Part 3: Pulunpas, Noises and Trolls! Oh my!
FLOOR 2:
When the elevator takes you up, it disappears, so it is a one-way trip, and you start in a random room somewhere on the next floor. This room contains a sleeping Pulunpa in the corner, and a new enemy right in front of us. This is a Noise, they are Wind-elemental and a little bit more powerful than our green squishy friend below it.
So I use Flame Sword on it. It's a rather nice animation of Mic using a little magic on the sword as Mamoru jumps up and strikes down with a whoosh of fire and brimstone. Sadly, it doesn't kill the Noise in one hit because we are still both level one. I attack it by myself afterward while ordering Mic to start beating up the Pulunpa.
Once the Noise is dead, I learn that it was standing on something. Only quest-important monsters will drop items, so the seed must have been there from the beginning. This Wind seed is a pretty lame item. Like the Light (Fire) and Sea (Water) seeds, this changes your monsters Genus to the genus of the seed you feed them. But I want Brid to level up on Mic, so I decide to sell it for loot later on.
Holy fucking shit, that was a close one. That is a Go-Up trap. They do exactly what it sounds like, boot you to the next floor whether you want to or not. Sometimes you'll see monsters stumble on them and get booted away. Mic was the one who stepped on it, and I'm pretty sure your own Familiars are immune to the trap.
Right as I reach this Noise, I get a Steel Shield. Now these shields are actually pretty decent, they have a base 6 to defense unlike our Wood shield's 2. We take down the Noise, not only giving us our first level up, but allowing me to put on this new shield.
And it is awesome. This shield had a hidden +2 on it that revealed itself when I put it on. Now it's giving me 8 total defense. That is amazing. And you'll see that Mic's stats slightly improved as well. I don't think monsters get as good level-ups than Mamoru, but that's because they get to actually keep theirs.
Fucking hell, how many close calls am I going to get with these things? One Go-Up trap can completely screw up your entire trip, and I'm already nervous because I'm carrying an egg with no Wind Crystal to get me back home.
You can only leave the tower through one of four ways. First, you use a Wind Crystal, a semi-rare item found in the tower. This is the preferred method. Next is the Oleem, which you feed to a monster, and you teleport back to town but the monster you fed the Oleem to dies-for good. You can also die, but that will cause you to lose all of your loot. The last way is to reach the last floor, but that isn't going to happen anytime soon.
Our combined improved stats for being Lv. 2 now give us enough attack power to one-shot Noises with Flame Sword. Pulunpas will still live because of their Water-Genus despite being much weaker.
Anyway, say hello to our third friend of the Tower, Troll! I honestly like Trolls, I think they look really cute. They also pack quite a punch and can be a death to many players on the first floor. Later on they get relegated to chump enemy once more powerful stuff shows up, but for now I hate running into Trolls.
And here we have our first wand. Wands are weak 1 power weapons, with a secret ability. They do a shit ton of damage with Mixture Magic like Flame Sword. However, this Stream Wand is Water-elemental, so if I use it, I won't be able to one-shot Noises anymore. I'm not sure how the mechanics work with the elemental wands. I just hold on to it and use my Copper Sword instead.
This is how the game railroads you to the next floor, by sending Earthquakes if you stay on a floor for too long. Naturally, I like waiting for Earthquakes because the Tower gets exponentially harder as you go up so every little bit early on really helps. If you notice by the screenshot, I'm actually sitting on a two by two area of raised terrain. I just sit here until the quakes shove me to the next floor. In this waiting session alone, I scored two level-ups taking both Mamoru and Mic to lv. 4.
Just wanted to include this picture. How the game forces you to move along is that it one by one destroys each of the rooms, and then finally all of the hallways. If you are caught in a room that gets destroyed, you enter a crystal instead and go to the next floor. Completely harmless.
FLOOR 3:
This was a scary moment. Early on floor 3 I run into these two. The guy on the left that is not Mamoru or Mic is a Flame, and the guy on the right is a Cyclone. Flames are tough fire-elemental enemies that know the Sled spell (ranged fire attack. Weak, but annoying). Cyclones are even tougher with more HP, attack and defense but with a Wind-Genus so Flame Sword beats them up easier.
I tried to retreat into the narrow one-tile wide hallway, but Mic's AI didn't like that and kept trying to move in front of the enemies and Command won't work if you accidentally where you just order your monster to step.
So since Mic was being stupid, I use the Fire ball on the Cyclone. Raw magic spells are heavily affected by the Elemental Rock Paper Scissors part of the game, and balls are included in that. This Fire ball does 60 damage to the Cyclone. We then use Flame Sword to finish off the Flame, but Mic takes most of the damage. This leaves me concerned, since monsters don't regenerate HP nearly as fast as Mamoru does. (Not to mention Mamoru has a ton of Defense right now and could take those hits.)
Somewhere along the way I pick up a Seal wand, which not only boosts Mixture Magic without inserting any unwanted elements, but has a chance of sealing away the enemy's magic as well. Almost never happens and the enemy will probably die soon, but hey, it's better than my crappy sword.
And I hit Lv. 5 around this point. Mic's stats get higher than Mamoru's at this point, but still can't reach Mamoru's quite high HP and with my shield I'm still stronger than Mic.
Fuck, I hate these. Bomb traps hit you for a ton of damage, and also hit everything in your column and row, so Mic takes damage too. Also, if there are any items in the hit-zone of the Bomb trap, kiss them goodbye. I've lost eggs to these fuckers before, so I really hate them.
So here I continue my normal routine of sitting still and waiting for the earthquakes to send me up. I actually hit level 6 before I eneter the 4th floor.
Floor 4:
Floor 4 changes goes away from the standard gold and green floors we've seen so far, going for something more brownish. For the most part, you can actually tell what kind of monsters will be on this floor based on the tileset used. Because these floors are so brown and red, there are actually a lot of Fire-Genus monsters.
Howvever, for the most part, Floor 4 was pretty uneventful. I found a Blue sand, but didn't use it because my Steel shield can rust and I'd prefer to build up rust-proof weapons if I'm going to use them over and over.
You'll notice that I also have a Trap scroll. These re-activate all the traps on the floor. You can also hit traps with your sword to reveal and deactivate them. Doing so also nets Mamoru 8 EXP (but none of his monsters get that EXP). And I also have an Oleem. Hate them. Useless item.
Not shown is an Iron sword I found. Iron swords have 3 base attack, making them only marginally better than copper swords. I prefer my Seal wand at the moment.
After I found a nice elevated spot to grind at (and hit lv. 7), we meet our first Balloon. I hate Balloons, they are just annoying. They just get even stronger than Cyclones, but one redeeming quality is a unique death animation. When a balloon is defeated, it twirls around and flies up in the air. Somewhat amusing. Oh, they attack you with spikes that appear out of nowhere.
And here is the flaw of my strategy so far. You see, by staying on the floors for extended periods of time and getting far stronger than I should, Mic has been left with no MP and falls down and takes a nice long nap. He won't wake up until he gets some MP back. But right now I'm pretty strong and I won't need his Flame Sword if I'm just sitting in one place. MP-less monsters still gain EXP, so I'll safe my pita fruit until we move to the next floor. So I equip my iron sword and continue hacking stuff up that dares hurt my monster.
Oh, and that trap is a Slam trap, dealing a decent amount of damage to whatever steps on it. A Flame triggered it, but nothing happened. Traps have an oddly high rate of failure in this game.
FLOOR 5:
Once we hit floor 5, I immediately feed my Pita Fruit to Mic. By this point I start to get a little paranoid because this is where I tend to die if I'm not using powerful equipment or monsters. The Pita Fruit heals 50 of Mic's 100 MP, quite a nice healing item.
Manoeva...another annoying monster to encounter in the Tower. When you hit these guys, sometimes they will split and a clone of them will fall out (with 1 HP and always doing 1 damage, but still a concern). They are also Water-Genus, so our fire-elemental Flame Sword is less effective against them, but still more effective than a basic attack from both Mamoru and Mic because of the wand.
By this point, because I have no healing items for Mic's MP, I'm going to scour each floor for loot, and then use the elevators up. I need to find a Wind Crystal as soon as possible, Mic's MP probably won't be enough for very much longer.
Floor 6:
Alright, I have to be honest. I don't really hate most of the monsters so far. This guy is an exception. That green/blue thing there? That is a Blume. I really hate Blumes, because of a special attack: Brainwash. It turns your familiars against you for several turns. Right now it probably wouldn't do too much, but once you start raising god monsters, one Blume can ruin everything. Although, Mic (like all Kewnes...all one of them) has the passive trait "Un-Brainwashable."
Regardless, they are the next monster in the food chain of power, so I use a Fire ball on it. You remember how it did 60 damage on a Cyclone? Yeah...this Blume took 23 because of the Water-Genus they have.
Next to that Blume (and why I used my Fire ball on it) was a Balloon. This Balloon though decided to use it's unique ability: I'm not sure what the name is but pretty much the Balloon just...flies away. If you notice a white line in this picture, that's because there's a white "jet stream" that follows the Balloon as it goes away. This ability takes the Balloon to the next floor.
...or not. Actually the next floor thing is when your Balloon familiar uses it (and takes you with it). A wild Balloon will just pop to a random place on the floor. Regardless, this ability sucks mostly because it takes so much MP out of the monster. As you can see, this Balloon is lying on the ground asleep and blue because of lack of MP.
Once again, I flee to the next floor. My awesome shield is protecting me from most attacks, but battles will take much longer without Mic backing me up.
Floor 7:
You remember I'm using a seal wand, right? Well...the actual sealing part of it is pretty rare. This is the first time I've gotten the sealing effect this entire time. Also, I believe that sealing a Blume doesn't prevent it from using Brainwash. The Seal wand is not that great, but it's effect makes it worth using for when I run into spell casting monsters later on; if I'm lucky it might work once on them stopping a LoDown or Pillar.
Oh right, this is a
I got another egg already! The Sky Blue egg is from the first floor, and this Dark Gray egg is from this floor. I don't know what is inside, but now I really want a Wind Crystal.Oh, another new item I may have not mentioned so far: the Malicious scroll. You throw it at an enemy and it creates an effect on the square. Anyone or anything that enters that square will be confused. Monsters tend to avoid it though, so it's a good one-time confuse against an annoying enemy when you are about to die.
Oh, and I hit level 8 on this screenshot as well.
Heh, this is a little ironic. I show off the malicious scroll for the first time, and I hit the Chaos trap that happened to be sitting right next to the egg and the elevator. Oh well, I go up a floor again.
Floor 8
I started this floor with a Blume in the room, and it stepped on this Rust Trap for me. Rust traps are the bane of any players existence because they will destroy your equipment one stat at a time. One trap would reduce my awesome Steel shield +2 to a +1, and even to the negatives. It's a good thing I didn't step on---
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? ANOTHER IN THE SAME ROOM? Great...now I'm using a +1 Steel shield. At least wands never rust...not that there is much to take away...
Oh, I also found an Earth Shield. Like the elemental wands, there are elemental shields as well (even elemental swords, I just haven't found them yet). The Earth shield has 5 base defense, but greatly reduces Water damage. Blumes are Water-elemental, and changing equipment doesn't take a turn. This suits me quite well.
It's also about this time that I realize I had a Stream wand with me the whole time, and it would have worked great against those annoying fire monsters a few floors back.
FINALLY! I found a Wind Crystal sitting on the ground. Instead of putting it in my inventory (because it was full), step on it, use At Feet and then activate it. If you'll notice, there are now two Wind Crystals. The one in my hand that I am "using" and the one on the ground that I am "using." A weird glitch and I just noticed it with this screenshot.
But alas, this does not give me another Wind Crystal. Anything used in "At Feet" or "At Hand" is pseudo-inventory at best. Regardless, I am heading home with not one but TWO monster eggs!
: I'm home || I'm selling some items.When you get home, you are given the option to immediately sell your loot to Wreath.
The first egg doesn't bother me, since the egg in the Tutorial floor is always a Pulunpa. However, a Cyclone is a decent monster, but it has a passive trait that is amazing: Half MP consumption.
I decide to sell everything but the following items. Stream wand, Seal wand, Iron sword, Steel shield +1, Earth shield, Blue sand, and both eggs. That gives me quite a bit of money. With what I found lying on the ground in the tower, that adds up to $2460 total.
: Of course, because you can only take up to five items and familiars (combined, I should add) when entering the tower. Go to the general store and sell everything you don't need.Dear God that sentence was horrible. I'm sure English teachers would pull their hair out at the first sentence alone. It's kinda funny how after you use her as a shop, she tells you about the General Store where you should sell your stuff at. Either way, the prices are the same.
: If you're not taking items to the tower, you can always leave them with me. I'll keep them in the safe. You can leave up to 10 items at our home safe. You must be tired, get some sleep.I'd like to pause for a moment and emphasize just how amazing Wreath is at being a Video Game Mom. She knows the main character is busy saving the day, and helping feed the family as well, and helps out by not only taking care of our items once we get home, but also by giving us a Pita Fruit every morning to help us go even further in the tower. She is a very useful NPC, and lets be honest, most NPCs sit on their ass and do absolutely nothing.
END OF DAY! KILL COUNT UPDATE!
: 9 Pulunpas, 6 Noises, 6 Troll, 3 Flames, 3 Cyclones, 7 Balloons, 3 Manoeva Clones, 3 Blumes. 40 KILLS TOTAL.
: 1 Troll. 1 KILL TOTAL.Flame Sword Assists: 1 Pulunpa, 9 Noises, 21 Trolls, 10 Flames, 11 Cyclones, 4 Manoevas, 3 Blumes. 59 KILL-ASSISTS TOTAL.
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Oh right, We begin every morning with Nico drop-kicking us. How lovely.
: Yup!: Good morning, Nico. || Can't you be bit more gentle?This is the exact same reply as before. Asking her to be gentle gets the "I can't help being a Tomboy" line again.
: It's almost high noon! Hurry and get up! Here!: Get up!Those two leave into the room on the right like they always do. This time though, I'm going in that doorway at the back of the house. You know, the one we've never used yet.
Here is our monster hut. I already unloaded Mic and the two eggs. Each circle glows random colors rapidly, so that's why the sreenshots will probably look a bit funny in here if you compare them separately. Our hut is currently small, but we can upgrade it to make room for more monsters. Right now, we can only have four familiars, but later we can have as many as sixty-four, if I remember correctly.
Hatching the eggs is pretty simple. You just jump on them and give them a nice hug.
Say hello to PULUN, our Pulunpa monster. The stats may seem really pathetic, but that's because they kinda are. Not to mention all first level monsters have pathetic stats. MP never increases through leveling though, so that 40 MP is really going to hurt.
And also say hello to CYCLO, our Cyclone monster. These stats are a little less pathetic than Pulunpas. Just remember, Mic started with 6 ATK and DEF, so 5 isn't that much worse. And because of half MP consumption, CYCLO pretty much has 160 MP. Holy crap.
Here are Mic's stats by comparison. After eight levels, CYCLO might look like this, though probably not as great. PULUN might need more help, but most monsters in the Tower are fire-elemental, so there you go.
Anyway, I'll head on out of the hut and get this day started. We have an entire town in front of us, and we should explore it!
: Thanks again for waking him up every morning.: Don't mention it. He will never get up until I get a good kick into him.
I need a nicer childhood friend.Anyway, first let's talk to Weedy.
: Do you want to ready my Monster Book?: Sure. Give me that cute book. || I'm to busy for that. Sorry.Weedy keeps track of all the monsters you have met, and supplies some interesting background stuff on them.
"Monster Book" posted:
No. 01 KEWNE. Habitat: Monsbaiya.
A KEWNE is a dragon which was popular several hundred years ago for personal protection. However, it became extinct due to its poor reproductive ability. The name comes from their cry that sounds like "KEWNE."
No. 05 FLAME. Habitat: Volcanic Crater.
A kind of spirit of fire born from sparks. It is a common monster which can be spotted anywhere, and is used to build a fire in the Monsbaiya Region. Its appearance looks like a fire dressed in armor. It's knight-like appearance represents its loyalty to its master.
No. 08 TROLL Habitat: Mountains.
This monster, curious about everything, and is very quick to learn how to use the human tools just by observing them. However, they can be a threat to travelers going over the mountains.
No. 09 BALLOON Habitat: In the Air.
A monster which floats in the air without its own nest. A balloon-like portion is its exposed lung which enables it to elevate by inhaling air. It is sturdier than it looks, and is difficult to be penetrated.
No. 23 PULUNPA Habitat: Streets
The weakest and most timid kind of monster.
No. 25 BLUME Habitat: Plateau
Although it is a insectivorous plant, it lays eggs. Its male flowers release pollen, and the pollinated female flowers lay eggs. The pollen have a special scent that control monsters as they wish. The purpose probably is to make the monsters carry the pollen. Its flower language is "indiscretions of youth."
No. 26 MANOEVA Habitat: Marshland
An amoeba-like single cell life, the MANOEVA behaves as its instincts command. It is capable of transforming into the shape of what it has seen and is capable of dividing. It attacks animals that approach marshes by pulling them into the marsh, and absorbing them.
No. 39 NOISE Habitat: Forest
A music-loving cheerful monster. The sound of the flute it plays can block the magic of veteran magicians. However, even if you run to their recital in the forest, you should not be deceived by the cheerful music and approach carefully.
No 41 CYCLONE Habitat: Wasteland
This monster has a large eye. It is well known that anyone who meets its eyes cannot swallow any food. However, 12 years ago, it was discovered that if an anorexic person looks at the eye of a CYCLONE, the disease is cured. Since then, its eggs have sold like hot cakes to women on diets or to anorexic people.
And if we talk to Wreath...
: By the way, Mr. Issac, who lives in front of the pond, just dropped by. He seemed to be somewhat troubled. Mamoru, could you not talk to him and find out what's on his mind?Wait...so he's troubled, but you don't want me to talk to him? What?
Another stupid translation error...she probably meant to ask if we didn't mind talking to him.So, I'm going to end the update here. But as for now, I have a job for all of you goons, you're going to decide what we do next!
This is the map. I'm going to divide this by both Residential and Economic buildings and West and East. This leaves us with four options to explore.
1. Western Residential: There are a few families that live in this part of town. If we happen to meet a potential girlfriend, I'll start flirting with her immidiately.
2. Western Economic: The General Store is located here as well as a few helpful shops.
3. Eastern Residential: Once again, there are a few families that live in this part of town. Nico lives over here, and so does Mr. Issac.
4. Eastern Economic: There aren't as many shops over here, but there are a few businesses that are good for information at the very least.
As well, we also have two new monsters to worry about. I haven't named them yet, so that's in your control as well. We also need to decide if we are going to raise these monsters, or just let them sit for fusion later on. Mic can fuse, but will never be absorbed by fusion. While PULUN and CYCLO don't have a spell yet, they have a "hidden" spell that they will automatically learn if they undergo fusion. I'll take two monsters with me to the Tower at most, and try to level them up.
So for you goons to vote on:
Where to explore!
What to name our two new monsters!
What to do with our two new monsters!