EOU2: Conquering a tree, 30F
Jan. 20th, 2019 03:52 am![[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
So with the real nasty stuff the postgame in front of me, the goal became to hit 99, retire everyone and then hit 99 again. The best way to grind was to send the difficulty down to Picnic, and go into a sort-of secret room in 30F that you can randomly get to when going through a teleporter. Here, the fixed encounter will always be a Dinogator or two, and they will always be shiny. Given that Picnic is literally its namesake, beating these things in this scenario is ridiculously mindless.
This gives out a ton of experience each time, topping out at 999999 if two show up and you have five Holy Gifts on. Once everyone was at 99, I retired them all!! The last ones to hit 99 were my farming party, who also got retired into others now that I could just use Natural Instinct Grimoires or something. After turning in some of the DLC quests, I got the main party back up, and kept on going. It took around 25 minutes to get them back up to 99, which sent everyone else to 81. I proceeded once I had everyone but the War Magus, Survivalist, and extras I wouldn't be using any time soon at 99. Setting the difficulty back to Expert, of course.
Some interesting things, by the way. I advanced Regina enough for her to give a speech and everyone to talk about her. She made a comment about being able to marry whoever she wanted, suggesting someone in our group, to which Marion advises us to watch Dubois for. Good enough to save the world, not good enough for his granddaughter, clearly. And second, your retired party members may show up to trade Grimoires. Pretty neat touch, but silly in how I essentially cloned everyone by naming them the same thing. It also seems to be cosmetic for the most part. Devaki there for example had Reincarnate, but she never did learn that skill.
Retiring gives a bunch of bonuses, including extra stats and skill points, as you can see here.
The Eldritch Hound is the first one of the level 99 recommended quests I tackled. This asks that you go to a particular part of 12F to restore a seal. You walk through a series of strangely empty rooms after reaching it from the southeast corner, fighting enemies that are completely irrelevant at this stage of the game, eventually finding the "dog" in question guarding the shard that protects it.
---
Its name is Tindalos. This is a really weird encounter, not to mention bizarre enemy. It has a massive 135000HP, but it doesn't hit very hard - the worst it can do is some status here and there. So this fight is more of a war of attrition than anything else. The real problem is the Toxic Gland accompanying it. If left unattended, it will gradually lower the amount of HP you can heal. It doesn't come back when killed, and only has 15000HP, so it isn't too difficult to take out.
I dealt with this by...not dealing with this and trying to. I had three Gunners for this, since I wanted to test their damage for later, but this was really suboptimal. I was focusing too much on just making Tindalos dead as soon as possible, without sparing the gland a single shot. This cost me the first couple attempts at the fight. They could get the job done, mind you - but just slow enough with the setup I was using to potentially cause problems towards the end of the fight depending on how it went. Also check the buffs, they're pretty wild.
Both it and the gland are weak to fire, so I naturally used the likes of Flame Fantasia and Fire Circle. Point Blank and Burst Shot the idiots in the face. And when not doing that/waiting for it to reload, Charged Fire. This did acceptable damage!!
Conditional is killing it while Leg Bound. With this strategy I just had Ichigo toss a Formaldehyde. I probably could've come up with a better one, but didn't feel like checking up on the resturaunt again. That's literally the only reason I did it with this party - laziness in not wanting to look up what to serve to who. Still, it could get the job done, and the "who needs healing?" aspect was fun, I guess.
If I were to do it again, I'd probably use something like Beast, Medic, Gunner, Alchemist, and a third damage dealer to wipe the gland before it could get too out of control.
---
But once you defeat it, you still don't beat it. Instead you need to escape, while several more spawn as FOEs and try to stop you - it peculiarly did play the FOE music last time. Given that you sometimes run into multiple and this thing can be obnoxious enough with over a hundred thousand HP, it's not necessarily an option to fight them all! I mean you can burst it down faster than I did, but a lot of that strategy does rely on Troubadour Force Break which is once only. So you need to do things like take advantage of ice tiles to slide away (really annoying in the last few rooms!!) and playing ring around the wall. If you do bump into one, escape is an option. However, you can't use any threads or any similar escape skills.
Two rewards from this, the Toxic Gage and Toxic Cannon. The former are gloves that only give +5 DEF but gives minor resistance to all ailments. The latter is only the third-strongest gun, but can inflict any random status ailment on a physical attack.
The next piece of DLC in my way was the Treasures Untold/Seven Kings DLC. This is a fight against the enemies from EOU1 which had the potential to spontaneously produce unique Grimoires when you fought them, which encompass the first four stratum bosses, the stratum 3 midboss, and two optional bosses. The Seven Kings grimoires was a really stupid system that I don't know how I managed to get down legit. Their battle in EOU2 is a series of seven encounters, no chance to heal in-between. Careful party selection would be required here.
Ichigo, Kei, and Azura were all in this party. Joining them were Ciara the Troubadour and a never-before-seen-in-this-report-I-think party member, Aurelia the Alchemist. It took a bit to settle on the party here. Originally in place of Ciara was Devaki, and in place of Ichigo I was using a Protector called Kusuma. Well, every boss enemy in this rush resists at least one bind, bar none. So Varda is of questionable use. Meanwhile, all except one enemy in the rush has an elemental weakness, so Azura gets to stay, and an Alchemist is also a great pick. The first three fights are also against multiple enemies, so mass-damage from an Alchemist is also welcome.
Devaki vs. Ciara. One buffs, the other debuffs, and in both cases I handed them the elemental circle skills. Devaki did have the advantage of being able to temporarily lock down some bosses with Evil Eye. However, I switched to Ciara for three reasons. One, that wasn't the most reliable thing. Two, for a particular boss later. And third and most important, doing this freed up the Fantasia skills from everyone, since Ciara brought them herself - therefore allowing more skills.
As for Ichigo vs. Kusuma, a few of the bosses carry elemental skills I'd rather not deal with - especially since they can just wipe me outright. So I was going Kusuma at first for a similar reason to using Ciara, also giving her Hit-Taker and such. But she kept on dying. So I swapped in my reliable Beast instead and gave him...actually only Ice Wall and Volt Wall, because Fire would be irrelevant.
I spread Grimoires around carefully, also grabbing a few from guild cards (especially after spawning a ton of Provokes). Here's what it looked like when I achieved victory.
- Ichigo: Shield Mastery/Auto-Lick/Lick Wounds/Ice Wall/Volt Wall/Unbind
Half his typical setup, along with two elemental walls for certain bosses. Unbind is just included for its legendary grimoire effect of buffing healing, but it can see use.
- Kei: Front Guard/Vital Hit/Link Order II/Frailty Curse/Prevent Order/Fire Circle
A hodgepodge of skills. Front Guard for extra protection, Vital Hit if she has the chance to do damage, Link Order II for another alternative, Frailty Curse to debuff, and the last two for the last two bosses.
- Azura: Point Blank/Burst Shot/Charged Fire/Charged Ice/Charged Volt/Fire Prelude
Just stuff to buff her skills. Fire Prelude is a legendary Grimoire but did see use in her using it on herself and Aurelia.
- Aurelia: Compression/Inferno Formula/Cocytus Formula/Thor Formula/Point Blank/Limitless
Two charge skills is odd on paper, but the former buff is stronger - yet only useful on single targets. The latter is used when there's multiple enemies around.
- Ciara: Warrior Song/Ice Prelude/Fire Circle/Freeze Circle/Shock Circle/Sapping Curse
Stuff to buff herself, the Circles to throw out, and Sapping Curse for debuffing because some of these jerks hit hard.
Now let's get into the fights themselves. You go to the Overlord's room in 25F to investigate these mysterious boxes. They ask if you want to activate the battle program. If you say yes, then the mayhem begins.
---
Fenrir is the first boss, and is accompanied by several Skolls. The wolf and its pack were more or less roadkill, really. Limitless Inferno Formula 20 with buffs and boosts instantly destroyed the Skolls, and it didn't last much longer. It can sometimes stun or inflict fear on people, but it's a minor nuisance at best.
_____
Cernunnos is accompanied by two Healing Rollers who like to heal him for over 2000HP at a time, as well as buff his defense. It always seems to open with a move that can bind heads, which was a pain because most of my characters were using that. The hopeful idea is to Thor Formula down the rollers (they're not weak to it but it's the best to use since it's what the boss is weak to) ASAP, while hopefully not dying in the process.
The annoying thing about the enemies in this rush is that they have no set patterns. So I'm at the mercy of luck sometimes. It could suddenly Hurricane Punch and then Ichigo could easily die. Or if he wasn't guarding, everyone would. Still, not too huge a threat. That stance by the way is a special skill that counters physical elements for damage, and I think is used on every fifth turn. Ichigo could block it anyway, but I could simply refrain from having Azura attack if needed.
_____
Queen Ant is the last boss to have goons, and the ants are really annoying in how they'll buff her offense and defense. Both really bad!! Thankfully, they're frail, and a boosted Cocytus Formula took them out. She has several annoying attacks, including Queen's Verdict which hurts like hell if not protected against, and Ruler's Eye which can panic. I ideally don't want Defense Unit up when unleashing the Cocytus Formula, and preferably Fraility Curse, to kill the other ants ASAP.
Ultimately aside from the madness from its panic, it's not too be a deal. It does have a skill called Duster which blinds and reduces accuracy, but a quick Refresh from Kei handled the blind part of it whenever it came out. I actually recovered from a disasterous situation in my winning run.
_____
Corotrangul is an annoying boss. It has two devastating ice moves that are almost sure to wipe everyone if Ichigo wasn't spamming Ice Wall repeatedly. It does have other moves though which is the problem. But I might survive those, and I definitely wouldn't. This is one part where Front Guard was definitely coming in handy.
There's also a small issue where it can cast buffs to raise its offense or make itself really resistant to fire - bad considering that's its weakness. However, Fantasia can counter it.
_____
Now for this idiot with a real mess of a name. Just like the previous boss, it has a Volt-elemental move that can easily wipe the party. Unlike Corotrangul though who is more than glad to spam its ice moves as you spam Ice Wall, it mixes things up a lot.
It was definitely the second-jankiest boss of the rush. Needed a bit of luck to make it through this one when I got to it. At least you don't need to fight 30 FOEs before it!
_____
And now for Manticore, the single biggest SOB of the rush. This jerk? It's immune to all status ailments, all binds, and takes half damage from all elements. Its MO is status ailments, which is where Prevent Order on Kei comes into play. It's not the most reliable skill, but it is the best I've got.
Thankfully, Gunner and Alchemist have Ricochet and Nuclear Formula going for them. I'm doing it like TouyaShiro with the former, and this is one of the few times the latter is really helpful. Because of my setup, Azura and Aurelia took turns Point Blanking then attacking, chipping away at its 24000HP gradually. The good news is, it doesn't hit that hard. The bad news is, those status ailments are bonkers. I had to pop Medical Miracle at one point as shown because it was that bad, barely having anything left when I took it down.
_____
Now Alraune is a real nasty piece of work. She has tons of really powerful skills and is capable of throwing out all three elements as she pleases. So we're not going to put up with this junk.
Turn 1: Force Boost!Hit-Taker/Frailty Curse/Fire Prelude (self)/Compression/Warrior Song
Turn 2: Hit-Taker/I forget what/Point Blank/Point Blank/Ice Prelude (Aurelia)
Turn 3: True Endurance/Fire Circle/Burst Shot/Inferno Formula/Crusade
This was barely not enough, but Skandi...wasn't quite enough to outspeed, but her next move essentially whiffed, so I was able to rapidly bring this one down.
---
There are no drops from the enemies here, so the only reason to do it is for the glory, bestiary, and three Formaldehydes you get. After the battle you can chose to leave the boxes be or just smash the hell out of them. The only thing this changes is some dialogue, with Cass getting a good laugh if you do the latter.
One last thing to do in this update, and that is to finish off 30F. To do this, I need to face the Ur-Child. This boss is a marathon - it has 140000HP, and at various points in tha battle it will throw up two Origin Buds which will prevent it from being damaged until they're dead. Also it'll restore HP at various points. It features several points where it breaks your force, only to later restore it. This madness is all kept in check by a distinct attack pattern which you can learn and follow. A really long and tedious fight, in other words.
But screw that noise! Etrian Odyssey is in the end, about making broken setups and then unleashing them on your enemies. There exist tons of strategies to just murder the shit out of this idiot instantly cutting out all that phase switching, and with the basis of one I was able to put a team together.
Pulling this off requires two things - dealing damage of course, and something to deal with Ur-Child in the meantime. I figured it might be fun to try without any of my original party members at first. Aurelia and Ciara you should recognize. Iantha you might vaguely remember from a previous part. She's a Ronin and is prepared to come in with Point Blank Compression Frigid Slash. Don't ask how it works, it just does. Tawny is a Highlander prepared to jump in with Spear Assist. And lastly, Kusuma is the Protector, the one to deal with Ur-Child in the meantime. Specifically, her Shield Smite skill can bind arms, which blocks all but one attack of Ur-Child's in the first phase. The one that can't is one of three multi-hit elemental moves on the third turn, handled via her Force Break.
I farmed and grabbed some grimoires online for sanity's sake, also getting a couple extra Double Actions from Touya. A little scene plays before you enter its domain.
---
After traversing so many floors, you have
finally reached the top of the Labyrinth...
The door before you radiates malice and
danger as you've never felt in your
journeys.
You have come so far...
Over your many travels, your strength
and confidence have won your share of
victories.
Whatever lies beyond the door, you must
face it with that same boldness and
confidence.
When you feel that you are ready, take hold
of the door and open it to meet your fate!
Fight well, and good luck!
---
And when you pop that sucker open, you're greeted with this and another scene.
---
You pass through the door and are almost
physically overcome by a fearful energy.
The demon you face must be that which
ushers in the end of all things; the most
powerful monster in the Labyrinth!
There is little to do now but meet your foe
in open combat.
You confer with the rest of the party to
ensure your equipment and inventory
will suffice.
You take a glance back at the demon...
Once you are sure, all that remains is
to fight!
---
Let's freaking go!
--
The idea with this or any strategy is to buff all three damage dealers, let them unload with their elemental attacks. Ur-Child is neutral to physical, but is weak to all three elements - so it doesn't matter what you use. I ended up going with ice since it's what I had the most add-ons effects for - extra slots on the attackers not being used by grimoires were taken up by whatever skills that give Ice Up. And hopefully hit that arm bind
The three key buffs were Ice Prelude, Compression, and Draconic Fury. The first of these is an independent buff that does not suffer diminishing returns. The last of these is an enemy skill from the dragons that works out to 150% damage. And Compression is for Iantha and Aurelia, making their attacks stronger. Aurelia was also packing the Blizzard King's Ice Breath, which is stronger than her own Cocytus Formula even at level 20. And while irrelevant, Iantha's Frigid Slash actually remained multi-target despite Compression's effect, yet retained the extra damage.
The debuffs I threw on were Frost Fantasia, Frailty Curse, and Mind Shut off a grimoire, since it's all I could think of. Frost Fantasia just straight-up makes the enemy weaker to an element with no diminishing returns. The other two tank its defense further. It looked a bit like this.
(Iantha/Kusuma/Tawny/Aurelia/Ciara)
- Turn 1: Frailty Curse/Shield Smite/Mind Shut/Draconic Fury/Frost Fantasia
- Turn 2: Peerless Stance/Shield Smite/Reverb (Aurelia->self)/Compression/Ice Prelude
- Turn 3: Point Blank/Perfect Defense/Limitless/Point Blank/Reverb (Aurelia->Iantha)
- Turn 4: Frigid Slash/Ice Circle/Spear Assist/Ice Breath/Crusade
The turn before the big burst, everyone charges up - Point Blank for Iantha and Aurelia, and Limitless for Tawny. Turn 4 is unloading. This was doing impressive damage - when I got through to the phase. I needed Shield Smite to land (Kusuma did have on some Bind Ups and Perseverance 10 on), and/or Battle Instinct to trigger and block the status ailments on turn 1. Not very good odds.
But when I got through, the damage was also not enough!! Tawny was proving to be a weak link - as hilarious as that Hero Battle effect was. She could only deal around 18000 damage. And trying to pick up the pieces from there was absolutely not an option either due to Ur-Child's Noble Rest, a move that restores HP relative to the amount of damage it has suffered since its last use/the start of the battle, topping out at 99999. This was, in few words, a bad thing.
The other two were sufficient. Aurelia could hit 39000 on a good roll, and Iantha did a passable 24000. So I swapped in Azura in place of the Highlander. She performed better, able to do over 38000 between the two hits of her boosted Burst Shot. This still was not enough, only around 100000 between the three of them. But between that and the Double Actions (nature and grimoire), I now had a realistic chance of getting through.
I also eventually switched out Kusuma for Devaki. Her arm binds were just too unreliable. Devaki did have a way to deal with the third turn as well - Blinding Curse! It's not a sure-shot like Perfect Defense or True Endurance are, but you can indeed blind Ur-Child and reduce its odds of hitting you with an attack. She could also do a lot better in the arm binding department, giving me more chances to reach the bursting down part of the battle.
I furthermore changed some equipment around to bolster stats further to squeeze out a bit more damage. I had to go back to stratum 5 for this to farm up some materials to make a Brawn Ring to give +7 to STR. I also threw an Ice Crown onto Aurelia. This would make her move after Azura, which would save me a bit of hassle. The extra equipment boosted Iantha and Azura's damage output by about 1000 for the former and 2000 for the latter. Squeezing an additional Ice Up onto Azura boosted her damage even more. With all that down, here's the rough play-by-play.
(Iantha/Azura/Aurelia/Devaki/Ciara)
- Turn 1: Frailty Curse/Power Gel (Aurelia)/Draconic Fury/Abdomen Curse/Frost Fantasia
Order is important during this turn. There's a maximum of three buffs at a time, so I want the ones that will be replaced on first. Ciara needs no help going first with Frost Fantasia. Thanks to the heavy helmet, Aurelia will always go after Azura, so her buffs on this turn look like Frost Fantasia-Power Gel-Draconic Fury. Meanwhile, Iantha debuffs the boss, and Devaki stops the attacks.
- Turn 2: Peerless Stance/Reverb (Aurelia->Self)/Compression/Blinding Curse/Ice Prelude (Aurelia)
More turn order fun. Ciara leads off with Ice Prelude, which Azura then copies. She ends up with Power Gel-Draconic Fury-Ice Prelude. Aurelia goes after and her buffs end up Draconic Fury-Ice Prelude-Compression. Good for her and Iantha, not the best for Azura. Iantha meanwhile drops an independant buff onto herself in Peerles Stance, whereas Devaki blinds the boss for next turn.
- Turn 3: Point Blank/Point Blank/Point Blank/Creeping Curse/Reverb (Aurelia->Iantha)
Setting up for the burst turn here. Given my food, it may have been better to use a Wall and try to call out a move, but it wasn't necessary and questionable anyway since it only blocks one attack, and it can hit multiple times. It can still kill someone, but blind tilts the odds in my favor. Ciara also Force Boosts during this turn.
- Turn 4: Frigid Slash/Burst Shot/Ice Breath/Ice Circle/Crusade
This only does a little over 100000 damage on its own power. So it's up to the Double Actions from here to carry me the rest of the way through.
And before too long after settling on this strategy, Aurelia rips one out, throwing an additional 39k or so on top of everything else just enough to defeat the boss! Either one from her or one each from Azura and Iantha were required.
---
A final scene plays to lead out.
---
Time and again, you pit your best strategies
and attacks against the powerful demon.
But its power is so incredible that it seems
the battle will never end...
At last, however, victory appears to be nigh!
You land a powerful blow on the demon's
forehead and it recoils in pain!
The fiend collapses onto the floor, its body
dissolving into light before disappearing...
...It is done. You have mastered everything
the Labyrinth can offer.
Your names will be remembered always in
the history of this nation...
As Guild Velichiye, the Heroes
of High Lagarrd!
---
There remains only a few more things to do in this mode of this game. Some general cleanup for the rest of the medals. Beating it again preferably on Picnic just for a codex entry because you miss one if you do it like this. And the ultimate challenge awaiting on the DLC-exclusive 31F. A floor in itself that will take a lot of setup, so I'm going to split it off into a really final update.
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
So with the real nasty stuff the postgame in front of me, the goal became to hit 99, retire everyone and then hit 99 again. The best way to grind was to send the difficulty down to Picnic, and go into a sort-of secret room in 30F that you can randomly get to when going through a teleporter. Here, the fixed encounter will always be a Dinogator or two, and they will always be shiny. Given that Picnic is literally its namesake, beating these things in this scenario is ridiculously mindless.
This gives out a ton of experience each time, topping out at 999999 if two show up and you have five Holy Gifts on. Once everyone was at 99, I retired them all!! The last ones to hit 99 were my farming party, who also got retired into others now that I could just use Natural Instinct Grimoires or something. After turning in some of the DLC quests, I got the main party back up, and kept on going. It took around 25 minutes to get them back up to 99, which sent everyone else to 81. I proceeded once I had everyone but the War Magus, Survivalist, and extras I wouldn't be using any time soon at 99. Setting the difficulty back to Expert, of course.
Some interesting things, by the way. I advanced Regina enough for her to give a speech and everyone to talk about her. She made a comment about being able to marry whoever she wanted, suggesting someone in our group, to which Marion advises us to watch Dubois for. Good enough to save the world, not good enough for his granddaughter, clearly. And second, your retired party members may show up to trade Grimoires. Pretty neat touch, but silly in how I essentially cloned everyone by naming them the same thing. It also seems to be cosmetic for the most part. Devaki there for example had Reincarnate, but she never did learn that skill.
Retiring gives a bunch of bonuses, including extra stats and skill points, as you can see here.
The Eldritch Hound is the first one of the level 99 recommended quests I tackled. This asks that you go to a particular part of 12F to restore a seal. You walk through a series of strangely empty rooms after reaching it from the southeast corner, fighting enemies that are completely irrelevant at this stage of the game, eventually finding the "dog" in question guarding the shard that protects it.
---
Its name is Tindalos. This is a really weird encounter, not to mention bizarre enemy. It has a massive 135000HP, but it doesn't hit very hard - the worst it can do is some status here and there. So this fight is more of a war of attrition than anything else. The real problem is the Toxic Gland accompanying it. If left unattended, it will gradually lower the amount of HP you can heal. It doesn't come back when killed, and only has 15000HP, so it isn't too difficult to take out.
I dealt with this by...not dealing with this and trying to. I had three Gunners for this, since I wanted to test their damage for later, but this was really suboptimal. I was focusing too much on just making Tindalos dead as soon as possible, without sparing the gland a single shot. This cost me the first couple attempts at the fight. They could get the job done, mind you - but just slow enough with the setup I was using to potentially cause problems towards the end of the fight depending on how it went. Also check the buffs, they're pretty wild.
Both it and the gland are weak to fire, so I naturally used the likes of Flame Fantasia and Fire Circle. Point Blank and Burst Shot the idiots in the face. And when not doing that/waiting for it to reload, Charged Fire. This did acceptable damage!!
Conditional is killing it while Leg Bound. With this strategy I just had Ichigo toss a Formaldehyde. I probably could've come up with a better one, but didn't feel like checking up on the resturaunt again. That's literally the only reason I did it with this party - laziness in not wanting to look up what to serve to who. Still, it could get the job done, and the "who needs healing?" aspect was fun, I guess.
If I were to do it again, I'd probably use something like Beast, Medic, Gunner, Alchemist, and a third damage dealer to wipe the gland before it could get too out of control.
---
But once you defeat it, you still don't beat it. Instead you need to escape, while several more spawn as FOEs and try to stop you - it peculiarly did play the FOE music last time. Given that you sometimes run into multiple and this thing can be obnoxious enough with over a hundred thousand HP, it's not necessarily an option to fight them all! I mean you can burst it down faster than I did, but a lot of that strategy does rely on Troubadour Force Break which is once only. So you need to do things like take advantage of ice tiles to slide away (really annoying in the last few rooms!!) and playing ring around the wall. If you do bump into one, escape is an option. However, you can't use any threads or any similar escape skills.
Two rewards from this, the Toxic Gage and Toxic Cannon. The former are gloves that only give +5 DEF but gives minor resistance to all ailments. The latter is only the third-strongest gun, but can inflict any random status ailment on a physical attack.
The next piece of DLC in my way was the Treasures Untold/Seven Kings DLC. This is a fight against the enemies from EOU1 which had the potential to spontaneously produce unique Grimoires when you fought them, which encompass the first four stratum bosses, the stratum 3 midboss, and two optional bosses. The Seven Kings grimoires was a really stupid system that I don't know how I managed to get down legit. Their battle in EOU2 is a series of seven encounters, no chance to heal in-between. Careful party selection would be required here.
Ichigo, Kei, and Azura were all in this party. Joining them were Ciara the Troubadour and a never-before-seen-in-this-report-I-think party member, Aurelia the Alchemist. It took a bit to settle on the party here. Originally in place of Ciara was Devaki, and in place of Ichigo I was using a Protector called Kusuma. Well, every boss enemy in this rush resists at least one bind, bar none. So Varda is of questionable use. Meanwhile, all except one enemy in the rush has an elemental weakness, so Azura gets to stay, and an Alchemist is also a great pick. The first three fights are also against multiple enemies, so mass-damage from an Alchemist is also welcome.
Devaki vs. Ciara. One buffs, the other debuffs, and in both cases I handed them the elemental circle skills. Devaki did have the advantage of being able to temporarily lock down some bosses with Evil Eye. However, I switched to Ciara for three reasons. One, that wasn't the most reliable thing. Two, for a particular boss later. And third and most important, doing this freed up the Fantasia skills from everyone, since Ciara brought them herself - therefore allowing more skills.
As for Ichigo vs. Kusuma, a few of the bosses carry elemental skills I'd rather not deal with - especially since they can just wipe me outright. So I was going Kusuma at first for a similar reason to using Ciara, also giving her Hit-Taker and such. But she kept on dying. So I swapped in my reliable Beast instead and gave him...actually only Ice Wall and Volt Wall, because Fire would be irrelevant.
I spread Grimoires around carefully, also grabbing a few from guild cards (especially after spawning a ton of Provokes). Here's what it looked like when I achieved victory.
- Ichigo: Shield Mastery/Auto-Lick/Lick Wounds/Ice Wall/Volt Wall/Unbind
Half his typical setup, along with two elemental walls for certain bosses. Unbind is just included for its legendary grimoire effect of buffing healing, but it can see use.
- Kei: Front Guard/Vital Hit/Link Order II/Frailty Curse/Prevent Order/Fire Circle
A hodgepodge of skills. Front Guard for extra protection, Vital Hit if she has the chance to do damage, Link Order II for another alternative, Frailty Curse to debuff, and the last two for the last two bosses.
- Azura: Point Blank/Burst Shot/Charged Fire/Charged Ice/Charged Volt/Fire Prelude
Just stuff to buff her skills. Fire Prelude is a legendary Grimoire but did see use in her using it on herself and Aurelia.
- Aurelia: Compression/Inferno Formula/Cocytus Formula/Thor Formula/Point Blank/Limitless
Two charge skills is odd on paper, but the former buff is stronger - yet only useful on single targets. The latter is used when there's multiple enemies around.
- Ciara: Warrior Song/Ice Prelude/Fire Circle/Freeze Circle/Shock Circle/Sapping Curse
Stuff to buff herself, the Circles to throw out, and Sapping Curse for debuffing because some of these jerks hit hard.
Now let's get into the fights themselves. You go to the Overlord's room in 25F to investigate these mysterious boxes. They ask if you want to activate the battle program. If you say yes, then the mayhem begins.
---
Fenrir is the first boss, and is accompanied by several Skolls. The wolf and its pack were more or less roadkill, really. Limitless Inferno Formula 20 with buffs and boosts instantly destroyed the Skolls, and it didn't last much longer. It can sometimes stun or inflict fear on people, but it's a minor nuisance at best.
_____
Cernunnos is accompanied by two Healing Rollers who like to heal him for over 2000HP at a time, as well as buff his defense. It always seems to open with a move that can bind heads, which was a pain because most of my characters were using that. The hopeful idea is to Thor Formula down the rollers (they're not weak to it but it's the best to use since it's what the boss is weak to) ASAP, while hopefully not dying in the process.
The annoying thing about the enemies in this rush is that they have no set patterns. So I'm at the mercy of luck sometimes. It could suddenly Hurricane Punch and then Ichigo could easily die. Or if he wasn't guarding, everyone would. Still, not too huge a threat. That stance by the way is a special skill that counters physical elements for damage, and I think is used on every fifth turn. Ichigo could block it anyway, but I could simply refrain from having Azura attack if needed.
_____
Queen Ant is the last boss to have goons, and the ants are really annoying in how they'll buff her offense and defense. Both really bad!! Thankfully, they're frail, and a boosted Cocytus Formula took them out. She has several annoying attacks, including Queen's Verdict which hurts like hell if not protected against, and Ruler's Eye which can panic. I ideally don't want Defense Unit up when unleashing the Cocytus Formula, and preferably Fraility Curse, to kill the other ants ASAP.
Ultimately aside from the madness from its panic, it's not too be a deal. It does have a skill called Duster which blinds and reduces accuracy, but a quick Refresh from Kei handled the blind part of it whenever it came out. I actually recovered from a disasterous situation in my winning run.
_____
Corotrangul is an annoying boss. It has two devastating ice moves that are almost sure to wipe everyone if Ichigo wasn't spamming Ice Wall repeatedly. It does have other moves though which is the problem. But I might survive those, and I definitely wouldn't. This is one part where Front Guard was definitely coming in handy.
There's also a small issue where it can cast buffs to raise its offense or make itself really resistant to fire - bad considering that's its weakness. However, Fantasia can counter it.
_____
Now for this idiot with a real mess of a name. Just like the previous boss, it has a Volt-elemental move that can easily wipe the party. Unlike Corotrangul though who is more than glad to spam its ice moves as you spam Ice Wall, it mixes things up a lot.
It was definitely the second-jankiest boss of the rush. Needed a bit of luck to make it through this one when I got to it. At least you don't need to fight 30 FOEs before it!
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And now for Manticore, the single biggest SOB of the rush. This jerk? It's immune to all status ailments, all binds, and takes half damage from all elements. Its MO is status ailments, which is where Prevent Order on Kei comes into play. It's not the most reliable skill, but it is the best I've got.
Thankfully, Gunner and Alchemist have Ricochet and Nuclear Formula going for them. I'm doing it like TouyaShiro with the former, and this is one of the few times the latter is really helpful. Because of my setup, Azura and Aurelia took turns Point Blanking then attacking, chipping away at its 24000HP gradually. The good news is, it doesn't hit that hard. The bad news is, those status ailments are bonkers. I had to pop Medical Miracle at one point as shown because it was that bad, barely having anything left when I took it down.
_____
Now Alraune is a real nasty piece of work. She has tons of really powerful skills and is capable of throwing out all three elements as she pleases. So we're not going to put up with this junk.
Turn 1: Force Boost!Hit-Taker/Frailty Curse/Fire Prelude (self)/Compression/Warrior Song
Turn 2: Hit-Taker/I forget what/Point Blank/Point Blank/Ice Prelude (Aurelia)
Turn 3: True Endurance/Fire Circle/Burst Shot/Inferno Formula/Crusade
This was barely not enough, but Skandi...wasn't quite enough to outspeed, but her next move essentially whiffed, so I was able to rapidly bring this one down.
---
There are no drops from the enemies here, so the only reason to do it is for the glory, bestiary, and three Formaldehydes you get. After the battle you can chose to leave the boxes be or just smash the hell out of them. The only thing this changes is some dialogue, with Cass getting a good laugh if you do the latter.
One last thing to do in this update, and that is to finish off 30F. To do this, I need to face the Ur-Child. This boss is a marathon - it has 140000HP, and at various points in tha battle it will throw up two Origin Buds which will prevent it from being damaged until they're dead. Also it'll restore HP at various points. It features several points where it breaks your force, only to later restore it. This madness is all kept in check by a distinct attack pattern which you can learn and follow. A really long and tedious fight, in other words.
But screw that noise! Etrian Odyssey is in the end, about making broken setups and then unleashing them on your enemies. There exist tons of strategies to just murder the shit out of this idiot instantly cutting out all that phase switching, and with the basis of one I was able to put a team together.
Pulling this off requires two things - dealing damage of course, and something to deal with Ur-Child in the meantime. I figured it might be fun to try without any of my original party members at first. Aurelia and Ciara you should recognize. Iantha you might vaguely remember from a previous part. She's a Ronin and is prepared to come in with Point Blank Compression Frigid Slash. Don't ask how it works, it just does. Tawny is a Highlander prepared to jump in with Spear Assist. And lastly, Kusuma is the Protector, the one to deal with Ur-Child in the meantime. Specifically, her Shield Smite skill can bind arms, which blocks all but one attack of Ur-Child's in the first phase. The one that can't is one of three multi-hit elemental moves on the third turn, handled via her Force Break.
I farmed and grabbed some grimoires online for sanity's sake, also getting a couple extra Double Actions from Touya. A little scene plays before you enter its domain.
---
After traversing so many floors, you have
finally reached the top of the Labyrinth...
The door before you radiates malice and
danger as you've never felt in your
journeys.
You have come so far...
Over your many travels, your strength
and confidence have won your share of
victories.
Whatever lies beyond the door, you must
face it with that same boldness and
confidence.
When you feel that you are ready, take hold
of the door and open it to meet your fate!
Fight well, and good luck!
---
And when you pop that sucker open, you're greeted with this and another scene.
---
You pass through the door and are almost
physically overcome by a fearful energy.
The demon you face must be that which
ushers in the end of all things; the most
powerful monster in the Labyrinth!
There is little to do now but meet your foe
in open combat.
You confer with the rest of the party to
ensure your equipment and inventory
will suffice.
You take a glance back at the demon...
Once you are sure, all that remains is
to fight!
---
Let's freaking go!
--
The idea with this or any strategy is to buff all three damage dealers, let them unload with their elemental attacks. Ur-Child is neutral to physical, but is weak to all three elements - so it doesn't matter what you use. I ended up going with ice since it's what I had the most add-ons effects for - extra slots on the attackers not being used by grimoires were taken up by whatever skills that give Ice Up. And hopefully hit that arm bind
The three key buffs were Ice Prelude, Compression, and Draconic Fury. The first of these is an independent buff that does not suffer diminishing returns. The last of these is an enemy skill from the dragons that works out to 150% damage. And Compression is for Iantha and Aurelia, making their attacks stronger. Aurelia was also packing the Blizzard King's Ice Breath, which is stronger than her own Cocytus Formula even at level 20. And while irrelevant, Iantha's Frigid Slash actually remained multi-target despite Compression's effect, yet retained the extra damage.
The debuffs I threw on were Frost Fantasia, Frailty Curse, and Mind Shut off a grimoire, since it's all I could think of. Frost Fantasia just straight-up makes the enemy weaker to an element with no diminishing returns. The other two tank its defense further. It looked a bit like this.
(Iantha/Kusuma/Tawny/Aurelia/Ciara)
- Turn 1: Frailty Curse/Shield Smite/Mind Shut/Draconic Fury/Frost Fantasia
- Turn 2: Peerless Stance/Shield Smite/Reverb (Aurelia->self)/Compression/Ice Prelude
- Turn 3: Point Blank/Perfect Defense/Limitless/Point Blank/Reverb (Aurelia->Iantha)
- Turn 4: Frigid Slash/Ice Circle/Spear Assist/Ice Breath/Crusade
The turn before the big burst, everyone charges up - Point Blank for Iantha and Aurelia, and Limitless for Tawny. Turn 4 is unloading. This was doing impressive damage - when I got through to the phase. I needed Shield Smite to land (Kusuma did have on some Bind Ups and Perseverance 10 on), and/or Battle Instinct to trigger and block the status ailments on turn 1. Not very good odds.
But when I got through, the damage was also not enough!! Tawny was proving to be a weak link - as hilarious as that Hero Battle effect was. She could only deal around 18000 damage. And trying to pick up the pieces from there was absolutely not an option either due to Ur-Child's Noble Rest, a move that restores HP relative to the amount of damage it has suffered since its last use/the start of the battle, topping out at 99999. This was, in few words, a bad thing.
The other two were sufficient. Aurelia could hit 39000 on a good roll, and Iantha did a passable 24000. So I swapped in Azura in place of the Highlander. She performed better, able to do over 38000 between the two hits of her boosted Burst Shot. This still was not enough, only around 100000 between the three of them. But between that and the Double Actions (nature and grimoire), I now had a realistic chance of getting through.
I also eventually switched out Kusuma for Devaki. Her arm binds were just too unreliable. Devaki did have a way to deal with the third turn as well - Blinding Curse! It's not a sure-shot like Perfect Defense or True Endurance are, but you can indeed blind Ur-Child and reduce its odds of hitting you with an attack. She could also do a lot better in the arm binding department, giving me more chances to reach the bursting down part of the battle.
I furthermore changed some equipment around to bolster stats further to squeeze out a bit more damage. I had to go back to stratum 5 for this to farm up some materials to make a Brawn Ring to give +7 to STR. I also threw an Ice Crown onto Aurelia. This would make her move after Azura, which would save me a bit of hassle. The extra equipment boosted Iantha and Azura's damage output by about 1000 for the former and 2000 for the latter. Squeezing an additional Ice Up onto Azura boosted her damage even more. With all that down, here's the rough play-by-play.
(Iantha/Azura/Aurelia/Devaki/Ciara)
- Turn 1: Frailty Curse/Power Gel (Aurelia)/Draconic Fury/Abdomen Curse/Frost Fantasia
Order is important during this turn. There's a maximum of three buffs at a time, so I want the ones that will be replaced on first. Ciara needs no help going first with Frost Fantasia. Thanks to the heavy helmet, Aurelia will always go after Azura, so her buffs on this turn look like Frost Fantasia-Power Gel-Draconic Fury. Meanwhile, Iantha debuffs the boss, and Devaki stops the attacks.
- Turn 2: Peerless Stance/Reverb (Aurelia->Self)/Compression/Blinding Curse/Ice Prelude (Aurelia)
More turn order fun. Ciara leads off with Ice Prelude, which Azura then copies. She ends up with Power Gel-Draconic Fury-Ice Prelude. Aurelia goes after and her buffs end up Draconic Fury-Ice Prelude-Compression. Good for her and Iantha, not the best for Azura. Iantha meanwhile drops an independant buff onto herself in Peerles Stance, whereas Devaki blinds the boss for next turn.
- Turn 3: Point Blank/Point Blank/Point Blank/Creeping Curse/Reverb (Aurelia->Iantha)
Setting up for the burst turn here. Given my food, it may have been better to use a Wall and try to call out a move, but it wasn't necessary and questionable anyway since it only blocks one attack, and it can hit multiple times. It can still kill someone, but blind tilts the odds in my favor. Ciara also Force Boosts during this turn.
- Turn 4: Frigid Slash/Burst Shot/Ice Breath/Ice Circle/Crusade
This only does a little over 100000 damage on its own power. So it's up to the Double Actions from here to carry me the rest of the way through.
And before too long after settling on this strategy, Aurelia rips one out, throwing an additional 39k or so on top of everything else just enough to defeat the boss! Either one from her or one each from Azura and Iantha were required.
---
A final scene plays to lead out.
---
Time and again, you pit your best strategies
and attacks against the powerful demon.
But its power is so incredible that it seems
the battle will never end...
At last, however, victory appears to be nigh!
You land a powerful blow on the demon's
forehead and it recoils in pain!
The fiend collapses onto the floor, its body
dissolving into light before disappearing...
...It is done. You have mastered everything
the Labyrinth can offer.
Your names will be remembered always in
the history of this nation...
As Guild Velichiye, the Heroes
of High Lagarrd!
---
There remains only a few more things to do in this mode of this game. Some general cleanup for the rest of the medals. Beating it again preferably on Picnic just for a codex entry because you miss one if you do it like this. And the ultimate challenge awaiting on the DLC-exclusive 31F. A floor in itself that will take a lot of setup, so I'm going to split it off into a really final update.
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