The Let's Play Archive

Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight

by Ragnar Homsar, Dr. Fetus

Part 88: Frolic Playfully Through the Thirtieth Floor

Update 71: Frolic Playfully Through the Thirtieth Floor




And we open with the most exciting thing in the universe: selling the Great Dragon's scale. I got the Dragon Scale off-screen.



Dragonbane (+210 ATK, +5 all stats) is unlocked by selling 1 Dragon Scale, 1 Blizzard Scale, and 1 Emperor Scale. For all intents and purposes, this is the ultimate sword, and it's basically what I buy for anyone that can equip swords, short of Ronin.

Dragon Orb (Immunity to fire) is unlocked by selling 1 Dragon Scale. Unlike the other orbs, if you're doing a certain gimmick with a certain DLC, this actually has a very good use.



So, wait, let me make sure I understand this right: you think the Labyrinth and your home town are boring now, so you want to travel with Realga and I when this is all over?
Yep.
Did you...ask anyone else if you could go with them?
Everyone said no. Except for Milly, she just got really angry that I asked.
I... Look, Ranger, Realga and I would rather just travel alone. You understand why, right?
Is it because you're working on a really secret script that you don't want anyone else to see?
...No.

Today, we finish exploring the Labyrinth with the 30th floor.




That subtitle totally isn't ominous.


A small, empty corridor at the start's has to mean something bad's going to happen.


Monsters behind the door?!
I'm quite surprised the higher-thinking monsters haven't thought to ambush us behind these before!

Almost every door in 30F begins a battle as soon as you walk through it.



Nothing special about this group, though.



So, here's 30F's gimmick: you walk through corridors, which each lead to doors that force encounters, and then you take a teleporter forward.

Kind of simple and a little underwhelming for the final floor, if you ask me.


Ranger, I swear to the gods, if that's you making those stomping sounds...
...Why would you automatically assume it's him?




OH FUCK, OH GOD, OH SHIT, WHY TWO OF THEM, WHY THE SECOND BATTLE, WHY WHY WHY


Dinogator
HP: 31243, STR: 93, TEC: 72, VIT: 73, AGI: 50, LUC: 72
Skills:
Drops:
Damage resistances:
75% 75% 75% 125% 125% 125%
Disable resistances:
25% 50% 25% 25% 50% 50% 50%
0% 0% 10%
50% 50% 50%

A rare reptilian that likes to play with its food before devouring it. Don't be its dinner!

Dinogators are basically super-FOEs that you can randomly run into behind doors on 30F. They're extremely dangerous if you're unprepared, and can easily cause a game over if you don't know what they can do. Playful Bite can kill almost all of the class roster even from full HP, and Pout is basically a guaranteed game over. Frolic is by far their most infamous skill (if only because of the original EO2), though, and it's really easily to be blindsided by it if you're used to binding random encounters to make them easier.

One Dinogator is fairly manageable if you're prepared, but TWO of them can be a serious problem.



Binding one of the Dinogators' heads would be a serious mistake, but thankfully this doesn't work.



Getting unlucky here (and by unlucky I mean "one of them does anything but attack") could spell death for Ursa without Desperation.




No games, not pulling any punches. If I want to have any hope of killing these things, Ranger has to Transform immediately.



Stardust does the same stuff she always does.



Same for Milly.



Okay, I'll take that.



Oh crap.


Rrr...rn...
Maybe we ask...too much of her, sometimes... Ow...


ＧＡＴＯＲ ＢＬＯＯＤ ＦＯＲ ＢＥＡＲ ＢＬＯＯＤ！



Thank god I have one of these things.


Uh-uh, no way, you don't get to sleep on the job.


Better me than everyone else, I suppose...

Okay, that's better than having Ursa die upon revive.


I'll freeze those jaws shut!



Okay, Colette's dead and I have no way of reviving her, but that's fine, everything's fine.



Jesus Christ, even during Desperation Ursa still takes quite a beating from Playful Bite.



What would I do without Auto-Heal, honestly?



Okay, given that Ranger's hits are being distributed between the two of the Dinogators, this isn't that bad.



I want one of these things dead ASAP.



Good, good, the left one ate 7 of the hits...


One multi-fanged bipedal alligator down, one to go.



This is winnable, better safe than sorry.





If this isn't enough to wipe the other one, I'm screwed.


Those things were kinda cute.
You have a seriously screwed up view of what's "cute." First that yellow dragon, now these things?

I'm frankly kind of amazed I made it out of that alive, especially given that Colette spent most of the fight dead.



SYSTEM: It seems you have succesfully registered Dinogator on your Codex. You should return and show your Codex to the client.

Yeah, uh, I kind of need to heal up after that, so might as well.



Ah, h-hello. Members of Lumen, were you able to register Dinogator to your Codex?
Mhm.
R-Really!? Please, show me then...!
Right here.
I drew the picture.
...Awwwww...! It's so cute, just like I thought it'd be! Look at its lovely movements, its beautiful scales, and oh, its teeth! They look like they could cut through anything!
Oh, great, two weirdos that think those things are cute. It's a lot less cute when it's trying to EAT YOU.
Yes, that's correct. That's possibly a result of its living conditions, I would think. But the variety in its nature is part of what makes it so-- Oh, I'm sorry... I got a little too enthusiastic again... But thank you very much for helping me out this time, too! I'm really glad to have seen the Dinogator! I've been wanting to see it with all my heart! I've left the reward with Cass, so please take it from him. Thank you so much for helping me again!


That little lady's still got that weird hobby, eh... Seems like she eats, sleeps, and breathes monsters. Well, I guess I ain't one to judge. I eat, sleep and breathe money! Haw haw haw haw! But anyhow. Here's yer reward. This is known as the Claw of Bonds. It's a real treasure. Only folks who live in harmony with the forest can get this! ...I guess in that case, it's not a real big surprise that the little lady had it in her possession first... Here, take it!



The Claw of Bonds is the semi-ultimate Beast weapon. It's considerably less good than the Wolfram Nail, since it only gives ATK, which isn't that great on a Beast.

More importantly, we are DONE with quests. A dance with death, along with Crimson vengeance, are the two last non-DLC quests you get. Now that we've finished them both, we're 100% done with quests.

Ignore me retaking the chicken quest, that's for something next update.




One rest later, and we're back at it.


Bloody Soldier
HP: 2431, STR: 82, TEC: 63, VIT: 64, AGI: 48, LUC: 62
Skills:
Drops:
Damage resistances:
75% 75% 100% 75% 75% 125%
Disable resistances:
50% 100% 50% 100% 50% 0% 0%
50% 50% 50%
50% 100% 100%

A monstrosity, its armor is soaked in the blood of those who died to its thirst for violence.

Bloody Soldiers themselves aren't too bad, but the encounter formations they're put in very much are. They're deliberately put into formations consisting of the enemies that punish you for hurting but not killing them: High Crawlers, Carbuncles, and Lord Saguari. Bloody Blade'll set off (or help set off) their skills that respond to dying/being damaged, in addition to damaging your party pretty hard.



Unfortunately, nothing interesting happens in this battle.

Logging the Bloody Soldier and those drops means that we now have every normal enemy, FOE, all but one boss, and all associated drops logged, though! All that's left is the superboss and its drop.




Peppering each of the corridors is a teleporter back to before the previous door.



Honestly, none of the random encounters here really scare or threaten me, besides the Dinogator(s). Stardust can usually wipe out most monsters in one go with Warrior Song, and Colette can put a stop to disables with Barrier. Hell, I can even take advantage of Ranger's slowness and have him pick off any enemies left behind after an all-target Formula.



...I don't like the look of that.



Of course we had to have one last damn fog room. And there's Cursed Pumpkins and Petaloids too, just for good measure.



I killed the Icy Bulb and then killed this Pumpkin just to map out the initial part.

Oh, by the way, there's only two shortcuts in 30F: one at the halfway point, and one at the end.



Yeah I'm not going through that mess without killing one of the Cursed Pumpkins. Screw that.



Here's the halfway point.



There's a small area here with each type of gathering point.



30F is honestly a pretty big anticlimax for the Labyrinth. It's just small corridors leading to teleporters, aside from that fog room.



This teleporter is a trap! It'll just send you back to the previous corridor. The only hint you get of this is that the door leading into this room didn't trigger an encounter.



This secret passage leads to the real way forward.



Christ. (Remember that Ancient Hermits summon Asterii when they get to low HP.)



We're now in the final room with FOEs. Almost every single tile here is designed to cause you problems, so pay attention.



Firstly, there's a Petaloid there.



Secondly, there's Asterios spawn points where each of them are on the map. Even walking forward one tile in the direction you automatically face after coming out of the teleporter in will trigger the one on the bottom.



And lastly, there's goddamn Cursed Pumpkins on the edges of the room.



The teleporter I marked with a pitfall trap will send you back to the room with the teleporter I marked with the 7 icon, while the bridge icon will send you back to the start of the floor.



I just said "fuck it" and killed the pumpkin on the right.



In the top right corner of the room is this teleporter.



Which leads to the final room.



This door triggers narration as soon as you step in front of it.

SYSTEM: 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!
Of course this stupid place couldn't go out without one less giant asshole to ruin my day.
Why did you join us for this exploration, again? You've done nothing but complain, as far as I can recall.
Because I thought I could take everything we'd gotten and run once you all died to that yellow thing on the fifth floor, okay?! But I've done MORE than my fair share, so don't even THINK about complaining about that!
...A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.
What the hell?
Think. Surely if we had all perished to Chimaera, you would've as well.
Can you two quiet down? It's probably a good idea for us to at least see what's beyond the door.


...Dear gods.



I've said this a million times already, but: what the HELL is that thing?!
I cannot even begin to fathom those protrusions... Tentacles, eyes, and teeth?
Nothing about this thing is even remotely cute.
SYSTEM: 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!
How about we retreat instead of blindly throwing ourselves at this thing and dying for no reason?
Sounds like a plan!

Meet the superboss: Ur-Child. I have a LOT of goddamn words about this thing, enough that I'm gonna give it an entire pre-fight overview before the final update.

Before we conclude: 30F has one last secret. This is going to sound a bit bizarre, but to see it, you have to go through the teleporter I marked with a 7 (the one that leads to the big room with all the FOEs) once...and then loop back around and do it again.




Doing so will put you here. Don't open that door unless you want to suffer a painful death.



There's a shortcut back here, so no, you don't have to do that looping around business multiple times if you want to come here again.



I swap out Colette for Nadia.



Because behind this door lies...



A GUARANTEED FIGHT AGAINST A RARE BREED DINOGATOR.

You might be asking: what does Nadia have to do with this? The answer is I decided to get the Pierced Fang using this thing. In retrospect, swapping out maybe Stardust for Jackie would've been a good idea, since her attacks would count as stab for the conditional but get the damage bonus from Dinogator's weaknesses, but eh.

If you want to know how long this took: a solid 20 minutes of raw footage is dedicated to me trying to get the conditional. Killing this thing is, honestly, pretty easy. Getting the conditional isn't, since that 75% stab resistance means Nadia gets her damage cut pretty noticeably.



I get it in the end, though. The fight's not terribly interesting, it's just me hoping that Nadia paralyzes the thing and that Ranger and Stardust don't kill the Dinogator before Nadia can finish it off.



The chest has a Formaldehyde.

And so our exploration of the Labyrinth is basically done. All that's left is Ur-Child.

Oh, and Nadia 1v1'ing the Master Bird. I almost forgot about that. In fact, it's coming up next update.