Part 102: Chimaera

Update 11: Chimaera









There is no doubt that what lurks in this room must be the Chimaera... king of the beasts! As you reflexively brace yourselves for battle, a knight appears and addresses your party.





Though the red-haired young man's breathing is labored and painful, he smiles to you nonetheless.



Let us help you.
I appreciate the offer... but I can't accept your help. This is between me and that fiend. I must slay the Chimaera which killed my guildmates on my own... That is the only way I can rest!

The red-haired young man spurns your offer and turns his blade once more to the Chimaera!



What're you saying!? You can barely stand! Fighting it alone is suicide!

Seeing your comrades try to restrain the red-haired young man, Bertrand, who had remained silent, speaks up.

...Leave him be. If that's how he wants to settle things, so be it.
Trand...?
The past can't be changed. Some people, to banish that guilt, they'd risk their lives.
It's something like that driving this guy.

The unchangeable past... What it means to Hrothgar to defeat the monster which felled his former guildmates... The usually fickle protector's words weigh heavy on your mind... But is it truly right to allow someone to risk their life to absolve them of their past?



What of Wulfgar, then?
Wulfgar...

Hearing the name of the black beast who has been his constant companion causes the young man to hesitate.

He should've fled. That's what I told him to do, at any rate...
No. He's still here. Waiting for you, Mr. Red.
He's hurt a lot. But his eyes say he wants to see you again."
What...? Wulfgar's...?



You have to think about Wulfgar.



...... I... always believed that avenging them was our duty. That even if I were to fall before the Chimaera, Wulfgar would understand... I was certain of it. But... I was mistaken. Defeating the Chimaera isn't my sole purpose. My task is to slay it and then return to my guild.
...Hm. So that's your choice.
Knight, I turned you down once. But even so, let me ask a favor of you. I'm loath to admit this... but my strength alone isn't enough to defeat the Chimaera. I'll need yours as well.



It's time we joined forces.
Yes. Guild and Beowulf... Let us stand united!



Alright! With Hrothgar on our side, we'll be unstoppable! Let's go crush that thing, Knight!
No... The Chimaera is known as the king of beasts for a reason. We should approach it with all due caution. I suggest making use of the pitfalls here. By luring it into one, we can gain an advantage in our battle with it.

Hrothgar turns to you and nods. You stand ready with the red-haired warrior to challenge the beast before you to combat!

And like Wulfgar, Hrothgar lives in Story Mode, and he joins our party as well. This does mean the Story party misses out on Hrothgar's Sword, the Iron Nail, and the Trust Collar. Not that the latter two pieces of equipment would have been of any use to them. Let's take a look at our guest.



Sheesh. No wonder he got killed by Chimaera so easily in Classic Mode, aside from trying to fight Chimaera with only 2 party members. His skillset is really bad. Front Guard being at level 1 is fine, but Fire Wall really should be around level 4. It's not gonna help much at level 1. Story may seem like they're getting an unfair advantage since they can fight Chimaera with 6 people, but trust me when I say that having Hrothgar help out isn't that big of an advantage.



Anyways, the food of my choice? The one that boosts the party's TP by 30%. In my opinion, this is one of the most important meals in Story Mode. Yes I could have ate the food that gave my party 80% Poison resistance, but that's not guaranteed to protect the party, and I just put Venom Rings on everyone anyway. Now let's take a look at my builds for Story Mode.











If you're wondering why my skill builds are so conservative and not really maxing out specific skills, that's because that would do me way more harm than good at this point. You'll understand why in a bit.



I lured Chimaera into the 4 pits. Now it doesn't really matter if you get a preemptive strike or not here, but I opted to position myself in the most favorable place possible before starting out.

Oh and for the record, the boss fights will be documented in screenshot from now on. I won't be doing anymore videos.





Come at us! ...That's what Trand said.

Chimaera
Level: 15
HP: 8220
STR: 21
TEC: 16
VIT: 17
AGI: 14
LUC: 17
Skills:

• Snake Pile: Uses the legs. Deals melee 100% STR-based Stab damage to one target, with line-piercing effect. Attempts to Poison hit targets, with a 60% chance and 40 base Poison damage (around 46 adjusted for level). Has no speed modifier and 99 base accuracy.
  
• Great Blaze: Uses the head. Deals ranged 160% TEC-based Fire damage to one target, with half-damage splash damage. Has a 60% speed modifier and 120 base accuracy.
  
• Double Strike: Uses the arms. Deals two instances of melee 90% STR-based Cut damage to random targets. Can hit the same target twice. Has a 90% speed modifier and 90 base accuracy.
  
• Menacing Roar: Uses the head. Reduces the entire party's physical defense by 50% for 4 turns. Has a 120% speed modifier.
  

Damage resistances:
100% 100% 100% 100% 125% 100%
Disable resistances:
50% 25% 50% 50% 100% 50% 50%
0% 0% 10%
50% 50% 75%



Opening up with setting up a Delayed Chase.



I don't really want Chloe to spend a lot of her turns healing, when there are so many other things she could be doing. Artery is perfect for that, since it's a nice bit of passive recovery.



No point in having Hrothgar defend the party when Chimaera is currently helpless.



Once Chimaera gets out of the pit, I'll want to inflict Blind on him, but inflicting it now would be a waste of that ailment.



Gonna have Arianna buff the front row's damage output. Actually come to think of it, if I really wanted to be efficient, I could have just put Knight, Arianna, and Flavio in the front row and buff them, then switch them to the proper positions on the next turn. I am good at video games.



Those Vampire Bats in the room WILL join in on the fight and make life miserable for us, so I'm gonna have Bertrand use some Flash Grenades to keep them at bay for a while.









Listen to my voice.





Unfortunately I discovered that I used the Flash Grenade too early. Bah.





Okay, go time!


GIVE ME POWER!



Ice is Chimaera's weakness, so those are the main kinds of attacks I'll be using.









Chimaera always gets out of the hole on his 2nd turn. It doesn't matter whether you got a preemptive or not.



Ice Wave ended up dealing a total of 173 damage.



And there's Delayed Chase activating. Don't make the mistake of overestimating how powerful Fafnir is. He's strong, but takes a while to get going.

So I've done a total of 431 damage in this turn. And keep in mind that's with Knight's Force Boost active, which doesn't last that long. Even after dropping Chimaera into all 4 holes, we have 5000 HP to chew through. I'm sure you're aware of how Ragnar destroyed the bosses in this game easily. This is not the case in Story Mode. Expect the exact opposite, where fights are long and grueling, so the party has no choice but to outlast the boss. In terms of offense, they're very weak earlygame. Trying to win a damage race is not an option for them.



And to finish up the combo, I'll have Knight use Blade Recoil.



Might as well have Hrothgar make himself useful and increase the front row's defenses by 30%.



Force Boost!

Here's another dumb mistake I made. I waited until Chimaera got out of the hole to activate his Force Boost. I should have just activated it at the start of the fight since unlike Knight's Transform, there's no benefit to holding off on it here. Sure it provides that +999 evasion boost, but he's in no danger of dying in this fight. Especially since he's wearing a Venom Ring.



Gonna have Flavio try to Blind Chimaera. Blind Arrow is the only ability I maxed out not because I wanted the damage, but because I wanted the infliction rate to be as high as possible. Unfortunately, Flavio has a pretty big LUC disadvantage against Chimaera, so he has less than a 32% chance of inflicting it.



And here's another stupid thing I did. I used Guard Order too early. A 15% defense boost is nice, but it's redundant since Hrothgar can use Front Guard. I should have had her just use Link Order for extra damage. These little mistakes may not seem like much at first, but if you make too many of them in a boss fight, they can add up to cause a devastating loss. Especially due to how EO2U's boss fights are structured.



I have no idea if Chimaera is gonna use Great Blaze or not, but at this point it only costs 4 TP, and Hrothgar is already using Front Guard, so there's no reason to not use it. Especially considering that it can turn Great Blaze into a free turn.







Blind Arrow failed to inflict its ailment. Not too surprised there.











And that's some nice damage. If a Wave and Blade Recoil are at the same level, using Blade Recoil after a Wave will deal more damage than just Waving twice. It's also more TP efficient, which is a very important thing to be concerned about in Story Mode.





And that's what I meant about Fire Wall turning Great Blaze into a free turn. Unfortunately, Hrothgar's version isn't at a high enough level to do that, which is why I'm having Bertrand use that.



Sadly, you can't chain Blade Recoils. You have to use an actual elemental attack before the 2nd attack can activate again.

Oh and don't make the mistake of blowing a Force Break too early if the fight is nowhere near close to over. If the fight goes on long enough, it can be possible to use a Force Boost twice, which can can benefit you way more than just using a Force Break at the first opportunity.







Until Knight's Force Gauge fills up again, he's gonna be stuck using Delayed Chase + Freeze Sabre.



This is the last turn of Flavio's Force Boost, and I'm refraining from using the Force Break for the same reasons I talked about a bit earlier.



Even with a 30% damage reduction, Chimaera hits hard.





Gonna have Chloe patch up Knight. Hopefully Artery and the first heal can keep him alive this turn.



This should impress you!

Victory Vow is a pretty mediocre Force Boost. But the reason I'm using this is to get the most out of it before I use Arianna's Force Break.



Gonna refresh Attack Order. Victory Vow does let you avoid having to cast a buff twice to get it to affect the entire party.



Okay, that should lighten up the pressure on my party for the next few turns.



I should note that there is a disadvantage to using Venom Rings over the Poison resistance food. That food will affect Hrothgar as well, but since I'm not using it, he's fully susceptible to the Poison from Snake Pile.



You missed!





And like Blade Recoil, Delayed Chase + a Sabre deals more damage than just using a Sabre twice, assuming they're both at the same level anyway. It's not as TP efficient, though.







Chloe has an even bigger LUC disadvantage against Chimaera, but her Bind Cuts have a pretty good infliction rate. She has less than a 50% chance of binding his arms with this.

One of those bats is gonna be joining the fight on the next turn, and I'm nowhere near close to killing Chimaera.





Menacing Roar's defense debuff is enough to make Chimaera's attacks dangerous, and Chimaera starts using it when he drops below 50% (Of his original HP, mind you.) It makes Chimaera's hard hitting attacks into one hit kills. You saw how hard he was hitting through Front Guard, so it won't help after Menacing Roar's defense debuff is applied.



Fortunately, I had the foresight to put up Guard Order right beforehand, so all it did was dispel the front row's defense buff. Now I'm reapplying it in case Chimaera uses it again.



Great. Fortunately with the way I've positioned myself, the other bat has to take quite a detour to reach us. Though I doubt we can finish the fight before that happens.



I opt for Headcut this time, since I felt like shutting down Great Blaze and Menacing Roar.



I will use all my might!

I'm not concerned about Proof of Nobility's healing. Rather, its TP restoration. Take a look at Knight and Flavio's TP pools. They're both almost out of TP, and we're still not close to done with the fight. Proof of Nobility is kind of a terrible Force Break in Classic Mode, since the heal isn't too great and too slow to go off, while the TP restoration is kind of irrelevant, since fights are over much faster in Classic than in Story.







But since the Story party takes a long time to kill any boss, this Force Break is absolutely vital in boss fights. Being efficient with your TP is of the utmost importance here, otherwise you'll be stuck using regular attacks when the boss still has a lot of HP left. That's why I didn't max out any of my skills aside from Blind Arrow. The damage to TP ratio gets worse as you increase the skill levels, and at this point the damage increase isn't enough to kill the boss any faster, and doesn't make up for how fast our TP runs out.









Thanks to accumulative resistance, Flavio only has a 12% chance of landing another Blind, not counting the LUC disadvantage he has. So I opt for Paralysis Arrow. Sure it only has a 21% chance of landing (again, not counting Flavio's LUC disadvantage), but that's better than Blind Arrow now.



Time for Arianna to chip in on dishing out some damage.









Bah. Neither the Paralysis or Head bind landed.





Turn to Ice!

Link Order is something a Sovereign can do if they don't need to perform any support duties on their turn.



And the fight is about to become an even bigger pain, as I'm still not that close to killing Chimaera.



Success!

Okay, that was a really lucky break since the Paralysis landed AND stopped Chimaera from doing anything this turn.



At the very least, all the Vampire Bats do in this battle is try to bind our party members' heads.



Okay, gonna have Chloe get to work this turn. Ailing Slash is her best damage skill, and it's time you get to see how good it is.











And there's Ailing Slash in action! Look at that number. Chloe pretty much dealt the same amount of damage as Knight, our best damage dealer. And Ailing Slash is only at level 1. Chloe is pretty much our other offensive party member.



While Chimaera has less than 25% of his HP left, don't think that the battle will be over that quick. We still have around 2000 HP to chew through. And remember that Chimaera started out at 60%. So we're only over halfway through the fight.



All I have!



Unfortunately, the Paralysis wore off immediately, and the chances of landing another ailment are slim, so I activate her Force Boost so she can keep hitting like a truck.



I'll show you!

Despite Hrothgar's skillset not being that great, having him in our party means that we get access to 2 uses of Perfect Defense, which buys us 2 free turns.



Blind Arrow is still Flavio's best damage skill that we have, and it's not like he can do much else in this fight.







Whatever.



Of course that didn't do anything.



At least Chloe still hits hard.





Okay, I'm starting to run out of TP here.



Oh, I knew putting that one point into Force Mastery was a good idea! Time to end this!


No more games.





Wanna see a neat little trick?



Unfortunately, Chloe's head being bound stops her from using her Force Break and freeing the others from their binds.



The old man's on fire!

At least I can block all incoming damage for the turn.

Unfortunately, while Knight's Force Boost is back up, Flavio's isn't. This is why not using that at the start of the fight was a mistake. Flavio's Force Gauge didn't recharge in time for the final assault, which is gonna prevent me from using Summer Rain to deal even more damage and end the fight sooner. Timing and using your Force Boosts wisely is key to winning boss fights.









So, that neat little trick I was talking about?







If you use Delayed Chase, and then a Wave on multiple enemies on the next turn, Delayed Chase will go and hit everything the Waves hit. Not that useful in this fight, but this little trick can help you get in some extra damage on other fights. Actually, there's an upcoming fight where I could make good use of this trick.







Time for the final assault. Chimaera can't last much longer. Though neither can my party.









While Chloe doesn't hit as hard with Ailing Slash if the target doesn't have an ailment, it still deals an okay amount in that case.





FINISH HIM!







I've avenged you all.





Phew! Finally, it's over. Oh and a nice change made to boss fights since EO4 is that finishing off the boss while they still have minions on the field will end the fight instantly, instead of forcing you to do cleanup.



Also, you tend to get lots of Grimoire Stones during boss fights. Not all of them will be useful, though.





You exult in your feat of slaying the loathsome Chimaera!

...We've done it!
It's finally down, right? Then don't mind me...
I-I'm... exhausted...!



Sheesh, Flavio...
C'mon, it's finally over! Give me my minute of griping here!
...... Mr. Sword kinda reminds me of Trand.
Whoa there, Chloe. Kind of cruel to hold Knight to the high standards of this old man, don't you think?
I can't believe you manage to deliver corny lines like that with a straight face...
Ahahah... We make a fine bunch, don't we?

As your joyous chatter over the hard-won victory dies down, the red-haired young man stands and claps his hands.



Why no, Sir Hrothgar! Your shield kept us from perishing many times. Isn't that so, Sir Knight?



Can we have you instead of Bertrand?



*sigh* You little brats...
You all get along so well. I feel like I can move on with my life at last...

The smiling young man bows deeply in an expression of his gratitude.

Thank you. It's because of you that I lived through my vengeance for Beowulf. I'm going to go fetch Wulfgar. I don't want him to worry about me any longer than necessary... Feel free to head back at your own pace to report in. I'll see you back in town, I trust?



This is the last we see of guild Beowulf. Hrothgar nor Wulfgar make anymore appearances in Story Mode.

There he goes... I'm glad we all made it out safe. Right, Knight?
Mr. Bow is right. I'm glad too.
Yeah, it's great and all, but aren't you forgetting something important?
Something important...?
Oh, yes! The Dynamo Stone!



Right. Go find it, Flavio.
What!? Are you saying I'm the only one who's going to be looking for it!?

The rest of the guild gently reassures your shocked friend.



And I shall do my part as well. Sir Knight! You shouldn't tease your poor friend. We shall all search!

As the Princess is technically your employer, you decide to join your guildmates in the search for the stone...

Fade to black.



Music stops.









After Fafnir beats a boss, he'll gain a new ability. In this case, he learned Meteor Smash, which is a single target Bash attack that deals 350% to 795% damage (damage scales linearly from level 1 to 99.) But it can only be used once per Transform.



On seeing you stand dazed by the sudden sensation that overcame you, the usually apathetic knight turns solemn. He walks towards you slowly, with that same sharp gaze fixed upon you.

Did you just...?

Bertrand stares at you, muttering to himself, but eventually relaxes and gives a small sigh.

No, it was nothing. Just my imagination, I suppose.

Despite this, the knight continues to look critically at you. As you search for a way to respond, you hear a cheerful voice.





The young man who had been examining a vein in the rock wall seems to be holding a mysterious, glowing stone. The stone, which shines a dull yellow, emits small sparks from time to time that illuminate the area.

Wow. It's sparking.
Very well done, Sir Flavio! This marks the completion of our task.

The eagerness in Arianna's voice is evident as she approaches you.

Well, Sir Knight! Let us return to town and make our report to the Grand Duchy.

As Arianna says, you have defeated the Chimaera and obtained the needed stone. It is now time to return to High Lagaard.



I use an Ariadne Thread to return to town.







It was an easy victory!
Was it now! Then you defeated the Chimaera and saved Hrothgar, too? ...Looks like I put my request to the right guild, hm? You must be a cut above the rest.
Your request? Oh... are you the guard who asked us to save Beowulf, back in the forest?
Yes, that's right. ...I know how rude this sounds, but after I made that request of you, I thought Beowulf was done for. Worse, I was sure I'd sent another young guild to their deaths. But lo and behold, not only did you manage to save Beowulf, you beat such a powerful monster! I'm going to tell my fellow guards about you! They need to know that a guild as amazing as yours is in town! You should go report to the Grand Duchy. I know the Minister will be overjoyed to hear about this!
...Sir Knight? Doesn't it seem truly wonderful that we saved them?



It's a bit embarrassing.
Hahah... There's no call for embarrassment. You should be proud, Sir Knight!
An amazing guild, huh? Haha, that's what I like to hear.
C'mon, you Midgard Library guys didn't come here to investigate the forest, right?
W-Well, no, but...
Anyway. Our report?
Oh, you're absolutely right. The Minister will be waiting on us! We must head there without further delay!