Fire Wall Grimoire, but didn't feel like doing so, because that would mean having to look up what to do at the restaurant again. Although from checking after the fact, just having this one skill (at Lv4, ofc) would be enough to turn the fight into a complete snoozefest.

The one problem with Demi-Fafnir is that it's immune to Arm Bind, which isn't that big a problem as this thing has critically low HP. Link Order did respectable damage as well, and this thing is also vulnerable to Poison. It's quite fitting that everything I had used came into play here: poison, Ecstasy (it only did around 2000 with two binds and no Bull Charge), Link Order, and Ichigo being an immovable wall. Also yes, the poison is from a slightly different take. Forgot to get Link Order's during the original fight, which this is from, and forgot to get the poison from the redo to cap some stuff which the rest are from.

The only thing that's worrying is these Control Devices (they're the glowing blue things in some of the shots) that seem to activate at certain HP thresholds. They emit a flame that damages the party at the end of each round. And if they're alive and Demi-Fafnir uses a particular attack, it's almost sure to kill you. Thankfully, they have very low HP, so just beating them around got them to stop. If they're both down, the attack is like a fun tickle.

All there was to it.

---

Another one bites the dust. Definitely easier than any recent boss, even with some of the issues. And with that, we can finally learn the truth about these ruins!!

---

The long and painful battle has at last
come to an end. You have survived,
victorious!

"...Children of man... I am moved. It is
enough to make me reconsider the true
potential of humankind..."

The mysterious voice seems surprised at
your victory.

"However, it is still not enough."

"An overwhelming power is sealed deep in
this land. But I refuse to lead you to your
deaths. You require more power yet..."

"I bid you now return to your own world.
There, challenge the Labyrinth you know
well, and conquer its lofty heights!"

"Once you have surpassed even the Ruler
of the Heavens... only then shall I pass
on my wishes to you. I await you here..."

The voice, heavy with newfound regard
and expectation, fades away...

There is still much you do not understand,
but you have completed your investigation
of the area you were assigned.

The quest is now complete.

---

Man, screw this guy. Always wanting more. So he wants more power?!

MORE POWER.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

Next time, hot new tech and inspecting my weapons.

Next | Index

1F-5F | B1 | 6F | 7F | 8F | 9F | 10F
11F | B2 | 12F | 13F | 14F | 15F
B3 | B4 | 16F | 17F | 18F | 19F | 20F
21F | 22F | 23F | 24F | 25F | B5
26F | 27F | 28F | 29F | 30F (1) | 30F (2) | 31F

I get back up to 36000en. Two new pieces of equipment are available: a Bow and a Sword. I go with the bow, but skip out on the sword. It'd give Varda a damage reduction and Kei would lose the big bonuses to HP and TP. I also get a visit from the King. Sadly no Grimoire givers to really take advantage of it, though still good for 24198en.

Before actually heading to 16F and inspecting my weapons, I decided to clean up with the Yggdrasil Key. The first of these was on 1F. Just a tiny little area with two items: a Nectar II and a Formaldehyde. The latter is a fantastic little item that allows you to obtain all the items a monster drops on its death, conditionals included. Next was on 3F, a whole new and huge area! This was a pain in the ass to map out because of all the boulders and such, and had two new enemies. Raptor Lord and Longsiquama could be handled with by Head Bind and Leg Bind respectively.

On 2F of this area, there was also Thunder Rabbit. Ichigo could Hit-Taker to defend against their Heaven's Bolt, and once these enemies are in the front row, they don't use it and either panic, attack, or try to flee. They had a special conditional that required Fear. Instead of spending my skill points, I used something like to call Haxer Devaki. I just gave her that Axe of Shivers I found and had her use the move. The reward for this is the second unique armor for...Fafnir Knight. Can't use that in Classic without a NG+.

A new FOE also greeted me here. They can hop over the boulders/random piles of wreckage on the ground, and move two squares at a time.

---

These things have two main problems in regards to dealing with them. The first being their Drain Dive that can reduce the max HP of everyone, the second being their immunity to leg bind that prevents you from preventing them from using that. But guess who can counter that max HP reduction and take all the hits?! And if that wasn't enough (which it was under optimal conditions), guess whose Force Break cancels debuffs like this? I think Supreme Bolt/Stun on the turn it uses the move also stops it, although whenever it was "necessary" (when one of the binds wore off before all three Ecstasies could come out), Supreme Bolt was enough to finish it off

The only thing to watch out for is its poisoning move, which is tame but more than enough to kill most parties around this point combined with the HP debuff. But guess which dish lowers poison damage to the point of where it won't be lethal?

Now this thing also has a conditional drop. The codex hints at this, lamenting if only there were a way to make it kill itself - which would be via curse. However, you simply need to kill it while it's cursed. Sorry Touya, you got owned by misinformation.

Not that I would've had trouble getting this either way: my strategy brought them down to just a sliver of HP, although this would be the turn it tries to reapply the HP reduction, so I would just need to wait a turn or two before throwing out the curse. I even kill one this way for posterity.

---

The conditional reward is the War Magus' ultimate armor. Even if I didn't pick Kei/a medic for being cuter and more effective a healer than anything the War Magus can offer (Chloe included), I probably wouldn't be getting this anytime soon, having already splurged on a huge purchase. Poisondart Coat is more interesting and probably worth it.

By the way, thanks to Swap Step, I can now start Ecstasying on turn 2, since Devaki can be ensured to go before Varda. I fight my way to the end of this - really, I am totally playing the game wrong, here. You're expected to dodge FOEs, their rooms are supposed to be puzzles, and yet I'm just giving them all my power. Ironically, the original Etrian 2 discouraged this by making them pay out no EXP. I get some more pickups along the way, but nothing really special - it just leads to a suspiciously empty extra section of 1F!

There's another area like this in Stratum 2, but let's inspect our weapons first.

Varda got a new weapon from this called the Beam Whip. Besides being her strongest option at this point, it also contributes to Force regeneration. Very welcome for her. Ichigo has the Shell Claw. There's two weapons stronger than it right now. I...have a lot of money again all of a sudden, so I decide to upgrade into Sapphire Claw. Not Aqua Claw though - it's only a bit stronger, and that Ice Element can be screwy if I need Link Order. Kei has a Madness Staff. +100 ATK, +30HP, +30TP. Very solid. The Flamberge opened up from beating Demi-Fafnir is an option if I give her Guard Slash, but the bonuses from Madness Staff are better. Azura has a Zamiel Gun, nothing special, nothing better. Finally, Devaki has a Hades Bow. I could use a stronger Gendawa instead, but preferred a bit of extra TEC (Link Order boosting) to a bit of extra TP

Now then, for our other weapons - the only ones I've spent since the rest have actually been on Ichigo in B3. So let`s go over what I got.

---

Varda has 18 to use. I gave her Phys ATK Up Lv10 and Whip Mastery Lv9. Boring choices, but they actually proved very helpful. To wit, under the same conditions without the buffs in the incident below, it was only 6827 damage.

Ichigo had 16 to use. I spent 5 on maxing out Lick Wounds, taking his healing up from 80~ to 125~. I then grabbed Lv10 HP Up, equating to a boost of around 60HP. There seemed nothing better; still can't afford Lv10 Hit-Taker, not sold on Protection Vow, Endurance needs Scapegoat to be effective, and the Beast's attack skills are kind of janky and not best to use on a tank build. He sat on 1 point.

Kei had 19 to use. She blew it all on Staff Mastery Lv10 and Vital Hit Lv10, since nothing else except Heavy Strike was immediately worth it.

Azura was the hardest to crack. I settled on bringing the Snipes to 5 (12 points), and getting Phys ATK Lv5 to unlock Penetrator Lv1, mostly to enable the piercing and therefore multiple binds at once. Touya is enamored with Double Action+Ricochet, but even Lv10 of the former (which I can reach!!) is still only 12%, and I tried the former and was underwhelmed by it. Gunner really shines in the postgame, though...

Finally, Devaki was the winner with 21 to use. Some people swear by the Evil Eye/Suicide Word combo, although that's best for locking down enemies which I can usually do with Binds anyway. With little better, I maxed out Curse Mastery, maxed out Evil Eye, unlocked Torpor and Corrupt Curse for regular use, and gave her a single point in Suicide Word.

---

Naturally, I had to try doing this with the extra boost to Varda...and am only posting this and not the successful shot due to the fact that this was 3HP short. Classic. This was also with a Lv10 War Cry, something I have but don't normally use due to its lowering defense and the user needing to be on the same line. A couple extra Cut+ Grimoires pushed this over the edge (9.2k). It was also possible to beat Attack Cactuses in one round this way.

Finally, it's time to finally move on with the main story and onto 16F prop-HOLY CRAP, CALM DOWN, KEI. Jesus christ, and all the setup that took was everyone being at full HP - Ichigo could even Force Boost to buff her further. Also, yes. We went through summer, autumn, winter, and now it's the spring stratum. It also comes with a new battle theme!

There were four types of random enemies, here. The Waspitors were of special interest - if they're slain when Feared, they give up a material that can be used to make Amritas. The Prism Ladybugs tried to prevent this by buffing ailment resistance. There were also these...things, that tried to use electric attacks that could inflict Head Bind. Mostly, I dealt with them by head binding them and even if not, the attack is quite weak anyway. The turtles were more interesting and bulky, but a Head Bind could shut down their dangerous move, and any amount of things could screw it over.

Really, for as awesome as this party is on offense, its defensive capabilities can't be understated either. Three of the five can bind, Ichigo's Lv5+3 Preemptive Roar is an 80% chance of lowering enemies' physical attack by 20%, and he with his Hit-Taker, Lv5+5 Autolick, and even Kei's Chase Heal can shut down most attacks. Azura's Cover Fire can restore tons of health. And now add in Evil Eye, which can completely lock up an afflicted enemy with Suicide Word for the duration.

The final Yggdrasil plant is on this floor, the experience-boosting one. Soon, I come to a nest that is somewhat annoying to mark on the map. One step away and I find the owner of another nest. Time to stand valiantly against i-aw, who am I kidding? I'm just going to bind it down and Ecstasy it.

---

The Ecstasy (doing 8958) was surprisingly not enough for a one hit KO, but I laughed as Ichigo proceeded to take out what little remained with a basic physical. The bird's AI routine consists of charging up for a move, then failing to use it because I bound its head.

A bit more interesting is when I run into a second and have to fight it without Varda and Devaki's Force Boosts. I'm still up for it, though - Chained Benefit is more than enough to bust through any resistances. Just took a few more Ecstasies. Here's Kei doing her thing with Ichigo's Force Boost active.

---

This floor layout is weird, a large ring-shaped area. Incidentally, I end up going the wrong way around, which is really the right way. I duck out halfway through and switch my food to Ingredients++, and learn that wow, that TP bonus really adds up after a while.

Simple floor, especially with my new tools.

One last thing...which was technically just before this floor. For the first time ever, you too, can feel like Kei once was.

Guard Slash! With your staff if you want! Guard stuff, too!

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July 2025

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EOU2: (not) Climbing a tree, B1
EOU2: Climbing a tree, 6F
EOU2: Climbing a tree, 7F
EOU2: Climbing a tree, 8F
EOU2: Climbing a tree, 9F
EOU2: Climbing a tree, 10F
EOU2: Climbing a tree, 1F-5F
EOU2: Climbing a tree, 11F
EOU2: (not) Climbing a Tree, B2
EOU2: Climbing a tree, 12F
EOU2: Climbing a tree, 13F
EOU2: Climbing a tree, 14F
EOU2: Climbing a tree, 15F
EOU2: (not) Climbing a tree, B3
EOU2: (not) Climbing a tree, B4
EOU2: Climbing a tree, 16F

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Page generated Aug. 6th, 2025 05:40 am

System Error's Video Game Variants

Jan. 19th, 2019

Jan. 19th, 2019

EOU2: (not) Climbing a tree, B1

EOU2: Climbing a tree, 6F

EOU2: Climbing a tree, 7F

EOU2: Climbing a tree, 8F

EOU2: Climbing a tree, 9F

EOU2: Climbing a tree, 10F

EOU2: Climbing a tree, 1F-5F

EOU2: Climbing a tree, 11F

EOU2: (not) Climbing a Tree, B2

EOU2: Climbing a tree, 12F

EOU2: Climbing a tree, 13F

EOU2: Climbing a tree, 14F

EOU2: Climbing a tree, 15F

EOU2: (not) Climbing a tree, B3

EOU2: (not) Climbing a tree, B4

EOU2: Climbing a tree, 16F

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