![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Down the Original Tree in HD, B1-B5
Sep. 1st, 2024 06:58 pmB1-B5 | B6-B10 | B11-B12 | B13-B15 | B16-B18 | B19-B20 | B21-B25 | Postgame 1 | Postgame 2
I was bored and in a mood for more treecrawling and I bought the Etrian Collection a while back so I figured may as well make it one more game that isn't going to sit on my shelf (in my downloaded files?). This will be a bit screwy at first because I only decided to do this after and only fully committed to the writeup later.
Also means I get to break out my Switch Stylus pen again after getting it for The World Ends With You. Though this seems to be a battery drainer anyway (with long load times? Hope nothing's wrong with my Switch...) so I better learn how to make maps with the controller too.
When you think about it, with all the messed up balance in the first two games, it's something of a marvel Etrian survived as long as it did. The two unlockable classes are of questionable use even if you level them up. The skill balance is screwy. And so on. I went with the typical quartet core of a Landshark, Protector, Medic, Survivalist, and went with Troubadour as the fifth over Alchemist. Short term pain for less long term grind, but then again, picnic mode exists in here so who can say how this will turn out when it comes to catching people up?
B1 in Etrian 1 is pretty insanely straightforward, aside for the part where I forgot about the free sword to the north at first, but it didn't matter. I spiced things up by fighting the infamous Venomfly ambush. Which I did after getting Multihit on Sunflower. Getting a preemptive (???) and them failing to hit anyone on turn 2 also helped.
The only problem in the floor was these things - also check out the weird background bug that happened every now and then. Either you have the one class that can deal actual elemental damage early or you don't. Etrian has always been bad about that, even Nexus which included like a bazillion other classes but only the one mage class unless you use that one mod. I did not take Alchemist here. So they were slogs to fight.
There were eventually three quests here. One to find a spring, and actually walk to it instead of marking it like in later games. Another was to get seven Soft Hides, which was just a boring bland grind, especially with EO1's drop rates. Finally, get the materials for a Hand Axe. Which was also an annoying material grind because the enemies in question were those beetles.
Other than that, nothing to say about B1. But there was even less to be said about B2. The introduction of FOE puzzles. I forgot that this floor is genuinely that small. Etrian 1's maze design was weirdly different compare to the rest of the series. The enemies are tougher here and I incurred a death or two, but nothing too serious. It was so brief that I forgot which quests were specific to this floor. None of the guides helped and they blended together.
So I'll cover them and the third floor quests at once: one needed a level 20 Landshark. Not yet. One needed materials for a Short Bow, which was an eventuality. Ten monsters in the Codex. Kind of awkward having to report them in Etrian 1, but also an eventuality. The most notable I could do right away wanted a bunch of Woodflies killed. A lot of guides said you could use Venomflies too, and I thought it might give a different reward, but they didn't count.
Eventually I got bored and started murdering FOEs. I should say that Etrian 1's gameplay throws me off so much. It would be unthinkable to use normal attacks for anything but gimmick builds or if you absolutely must in later games, but in early EO1 they were the only option for Larkspur given I was spending all her skill points going directly to the infamous Allslash. I had recently unlocked Defender on Protea, which killed the damage from physical enemies (all of them at this point). With the deer unable to consistently land its panic, it did not take much effort to slaughter them.
Killing one in the way unlocked a lower section of B2 with a Nectar. For that matter, the second FOE on this floor only dealt damage so it was easy to shut down. Even easier, actually, since it was weak to pierce. Which meant Multishot from Sunflower.
No luck with the FOEs on the third floor yet, though.
It didn't add too much with randoms. Equipment upgrades, and an FOE puzzle ignored because I just killed another one of those bulls. After progressing through and a bunch of pointless back and forth because the plot said so, I came to the first grind spot of the game. Until defeating the first boss, there is an infinite use HP/TP restore courtesy of Etria's best Hexer (because the class sucks in EO1). You can stay in the dungeon as long as you want, use TP to your heart's content, and kill things.
I wanted to kill a lot of things. 10 Gum Hides from the Rollers, specifically, to unlock a bunch of new equipment. Took a bit, needless to say, but the reward was a powerful bow for Sunflower and Trumpet. Definitely an appreciated damage boost.
B4 was full of Wolf FOEs. They were pretty much roadkill already: if I went all out (which I could thanks to the healing spot), I could splatter them in a single round in the best case. If not, I'd still survive a hit and kill from there. The drop rates were the worst thing on the floor; took me a bit to get theirs as well as the Thorns from red beetles.
I was also able to kill a Stalker eventually: Defender up and smash down. It was precarious, but I could kill them before they could kill anyone.
OG Etrian 1's dungeons have like no shortcuts in them, which was kind of annoying when you have to make big long trips over enemies that can't even hurt you if you let them. Really, B5 was equally dull. Only dangerous part was when some Mandrakes and a Warbull ambushed when I was low on TP. I made it back to the healing spot okay, though had to leave anyway because my bag was full.
After a lot more of navigating the dead ends, I hit level 17 just in time for the boss. This got Meconops enough SP for Immunize level 10, which meant the game was basically over. This reduces all incoming damage by so much it's ridiculous. There was also a Blaze Oil here. This would be a massacre.
Fenrir hit insanely hard the first turn, then boosted Immunize completely crippled him. Game over. Boosted Bravery (also level 10) meant my attackers were doing insane damage. With the Blaze Oil, Larkspur was hitting for like 140 damage with her regular attacks. Sunflower's Multishot did like 68 each on average. It didn't take long and none of the Skolls got a chance to fight me.
And surprisingly, I first tried the rare drop. Neat.
I was bored and in a mood for more treecrawling and I bought the Etrian Collection a while back so I figured may as well make it one more game that isn't going to sit on my shelf (in my downloaded files?). This will be a bit screwy at first because I only decided to do this after and only fully committed to the writeup later.
Also means I get to break out my Switch Stylus pen again after getting it for The World Ends With You. Though this seems to be a battery drainer anyway (with long load times? Hope nothing's wrong with my Switch...) so I better learn how to make maps with the controller too.
When you think about it, with all the messed up balance in the first two games, it's something of a marvel Etrian survived as long as it did. The two unlockable classes are of questionable use even if you level them up. The skill balance is screwy. And so on. I went with the typical quartet core of a Landshark, Protector, Medic, Survivalist, and went with Troubadour as the fifth over Alchemist. Short term pain for less long term grind, but then again, picnic mode exists in here so who can say how this will turn out when it comes to catching people up?
B1 in Etrian 1 is pretty insanely straightforward, aside for the part where I forgot about the free sword to the north at first, but it didn't matter. I spiced things up by fighting the infamous Venomfly ambush. Which I did after getting Multihit on Sunflower. Getting a preemptive (???) and them failing to hit anyone on turn 2 also helped.
The only problem in the floor was these things - also check out the weird background bug that happened every now and then. Either you have the one class that can deal actual elemental damage early or you don't. Etrian has always been bad about that, even Nexus which included like a bazillion other classes but only the one mage class unless you use that one mod. I did not take Alchemist here. So they were slogs to fight.
There were eventually three quests here. One to find a spring, and actually walk to it instead of marking it like in later games. Another was to get seven Soft Hides, which was just a boring bland grind, especially with EO1's drop rates. Finally, get the materials for a Hand Axe. Which was also an annoying material grind because the enemies in question were those beetles.
Other than that, nothing to say about B1. But there was even less to be said about B2. The introduction of FOE puzzles. I forgot that this floor is genuinely that small. Etrian 1's maze design was weirdly different compare to the rest of the series. The enemies are tougher here and I incurred a death or two, but nothing too serious. It was so brief that I forgot which quests were specific to this floor. None of the guides helped and they blended together.
So I'll cover them and the third floor quests at once: one needed a level 20 Landshark. Not yet. One needed materials for a Short Bow, which was an eventuality. Ten monsters in the Codex. Kind of awkward having to report them in Etrian 1, but also an eventuality. The most notable I could do right away wanted a bunch of Woodflies killed. A lot of guides said you could use Venomflies too, and I thought it might give a different reward, but they didn't count.
Eventually I got bored and started murdering FOEs. I should say that Etrian 1's gameplay throws me off so much. It would be unthinkable to use normal attacks for anything but gimmick builds or if you absolutely must in later games, but in early EO1 they were the only option for Larkspur given I was spending all her skill points going directly to the infamous Allslash. I had recently unlocked Defender on Protea, which killed the damage from physical enemies (all of them at this point). With the deer unable to consistently land its panic, it did not take much effort to slaughter them.
Killing one in the way unlocked a lower section of B2 with a Nectar. For that matter, the second FOE on this floor only dealt damage so it was easy to shut down. Even easier, actually, since it was weak to pierce. Which meant Multishot from Sunflower.
No luck with the FOEs on the third floor yet, though.
It didn't add too much with randoms. Equipment upgrades, and an FOE puzzle ignored because I just killed another one of those bulls. After progressing through and a bunch of pointless back and forth because the plot said so, I came to the first grind spot of the game. Until defeating the first boss, there is an infinite use HP/TP restore courtesy of Etria's best Hexer (because the class sucks in EO1). You can stay in the dungeon as long as you want, use TP to your heart's content, and kill things.
I wanted to kill a lot of things. 10 Gum Hides from the Rollers, specifically, to unlock a bunch of new equipment. Took a bit, needless to say, but the reward was a powerful bow for Sunflower and Trumpet. Definitely an appreciated damage boost.
B4 was full of Wolf FOEs. They were pretty much roadkill already: if I went all out (which I could thanks to the healing spot), I could splatter them in a single round in the best case. If not, I'd still survive a hit and kill from there. The drop rates were the worst thing on the floor; took me a bit to get theirs as well as the Thorns from red beetles.
I was also able to kill a Stalker eventually: Defender up and smash down. It was precarious, but I could kill them before they could kill anyone.
OG Etrian 1's dungeons have like no shortcuts in them, which was kind of annoying when you have to make big long trips over enemies that can't even hurt you if you let them. Really, B5 was equally dull. Only dangerous part was when some Mandrakes and a Warbull ambushed when I was low on TP. I made it back to the healing spot okay, though had to leave anyway because my bag was full.
After a lot more of navigating the dead ends, I hit level 17 just in time for the boss. This got Meconops enough SP for Immunize level 10, which meant the game was basically over. This reduces all incoming damage by so much it's ridiculous. There was also a Blaze Oil here. This would be a massacre.
Fenrir hit insanely hard the first turn, then boosted Immunize completely crippled him. Game over. Boosted Bravery (also level 10) meant my attackers were doing insane damage. With the Blaze Oil, Larkspur was hitting for like 140 damage with her regular attacks. Sunflower's Multishot did like 68 each on average. It didn't take long and none of the Skolls got a chance to fight me.
And surprisingly, I first tried the rare drop. Neat.
