Part 9: Palatial Progression (But Not Too Much)

Last update, Euchre finished his lap around Palaish Isle.

Music: Island



This time, he'll be backtracking for treasure and monsters. The first order of business is to return to the bridge maze.



Going all the way around the edge results in finding a path around to the western side of the island. At the end of that...



...is Palaish Isle's other jetty, just waiting to be used.





Listen, Euchre. We can leave this island if you wish...



It is on the north side of this island. So, what shall we do? Leave this island, or go to the shrine?

It looks like this time Wildcard won't be stopping Euchre from leaving the island, which is very fortunate. Let's see where this jetty leads, shall we?



It goes, er, back to Domus Isle. Euchre's amassed a good chunk of money since he was last there, so why not take the opportunity to spend it at the department store?

Music: None



On the way there, though, Euchre notices something.



It appears to be an island far from the usual sailing routes... Euchre has discovered an uncharted island!

Music: Island



Indeed he has! Uncharted islands appear randomly when moving between islands. Which layout is found is also random, and each has a set of monsters associated with it. This one has Slimes, Drackies and Stump Chumps. Meh. They're all more powerful than they were on Infant Isle, though, so that's something.

The real worthwhile uncharted islands are the ones which contain only Slimes or only Drackies - these spawn Behemoth Slimes and Great Drackies, larger versions of the two monsters which can only be found through this method. They're not even available through synthesis, which is annoying if you want one of them.

Music: Ambiance of the Night



Also featured on each uncharted island is a brown chest, which tend to contain some really rare items. Sometimes there's more than one chest, but only one contains the good stuff.



There's nothing left of Euchre on that island, so he hops back on his jetski and heads over to Domus Isle. It turns out that the jetty leading to Palaish Isle is the same one that he arrived on from CELL Headquarters, and it's now unblocked.



Unfortunately, the department store is only open during the day, so Euchre will have to rest at the scoutpost. This is annoying, since I was planning for him to Zoom back to Palaish Isle once he was done shopping. Oh well.

Music: Appearance of the Town



After having a good night's sleep, Euchre buys two Steel Broadswords. They're the strongest weapon available right now, but there are no monsters that they deal extra damage to.

Music: Island



After going all the way back to Palaish Isle, Euchre finds himself heading back into the bulk of the island via the shortcut. The way the arrow leads was the way he originally got to the shortcut, so straight on it is.



As it turns out, the vines on the side of the path house a monster. Of course they do.

Music: Monster Battle



Shell Slimes aren't relevant right now, but Dragonthorns are your standard dragon monsters.



That's because they breathe fire and not much else. It's still the lowest tier, too. Maybe the monsters around here should consider getting an upgrade.

Music: Island



Just like the last monster round-up, I'm outsourcing naming duties for this update. Also like the last monster round-up, Euchre will be sending everything to storage.



Moving on along the straight path, Euchre comes to a beach with some Khalamari Kids. There's nothing new about these compared to the ones in that pool near the shortcut.



Just past those is the door to Palaish Shrine. That was easy. Too bad Euchre's ignoring it for now, then! He's still got the night-time monsters to track down.

Music: Ambiance of the Night



These things are patrolling all over Palaish Isle. They don't seem to notice Euchre at all, and they're actually not a bad source of grinding at this point. After all, if Euchre is positioned right in their path they'll just run right into him and then respawn back where they started after the battle, ready to run into him again.

Music: Monster Battle



It helps that they're not very good, too. Being asleep on the job doesn't seem very good for a patrol monster.



The only thing they can do besides attacking is to stare deeply into the player's soul. It doesn't do anything.

Music: Ambiance of the Night



Euchre's new pet will be safe back at the scoutpost, right?



Remember how the Goodybags were on top of pillars during the daytime? Well, they've been replaced with another monster at night.

Music: Monster Battle



Angel Slimes have something that we haven't seen before. They can attack, sure, but they have another role.



They're healers! Midheal heals for about 75 HP on Euchre's monsters, but considerably less when used by a wild monster.

Music: Ambiance of the Night



It might not be obvious, but these guys are really, really good. See that Rank D? That's actually a high Rank D. It's outclassed by only a few monsters in its rank, making it really good for getting monsters up a couple of ranks.

Oh, and it doesn't have a stat-boosting skill either. Instead it has Zap Ward, which is a bit different. I'll be giving it a write-up at the end of the update.



The next monster to be found sometimes appears in the pool near the shortcut.

Music: Monster Battle



Seasaurs are the monsters that isn't supposed to be fought yet on Palaish Isle.



You can tell because their normal attacks do more than half the maximum HP of Wildcard. Ouch.



They also have Flame Slash, which does even more damage if it's not resisted.



Frost Slash, too. It's more of the same, but Crack-elemental instead of Frizz-elemental.



And of course there's its Flame Breath, which is very worrying right now. 30-35 damage on everyone is tough to heal off if you don't have multi-target healing. Thankfully Euchre has access to Multiheal, so it's less of a problem.

Suffice to say it's not getting scouted right now.

Music: Ambiance of the Night



Heading back to the beach that contained Khalamari Kids during the daytime, there's something here that's more important than monsters. If Euchre doubles back on himself, there's actually a hidden fork in the path.



At the end of it is his fourth piece of darkonium. He's nearly halfway now.



The beach that Euchre ignored just now actually contains Shell Slimes at night, by the way.

Music: Monster Battle



They like to cast Buff on themselves to raise their defence...



...and then they defend to make themselves nigh-invulnerable to physical attacks. They have low HP and can't do much damage, though. The main problem with fighting them is that they can stall you hard. This also applies to scouting attempts, so it can take a few tries to get one if it keeps defending.

Music: Ambiance of the Night



Isopod is also put into storage, unsurprisingly. Those Slimes in Euchre's substitutes don't train themselves, after all.

And that's all for Palaish Isle's outside. The number of night-only monsters is surprisingly small. But what about inside the shrine?

Music: Seeking Treasure



Well, first off there's a cutscene.



And Solitaire's here too. Just fantastic.

Music: Solitaire



Hey, what kind of monster is that? Seems a bit of a strange choice, even for YOUR team. Well, I guess it suits you. Being so weak and small and all...





Oh, I REMEMBER! You're that rare monster that gave me the slip before! But you look so different now. You sure are unusual...



Didn't Solitaire already say that she tried and failed to scout Wildcard without Euchre's intervention? She must just really hate Euchre.

Hey, wanna trade? I'll give you a jailcat, and I'll even throw in a lips! Come on, whaddya say? Let's trade! I want that monster!





So, ANYWAY... Is it a deal, Euchre?
...
...



We'll fight for it! Whoever wins the challenge gets to keep your birdie, 'kay?

I have to wonder what the dialogue here would have been if Euchre had reverted Wildcard back to his Wulfspade form through synthesis.

... No objections? Good, it's settled then!



Yeah, Wildcard follows who he wants. He's not about to get scouted by some idiot.



Okay, ciao for now!



And so Solitaire leaves, completely ignoring everything Wildcard says. At least she's consistent about being awful.



So, Euchre, are you confident you can defeat her?



Euchre nods. What's she going to have, that Jailcat she offered? Maybe the Lips? I'm not expecting anything particularly strong given what she was offering for Wildcard.

You grow braver by the day...

So, Solitaire is also aiming for the Championship. It's a little strange that her name hasn't been on the scoutpost notice boards, though. You'd think that someone so confident would be doing really well.

But you know what? That doesn't matter right now. What matters is Palaish Shrine.

Music: Seeking Treasure



Frankly, the place is a bit garish. Just look at all that colour compared to the browns of Xeroph Shrine.



"Level 1: Entrance / Level 2: Anteroom
"Level 3: Giant Water Tank / Level 4: Nexus Chamber"

From this sign it's clear that the shrine has multiple floors - four, in fact. At the moment Euchre's clearly in the entrance, so this must be Level 1.



There's a red jewel up ahead that would transport Euchre back to the entrance if needs be. It's useless right now, though, because he's already there.



This one's much more useful right now, though, since it causes the entire floor to lift up to Level 2. That must be a pretty impressive mechanism.



A new floor means new rooms have appeared off the lift room. This one is to the southwest, and has a treasure chest in as well as green goo dripping from the ceiling.



On closer inspection, though, the goo turns out to be a monster!

Music: Monster Battle



Bubble Slimes tend to be pretty standard monsters in the series, and they tend to have one big thing that defines them:



Poison. Lots of poison. These ones come with Poisonous Poke. As usual, though, poison is pretty much just a mild irritation and clears up after battle, as does every status ailment. I believe they can also poison with their normal attack, too.

Music: Seeking Treasure



Hopefully it won't poison everything else in storage.



Going through the coridoor to the northwest results in finding this fork in the path, as well as another Bubble Slime.



Going straight on yields treasure, as well as a new monster that hops out of those holes in the ground.

Music: Monster Battle



Skippers, like Shell Slimes, are an exercise in annoyance more than anything else.



They can do a Sultry Dance to make one of Euchre's monsters miss a turn - always annoying when it hits Wildcard - and...



...they can also do a Dodgy Dance to make their evasion skyrocket. It's ridiculous how much they dodge attacks with this up. It also makes them a pain to scout, since a missed attack doesn't contribute to the scout chance.

Music: Seeking Treasure



Nevertheless, it gets added to Euchre's assets after a few tries.



The chest in the room contains a Special Medicine, which heals a monster for 120 HP! It might be useful at some point, but I'm not counting on it.



Going back and taking the right fork in the road instead leads to another switch, this one letting Euchre access Level 3.



The place has an aquarium along the wall, filled with See Urchins. Sometimes they pop out and ambush Euchre.

Music: Monster Battle



The encounter that this one triggers has not one but two new wild monsters, though Euchre's obtained or heard about both before.



The Jailcat can cast Crack and not much else. It's better than Frizz, at least.



The Wax Murderer can use Fire Breath...



...or cast Frizz. It's still terrible.

In any case, which one should Euchre go for in this battle? Hmm...

Music: Seeking Treasure



Obviously it was going to be the Jailcat. He's already got Litwick on his team, after all! Doppler isn't so lucky and goes to storage. Maybe it'll get synthesised into something to go onto the team eventually.



After the aquarium are some pillars with Wax Murderers and Jailcats running around...



...and then the path leads back to the main hall. Something's different about the place, though. What could it be?

Music: Monster Battle



Oh yeah, the big dragon in the corner. Green Dragon is an optional miniboss, and is roughly equal in power to the Seasaur outside. Unlike the Seasaur, though, it doesn't respawn once it's beaten.



The reason why it's easy to equate the two is because they both have Flame Breath. It hurts just as much as before.



Green Dragon seems to hit slightly harder than Seasaur, but it doesn't have any elemental slashes to increase its damage output.



Of course, its physical damage output is severely curtailed by Litwick's Weakening Wallop. Attack buffs and debuffs are disgustingly good.

So, what's the best thing to do with a one-off enemy?



Try to scout it, of course! This may sound like an awful idea, but it's surprisingly easy to do.



With everyone buffed up to their maximum attack power, the scout chance is decently high. Litwick missed, too; if he'd hit then it would probably be over 50%.



Thankfully it joins on the first try. It's so much better to get through problems by making friends with your foes.

Music: Seeking Treasure



It may be a Rank D monster, but it's not as high up as Angel Slime. It's very high level for right now, though, and its stats aren't bad. It might end up getting used for synthesis sometime soon.



The reward for beating the Green Dragon isn't just the experience or gold, or even the monster itself. It's actually guarding something incredibly good.



Meet the Phoenix Sceptre. Its attack stat may be awful, but that's not important. It's got a very important use that is absolutely invaluable for getting powerful monsters.



A Snakeskin Whip, too. It saves some money if one of Euchre's monsters needs a strong-ish whip, I guess.

So, what does the Phoenix Sceptre actually do?

Music: Scoutpost



Well, it does exactly as the description says. If a monster holds it and is synthesised with another monster, the only possible result will be the species of monster that's holding the Phoenix Scepter. This even overrides special recipes.

The upshot of this is that, if you're set on using a specific monster, you can keep it the same species while powering it up through extra stats, stat growth and Skills. It also helps keep hold of monsters that are only available through special synthesis recipes, which includes pretty much all the best monsters in the game.



I want to keep Euchre's King Slime intact, for example, because I have some very special plans for it. If it was synthesised with anything without the Phoenix Sceptre, though, it would become impossible to get it back to being a King Slime without going all the way back to Grandparent Synthesis with Slimes. With the Phoenix Sceptre, I can power it up without being worried about it changing species.



And here's the big reason for synthesising it with an Angel Slime: Angel Slimes have Healer. Now Monarch has effective single-target and multi-target healing Skills, making him a much more efficient healbot than before. And soon enough, he'll be even better! I'm going to hold off on that one for a little longer, though. You'll see.

Anyway, that's all for this update. Next time Euchre will be going through the rest of Palaish Shrine and collecting as much as he can along the way.

Extra: The Monster Library

Bubble Slime





Bubble Slimes have the Skills Slimer and Agility Boost. They have the Trait Poisoner, which gives them a chance to poison with their regular attack, and are themselves immune to poison.

Remember Slimer? It's the same Skill that was on Slimes all the way back in Part 2.

Shell Slime





Shell Slimes have the Skills Bolsterer and Agility Boost. They don't have any Traits or resistances.

Bolsterer teaches abilities that can decrease the damage that a team takes, and nothing else. There's Buff and Kabuff for physical damage, Insulate and Insulatle for breath damage and Magic Barrier for magic damage. There's also Sandstorm, which helps by Dazzling all enemies, and Mist Me, which protects the user from a single attack. The final two abilities are both passives - Defence + 10 and Sap Guard. The former does exactly what it says on the tin and increases Defence by 10 points. It's not very good. The latter lowers the chance of being hit by any Defence decreases. Overall this seems to be a pretty good Skill if your team is lacking in defensive options.

Angel Slime





Angel Slimes have the Skills Healer and Zap Ward, and drop Zap Ward when synthesised. They have the Traits Artful Dodger and Zapmeister, which increase evasion slightly and improve Zap spells respectively. They're healed by Zap, immune to Whack, and weak to Zam.

We've already seen Healer on Healslimes back in Part 5, but Zap Ward is a Skill that's unique to Angel Slimes. Only scouted Angel Slimes have this Skill. First off, Zap Ward gives some stat boosts - in total, +15 Wisdom, +20 MP and +10 HP. Not all that great. Otherwise it teaches two Zap Guard abilities as well as Magic Miser and Magic Scrooge. These last two lower MP costs by 25% and 50% respectively, but don't stack. They're more than a little bit good, and the other Skills that they're available on are much, much harder to obtain. It might be worth it to pick up Zap Ward, or one of the other Ward Skills (yes, there's one for every spell element), just for Magic Scrooge. They're not all that bad for shoring up elemental weaknesses either.

Dragonthorn





Dragonthorns have the Skills Toxifier and Attack Boost. They have the Trait Artful Dodger, and are weak to Frizz and immune to Fizzle.

Toxifier is a Skill which teaches abilities which poison or paralyse enemies. For poison, there's Poisonous Poke, Poison Breath, Venom Breath and Venomous Volley, as well as Poison Guard for decreasing the chance of the user being poisoned themselves. Incidentally, Venom Breath and Venomous Volley inflict Envenomate instead of Poison, which is essentially just an improved version of the effect. I think. For paralysis, meanwhile, there's Paralysing Punch and Burning Breath, as well as the obligatory Paralysis Guard. Overall this Skill is okay, and Envenomate can be a boss-killer. If you like status ailments, this Skill might be for you.

Green Dragon





Green Dragons have the Skills Dragon Lore and Attack Boost, and if they're being synthesised they only have Dragon Lore. They don't have any Traits, and are immune to both Fire Breath and Ice Breath.

Dragon Lore is advertised as teaching common dragon abilities, and it certainly does that - both fire and ice breath feature in their first and second tier variants (Fire Breath, Flame Breath, Cool Breath and Chilly Breath). There are also some elemental slashes - Flame Slash for Frizz, Gust Slash for Woosh, and Lightning Slash for Zap. Finally, Sandstorm and War Cry feature. Frankly, this isn't a very good Skill. The lack of higher tier abilities hurts it badly, and its status effects are lacklustre.

Jailcat





Jailcats have the Skills Woosh & Crack and Defence Boost. They have the Trait Crackmeister, which improves Crack spells, and are themselves immune to Crack.

Woosh & Crack is along the same lines as Frizz & Bang - a 50-point Skill that can eventually be upgraded to a third tier with improved abilities. As the name suggests, though, the abilities it teaches are Woosh- and Crack-elemental instead of Frizz- and Bang-elemental. Unfortunately it's not quite as good as Frizz and Bang because both the Woosh line of spells (Woosh, Swoosh, Kaswoosh, Kaswooshle) and the Crack line of spells (Crack, Crackle, Kacrack, Kacrackle) share a target type - they both hit all enemies. It's still not bad, though.

Chainine





Chainines have the Skills Mime and Attack Boost, and just Mime when synthesised. They have no Traits and are immune to Dazzle.

Mime gives a selection of support abilities, most of which are dance-related. There's Tap Dance for draining MP, Sultry Dance for making enemies skip turns, Ban Dance for stopping enemy dances and Hustle Dance for cheap multi-target healing. Then there's Spooky Aura for lowering defence against magic, Gobstopper for removing enemy breath attacks, and Tongue Lashing for, again, skipping enemy turns. This one lowers defence too, of course. The final ability that Mime teaches is Follow Suit, which copies the last ability used for the rest of the battle. Overall Mime has some nice versatility for a support Skill, and such an early Tap Dance (only 3 Skill Points!) might make it worthwhile for mages just for getting MP back if they run low.

Skipper





Skippers get the Skills Saboteur and Attack Boost. They don't have any Traits and are immune to Inaction i.e. skipping turns due to dancing, being shocked et cetera.

Saboteur was also on Capsichums in Part 8.


Extra 2: Synthesis Recipes

Dragonthorn + Undead Family = Snapdragon (Rank E, not scoutable, available through generic synthesis)

Snapdragons aren't even a very good Rank E monster. Besides, Rank E is getting outclassed now that Angel Slimes are available to bump monsters up to high Rank D/low Rank C. This is at least an easy way to fill out Snapdragon's entry in the monster library, although there's no way to finish the library due to an oversight.


Green Dragon + Beast Family = Red Dragon (Rank D, not scoutable, available through generic synthesis)

What's with all these palette-swapped monsters found from synthesis with a given monster family? Anyway, Red Dragons are around the same ID as Angel Slimes. That makes them pretty good at this point, and there are recipes to make even better monsters from them.


Green Dragon + Undead Family = Skelegon (Rank D, scoutable, not available through generic synthesis)

There's competition with Skelegons, though. Remember these guys? They were a difficult encounter around Xeroph Isle at night. They're not as high up Rank D as Red Dragons, unfortunately, and they're involved in worse special synthesis recipes. Not particularly worth it given the alternative.