EOU2: Climbing a tree, 10F
Jan. 19th, 2019 06:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sirsystemerror1F-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
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
