Part 13: Update XII: An Alchemist and her Travels
We've got a lot of traveling to do this update, so I'll be doing a first and posting a couple videos of what I usually do when I get to a new location. But first, we have to do tackle an ornery little critter in Traveler's Way, and we're bringing Lionela along just because she hasn't been in a battle for a while.
This next scene takes place when you take Lionela out of Arland when her friendship level is 30 or greater and it's later than March 1st. Video goes until Horoholo says "Well, let's just see what happens on that day."





















*Rorona leaves*




Ah ah ah, another instance of the spoken and written dialogue not matching up. I do have to wonder if the voice actors had a slightly different script, or the voice actors themselves just corrected it themselves when they did the line reads. I certainly would never say "supposed do" in any conversation.


Now, unlike the Yakuto Wolf, something interesting did happen this battle. A single Bomb throw managed to do 624 damage to the Roc. That's also a pretty large amount of damage to do in a single Bomb throw, but it just goes to show that if you make some really powerful bombs, you can break this game over your knee Battle against Roc.
Although I didn't focus on it, the five traits I have on the Bomb are Aromatic, Big, Cool, Satisfying +1, and Quality +1. The first three traits don't actually do anything, but Satisfying +1 gives you a +25% chance for a critical hit, and Quality +1 increases the quality after synthesis by 20%. Just these two low-level traits can make even the lowly Bomb a formidable item (although it's also quite likely Roc is weak to Fire). We'll be getting a recipe book this update that will allow us to forge the ultimate bomb, but when I get to forging that, I'll go into a lot of depth on how to make it effective, because it's a bit of tricky one to make effective, if that makes sense.
If you saw the previous scene with Lionela after you left Arland, you'll get this scene as soon as you return to town. Video goes until the screenshot of Lionela saying "Yeah, you're right..."










*Rorona leaves*





























I know what Astrid is talking about, and what exactly is going on with Lionela and the puppets, but I can't pick up on the foreshadowing through text alone. Given that's it Astrid we're talking about, she probably noticed something we can't see just as observers.
Sorry if I don't have much to say about this scene. The most I have to say is that because I am a blithering idiot, I deleted my original recording of this scene, and I didn't have any nearby saves I could use to re-record, so my choice? Beat the game entirely and get back to this set-up in mid-year 2


*Astrid and the puppets leave*



...Yup!


But we've got a new location to get to. We've got to bring Iksel and Tantris out because we've got needed events for both. This next scene takes place when you go on an adventure with Tantris when his friendship level is 30 or greater. Video goes until Rorona says "Maybe not..."






Even George Costanza could give Tantris dating advice. Yikes.






*Tantris leaves*

But before we get started, we have a new location and Iksel in the party, so another food scene. Video goes until Rorona says " Eww...I don't know if I want to..."





A little sloppy on your script writing, NISA.







Unfortunately, the Swirly Shell is a pretty useless item. It's only real purpose is to make the Seafood Pie. It falls into a few synthesis categories, but nothing about it can't be found in better quality or whatever in other areas.
Music: Song by the Water
I'd recommend listening to this while you're reading this update. Such a relaxing song for a relaxing location.

So, because I was asked to show more behind-the-scenes content, I decided to save my entire first tour of Nabel Lake this playthrough. I'll post the full version of it under Bonus Content, but provide narration here. What I do when I get to a new location is to give importance on items that I haven't encountered before. For Nabel Lake, it's Glow Sand, Swirly Shells, and Foamy Water, even though we did get some from the lake scene last update.

What I'm looking for in the Glow Sand is "Attach x" traits, the general quality of the Sand, and anything else, like Attack +, Speed +, Quality +, etc. Unfortunately, a lot of it is under 50 quality, so whatever the final product will be will get dragged down because the base materials are bad. The Some Eggs that are lying around, and the Puniballs are generally pretty good quality. You'll definitely want some fairly high-quality Puniballs lying around for later.

I feel kinda bad attacking these Fish. They're just chilling, and they look so happy. But what I feel extra bad about is how easy they are to kill.

Those Beast Skins are starting to drop like flies from those Iguanus, but unfortunately they are also pretty low quality. The Some Sloughs from The Catacombs are more numerous, and have generally better traits and base quality, and make the same tier of armor as Beast Skins do. Just nice to have around in case of a request, I guess.

This is a pretty large area with a lot of gathering points and enemies, so take your time here for a bit of grinding and trying to find good materials.

This chest does have a limitless supply of Spring Cups that you could use for the Assignment, but you lose three days by entering this location, and it's not like you'll get many stars anyway for turning those in. Like I advised, go with Bomb Ice exclusively.

I wish I brought along some Bomb Ice for getting across this body of water, but I forgot about this. Oh well. There's not much over there aside from some gathering points, but there's something very special about this particular area of the game that we'll get to next Assignment.
Also, that gathering point there is the only place we can reach now that has Foamy Water and Swirly Shells.

Living is a pretty great trait by itself. What it does is that any item with "Living" on it activates by itself when Rorona is below a certain threshold of her HP. So, if a Healing Salve had "Living" on it, and if Rorona dropped below that threshold, it would heal her automatically without her using a turn. Very helpful. Look out for that trait.

Boost Effect is another trait to look out for. Should be obvious from the name, but it just makes anything on it more effective. Every little bit helps and all.

I was an idiot for not taking that. Satisfying +2 gives you an even better chance for a critical hit with a bomb. I guess I just glazed over it when I saw it. But that's about everything interesting that happened in Nabel Lake this visit. Heading back to town because there's a few things we need to take care of.
This next scene triggered when I returned from Nabel Lake, my Basket had more than 50 items in it, and Cole's friendship level was greater than 10. However, the location doesn't matter. Video goes until Rorona talking about how Cole's a nice boy.












*Cole leaves*

...Did he come here just to give me this Basket?

Well, I don't know about all that, but Cole's Basket can carry up to 100 items, instead of 60. The fact you only need to get Cole's friendship level to 10 means this is a very easy and worthwhile upgrade to get, so I'd advise it. Not to mention carrying a lot of supplies and materials can easily make you overfill the Basket late in the game, so take a little time out of your game to get Cole's level up to 10.
This next scene I'm going to cheat a little and say it happened on 6/15 in the previous Assignment. It happens the first time you meet Cole after Pamela opens her shop and she complains about being bored. This overrides the scene where Cole unlocks the next area, so whatever. Video goes until the screenshot of Pamela telling Rorona not to be sad.




*fade to black*


*fade to black*












Poor Pamela's jokes just don't go over well. Mainly because, as Meruru so aptly summarizes, she never sounds like she's joking.
*fade to black*

Hey Sis, have you told anyone about this shop, yet?














*Cole leaves*







But now on the Cole scene we want to see this Assignment. To see this scene, you have to have shopped with Cole a few times until he starts selling the Sunny Crystal. I don't think you have to actually buy any Sunny Crystals from him, but you'll know you're about to see this scene when he starts selling those. It won't happen until after May in year 2, though. Video goes until the screenshot of Rorona sighing.










...Oh, but you go there alone, right?



*Cole leaves*



But like Cole said, we're going to want to be prepared for the Ster Highlands. With these two upgrades, Iksel and Sterk are going to have a rainbow effect on their regular hits, which will power them up significantly. The other traits are for making sure they have plenty of HP and buffs to assorted other stats. Rorona gets a hand-me-down piece of armor, because Bombs are going to do plenty of damage on her end.
This next scene, sorry to say, I have no idea how I made it show up. The Wiki says it has something to do with Sterk's friendship being over 50 by the time Pamela opens up her shop, but I got it when his friendship was 48. You have to bring him out on a trip, of course, but the most I can say about the trigger is "The jury is still out". I guess I got lucky this playthrough. Video goes until Rorona says "Hey, wait for me!"

*fade to black*













*fade to black*










*Hagel leaves*


There's a fade to black in-between these individual lines, but I'll just omit them until it proceeds onto the next big part of the scene.



*fade to black*








*Sterk leaves*


Music: Wind's Valley
So, another pretty good location, the Ster Highlands. Unfortunately, it's a week's trip from Arland to here, so make sure you don't have any outstanding requests before you move out.

These Mountain Wolves are more dangerous than they might appear. Mostly because I believe they just have the inherent ability to get two turns in a row. In a battle with two or three of them, that damage can really add up. Make taking out these furballs your first priority.

For quite a while, I thought that the wolf sitting next to the area exit was a required fight. It's not, and you can see me slip behind it in the video. But, we're going to fight this battle anyway just to show you it's one of the harder fights in the game before year 3.

Yeah, so we've got quite a crowd here. Unfortunately for them, one of those Mountain Wolves had the courtesy of moving the Wind gauge up to 1, which allowed Sterk to do the Phantom Ride skill.

Bad move on their part. Their deaths made things a lot easier.
Moving on the next area, we get an Iksel gathering scene. For the moment it'll remain part of the larger Ster Highlands video, but if anyone wants this scene to be its own video, let me know and I'll make it happen.






Iksel Jahnn: comedian. In spite of the fact he claims to be a cook, Iksel's got a number of professions. We'll learn another one later on in this update.






*Iksel leaves*


Alchemy Candy is an item I pretty much never use. Seems to be able to increase resistance to an element, as the Effect says, but I prefer to use items to kill or heal, rather than dick around with resistances.

I'd also advise picking up a lot of Cotton Flowers, because they're a needed ingredient of Balbombs. Tantris asks for Balbombs all the time for some reason, so keeping a lot of them around is a good idea.

For some reason, at the start of each month before an Assignment is due, Rorona mentions that the deadline is coming up. Made sense at the start of the game, but the 7th time around I don't think the average player needs a reminder.

These are the Chimera Hawks, a palette swap of the Griffon, obviously. Despite the fact it looks kinda tough and has more than 800 HP, at this point in the game you should be massively outclassing them, especially with attack items. The first Hawk didn't even get a chance to attack. I went easy on the second one, just to show one of their attacks.

This is the major attraction in Ster Highlands. Demon Snow has a bunch of gathering points with this material.

Metal Ore is for the next tier of weapons. Actually, we can make Silvatite with some Glow Sand, but I'm honestly not sure when the game decides to make Golteisen from Glow Sand or Silvatite. Metal Ore combined with itself, or Glow Sand gives you Silvatite always.

This exit leads to the Dragon Nest (I think that's the name), an area that will have an important event happening later, but not for a while. It has some Metal Ore spots in it, but we'll ignore for the time being. What we want is the other exit of Demon Snow.

This next area has much better quality Snow Stones than the National Mines, if you're having trouble with the Ice Pie, like I was. However, that's not what we're really looking for here.

And this is the health bar of the destroyed rock. If the Bomb I used wasn't strong enough, the rock would still be there, but the HP of the rock would have stopped at some point.

Escalario is one of the best recipe books in the game. If there's one reason to head to the Highlands, it's getting Escalario. But since we got it, there's not much else for us to do here. Best to head back now.

The Tera Bomb, Gibate Ankh, and Bunny Tail are all valuable items, but what we really want is the Tera Bomb.

Only two days for the most powerful bomb in the game, level 22, and easily acquired ingredients? Sounds like we have a winner on our hands. Let's test this puppy out. What's the worst that could happen? Oh...

Yeah, that's the Tera Bomb's nasty little secret. If you don't make it with the right traits, it destroys everything on the field. The game's logic is that if everyone loses, you lose. But, it's pretty clear we need to go back to the drawing board.
But first, this scene popped up for me as a surprise in early September. I believe it happens a month after the deadline for a Cordelia request ends. Certainly would make sense.Video goes until Rorona says "I wonder why?"









*Cordelia leaves*

That's nice, Cory, but we need to get back to work.

First, we need to start with the Bombs. Ideally, you want an entirely neutral Bomb with no traits and high quality. If you can make one at around 80 quality or so, drop it off at Hagel's. There's no reason you can't register the same item more than once at a shop. If you need some neutral Phlogiston, Hagel sells them, but they're only 40 quality, so if you can find better quality out in the field, go for it.
As for the [Gunpowder], I'd also advise making that as trait-neutral, high quality as possible. If you can't, though, look for these traits: Boost Effect, Boost Quality, Narrow Range, Boost Element, and Satisfying. Potential, too, if you're feeling lucky, since it makes the range of damage the bomb can do greater. Since I'm just going for a tutorial here, I won't be making a superweapon right this moment, but these are what you should look out for. Of course, if you can attach one of two of these traits to the Bomb or [Gunpowder], knock yourself out, but just make sure you don't get carried away with traits and attach too many to one ingredient.

Remember when I said Supplements were your best friend? Here's where they start making good on that. Supplements can attach virtually any trait, and we need them to make the Tera Bomb. If you're missing any of the above traits on the Bomb or [Gunpowder], attach them on the Supplement. Again, watch the trait screen carefully to make sure you don't attach too many. Narrow Range +1, 2, or 3 is absolutely essential, of course.

If you're looking for a specific trait, you can use triangle to sort the available ingredients to display what you want. Especially good for Supplements, because hundreds of ingredients can be a pain to sift through.

Narrow Range +3 was a lucky find from Hom. Normally we'd be finding almost exclusively +1 and +2 traits, but whatever. Narrow Range is a good trait for bombs. It lessens the damage radius of the bomb, but increases the power. +3 is the most effective, but don't worry too much if you can't find it.

I put Cheap on this bomb, but I don't think that makes the item buyable at stores for less. I think it just influences how much you can sell it for. Now I know.
But since Iksel's friendship level is greater than 30 and it's September of year 2, we get this scene. Video goes until Rorona says "Too bad I didn't catch it at first..."










Iksel Jahnn: lady killer. How could any woman resist someone comparing them to a pig?
*Iksel leaves*

I love the Dark Woods. It's my second favorite location in the game for a couple of big reasons, but there's no reason to visit it right away. We definitely want it open by November, however.

Oh yeah, did I mention you can Wholesale the Tera Bomb? You most certainly can. Imagine a limitless supply of a bomb far, far more powerful than the regular bomb. Now you know why it's such a game-breaking item. But let's test this out ourselves, shall we?


Although I did use it on a Wolf, the difference should be obvious. We can use Tera Bombs to make this game's remaining difficulty a joke. I'll try not to use it very much, though, just to maintain the illusion of challenge in battle videos. Seriously, you could probably one-shot anything in the game with a super powerful Tera Bomb.
It's been a big update, so I think we can end this Assignment now.






3-5 stars



6-7 stars



8-10 stars










Yeah, yeah, this update is running really long, but we still have another video. This happens just after the fade to black from the previous scene. Video goes until Sterk says "Sorry for the short notice, but I hope you can do it."










Minister's Room
Weapon Shop Int.
Equipment Synth

Wind's Valley
It's a tradition to use a 12/8 time signature to make video game music. This hoppy temp matches Celtic music, which made things easier for me.
Song by the Water
This was my first attempt with an Irish flute. It was very, very difficult. I needed to edit it so many times afterwards, but you can still hear the dark and simple sound of the Irish flute, right?

A Tour of Nabel Lake
A Tour of Ster Highlands