Down the Original Tree in HD, B16-B18

B1-B5 | B6-B10 | B11-B12 | B13-B15 | B16-B18 | B19-B20 | B21-B25 | Postgame 1 | Postgame 2


I had three quests to do after this. One was to just buy an accessory I'd already gotten the materials for and hand it over for a different one. Another wanted me to get the drop from those tortoise FOEs. Which I couldn't do because they hadn't yet respawned! The other involved going to the next stratum. At the back end of the conveyor maze (something no Etrian really lets you map without being creative) that is B16, I unlocked the Hexer class.


Comes absurdly late, but at least Etrian 1 HD lets you picnic train. So it was finally time to do that with the leftover classes; I needed to for certain drops and quests anyway. Whip Dark Hunter, Sword Dark Hunter, Ronin, Alchemist, Hexer. I simply took them through the labyrinth killing everything in the way, but especially FOEs. I got Fenrir's common drop and Cernunous' rare drop while I was at it.

I used the infamous Frog Dojo after this. The Forest Frog enemies in the third stratum can summon allies. You can kill up to 30 of them in a single fight and earn a huge chunk of experience all at once. It's not particularly dangerous either.

I tried another method by briefly peeking into B17 to go to the Moa Dojo! I like the Japanese wiki description of this: "If you're not satisfied with frogs, head to B17F. Huge Moa has opened a Moa Dojo." Same story, tougher enemies (Immoa in English), doesn't matter, picnic mode. It gave out more and Destruction Begets Decay plays instead, but it's a little more annoying and they seem a bit less likely to summon. So shrug. It was also possible to set up an overnight autogrind with help of the game's walking, autofire, and a Medic with Patch Up. Maybe later.

(Maybe the funniest one on the JP wiki: abusing the fourth boss, which will infinitely respawn as long as FOEs exist and you haven't gone to B21 yet. But that was just on the original.)

They all reached level 48, just for the hell of it and it was the same as my main party. I got these guys up because there were some quests that needed them! A level 20 Ronin first of all. Along the way and gave me a katana I'd already bought...


The chefs were out in force for the quests that were available! One was way outstanding and wanted an Alchemist with Fire Formula learned. This directly led into another quest where I was asked to get the conditional drop of Firebird. This requires a kill with fire damage. I'd actually already gotten it; see, using an Alchemist here is total bait. Anything with a fire component counts. I used the Ronin's Orochi since it was convenient. Another wanted two Musks from the golden deer in B16, a bit annoying due to low drop rates.

There was also a long overdue one where I needed five Insect Eyes, the conditional drop of the stratum 1 butterflies that required a kill with magic. I could finally do it now, which unlocked a second, requiring the Toxic Barb from the Assassin FOE. I thought by now the ones in the hidden area of straum 2 would have revived. Have to wait a bit more or advance time, it seems.

There was one more I couldn't do yet: needed a Fish Fin, a Dry Peach, and a Red Beak. I could get the first from enemies in stratum 3, but the peaches were exclusive to chopping on B18 or Sickwood FOEs (chumps) and Red Beaks were from...wait for it...Redbeaks. A B19 enemy.


While I was thinking of it, I bought the Golem and got the conditional drop, which wanted an instant kill. Ecstasy from Whip Dark Hunter when at low HP is about the only reliable way to do this, so that's what I did. Said conditional made the Meteor Axe, another postgame piece of equipment.


FInally, a series of two quests asked for a solo FOE kill. One involved the bears in the second stratum. There's a shortcut you can use to easily jump one from behind. I used Sword!Dark Hunter for this, since Drain is pretty much tailor made for these. Or I would've if I thought about using her for it and didn't uncharacteristically spend my skill points. I'll be sure to rectify that for the next one. The second was to fight a crab in the third stratum. This was a bit tough: you have to spend one turn in a battle right next to the spawn point, then win or run from it. But I could also set up for a free turn. I settled on Alchemist (!) here and popped a Stonard II that I had to boost his defense. It was enough to prevent a 2HKO. But it turned out to be irrelevant because he made some dodges and could 3HKO.

With all that done, I moved on with the plot. After a ton of stressing from unrelated things and trying to figure out, yeah, I should probably spend some skill points.


Now the bigass downside of this purchase is that it makes my financial situation a bit precarious for a while. This is part of why I picked up Healing Touch, however: a free full heal out of battle for just 3TP plus Immunize can invalidate inn costs for a bit if I need to. And really, there was not much else to spend on for now: there was a new axe I could buy, but I could wait on that. I would simply have to ride it out until the fifth stratum, then I could start raking in the cash.

B17 was a wall maze. Mostly annoying to deal with, and the enemies weren't that much different than I was used to even on Expert. I fought the second of the plant enemies on B18 by following a certain path through the floor. Need to go back for the first.


A big chunk of B18 was a big open area, with a hidden passage needed to be found in order to advance. Also Roningirl and Hexergirl acting suspicious a tile away after telling us that. Considering there was only one part of the map not against the map limit, it was easy to search for. Got a couple level ups mapping it out. The other downsides of the big bad bow purchase is that the forest folk resist pierce, and that Sunflower is so fast that she can outspeed Bravery, even when I boosted Trumpet's Songs to max leevl. On the other hand, Allslash wiped most encounters pretty cleanly. I had to bail eventually since the bag was full.

Two quests came out of it, both from the Carpenters Guild. One wanted me to get three Hard Shards and five Steel Chips for a mere Steelsword. The weapon Larkspur was already using. I had five Hard Shards and three Steel Chips! The other wanted me to kill three monsters on B17.

I took the farming party to gather the goods. And hey, I had like 24k now! I instantly blew it on a katana for the Ronin that I had previously gotten from fighting Royalant again and getting her rare drop which was just a diceroll. I had a plan, you see. I stopped on the floor right before a FOE with a conditional. That conditional, kill while fully bound. The Ronin could easily do the killing part with that katana. Whip Dark Hunter and Hexer pulled off the binding part.


Except...okay then. I guess I have to deal with that. Hit the limit right before the fight too. Stupid Nintendo coding.