Part 93: Chapter Sixty Eight: Dead Space
Music: 23 Nightmare000.png)
Welcome to hell. Hope you don't mind random encounters.
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After exiting the first level we come down to this section. This is where Infinity really begins to live up to its name, and some new enemies also begin to appear.
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These Zircon Shells seem to have no real gimmick other than high defence. Their attack strength is pitiful so theyre pretty much a non-threat.
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Magic Masters are far more lethal, able to cast Valhalla, Inferno and Blizzard. They often appear with Skeleton Knights.
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The treasure chest just barely visible to the left contains a Riot Staff, Lins second most powerful weapon. I nab it anyway even though I already have her most powerful weapon.
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The path splits here. Both lead deeper into the dungeon and ultimately end at the same place, but one is long with lots of treasure whereas the other is shorter but with less treasure. Ill be taking the longer northern route but Ill summarise the treasures available to the south as well.
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Going south and then west at the split leads to a small room with a treasure chest.
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The Holy Rapier is Tapetas second best weapon.
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The glowing orb set into the floor is inactive now, but will later act as a teleporter shortcut. And thank god for that, because this place is massive and absolute hell to navigate.
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The south eastern door leads to an empty room. Going north leads us around a winding path that eventually brings us to a treasure chest.
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The Draco Shield is Ryus ultimate shield.
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We can go north here for another chest.
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I immediately equip this on Ryu even though it provides less protection than the Life Armour because +30 points of Vigour is nothing to sneeze at. The Life Armour is handed over to Tapeta.
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Down at the bottom lies a Dragon Statue and a ladder leading further down. To the right of the statue lies a door leading to another empty room.
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Going north leads to another chest.
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The Dragon Blade gives a +5 bonus to every stat, but the Emperor Edge is 30 points stronger than it.
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A hole opens up to the right of the ladder if you try to move there.
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Deeper and deeper we go
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This glowing orb will take us back to the one we first encountered. It serves as a useful shortcut. The door leads to the next area, whilst the northern path leads back up to the previous floors in other words, the path we didnt take earlier. Summary of the treasures therein:
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A worthless shield.
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A more useful Helm for Ryu. And thats it. The other path is much shorter but also has much less treasure.
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It also has a healing fountain, which is nice.
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Enough of that, though. Its time to meet the darkness head on.
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Music: Stealthy Shadow
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A fight against Barbaroi ensues. However, its not a proper battle the fight will end after the party has dealt around 1,000 damage to him.
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Heres where things get interesting. Barbaroi offers to fight Ryu one-on-one, giving him the chance to settle matters from ten years ago. You can choose to go along with this and battle him with Ryu alone, or you can spurn the offer and dogpile Barbaroi with your entire team. Its a decision between the easy way and the
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Music: A Crisis
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Obviously fighting Barbaroi solo is extremely dangerous. His basic attack hits for 70+ damage and he has a high counterattack rate. He also has a range of special attacks like Fire Breath to liven things up. On the other hand, choosing to go it alone restores Ryus AP and HP to full and means Barbaroi keeps all the damage he took from the previous battle. The best strategy is to spam Kaiser Dragon whilst using Wisdom Fruits to keep Ryus AP high and healing with Restoratives and Hardtacks whenever possible. Even so theres still an amount of luck involved, particularly since Barbaroi begins hitting a lot harder once his HP falls below 50%.
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This cryptic hint is something Ill explain in a moment. Barbaroi will only say this if you beat him one-on-one. If you use the whole party hell just mock you and say that weaklings like you will never defeat Deathevan.
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The next room contains a Dragon Statue and a healing fountain, as well as a teleporter. For now its important to switch in Sten and Lin.
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Go back into Barbarois lair, take three steps down and strike the right hand wall with Lins staff. An invisible obstacle will crumble and allow you to pass into a new area.
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This chest can only be accessed with Sten theres an invisible grapple point he can use.
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The Life Brace is a precious accessory. Its the only item in the game that can prevent Instant Death. I put it on Bosch, because the last thing you want is for your healer to die.
Thats it for this update. Next time well finally confront Deathevan and finish things, once and for all.