Part 14: Remnants of a Dead World
Update 9: Remnants of a Dead World
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Here's our new "party." I bought a Kagenui for Nadia, took Hrothgar's Sword off Zack and gave it to Colette, put the Iron Nail and Trust Collar Wulfgar gave us on Ursa, and bought an additional Kagenui for Milly. Bows use AGI to calculate their damage instead of STR, so Milly isn't totally useless after she's casted her songs--just mostly.
Colette has a level 10 War Edge Mastery, which unlocks Ailing Slash, the War Magus's best damage skill. It does 350% damage at level 10 (Colette only has a level 6 Ailing Slash right now, though), but if the target has a status ailment or the War Magus has War Edge Power active, it deals 770% damage. Level 20 is even more insane: it deals 440% damage without an ailment, but deals 1100% with an ailment. She also has one level in Vampire, unlocked with level 5 Ailing Slash, which heals her row for around 10% of whatever damage she deals to enemies with ailments.
Ursa has level 9 Hit-Taker now, which further reduces the damage she tanks and protects one more time per turn. I also leveled up Loyalty Mastery to level 7 to unlock Beast Roar, which inflicts an attack down debuff on every enemy.
Nadia's build hasn't changed from Chimaera.
Milly has Song Mastery leveled up to 5; this didn't actually unlock anything I wanted to use yet, but it does reduce the TP cost of Song skills to ((0.9 * normalTP) - 2), which is great, because her level 9 Warrior Song, which gives the whole party an attack buff, would've cost 20 TP otherwise. She also has Shelter Song, which gives the party a defense buff, leveled up to 5.
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As soon as we enter FOEbucks, Regina talks to us.
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I got quite a lot of money from grinding up the guild to level 14/15 (and from other sources), so I might as well do some town development. Maybe it'll lead to some good Grimoire Trade opportunities, I dunno.
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Improving the South Ward brought in Gunners for Grimoire Trading. But, more importantly, right after that:
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Every five improvements or so, the Ward you're upgrading ranks up. Basically, more people start to live there, and any class-based customer groups get better, meaning you get better Grimoire Trade opportunities.
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Each Ward has two specific classes you can get Grimoire Trades from. Note that none of the Wards contain Beast, Highlander, or Fafnir guilds. You can still find normal Grimoire Trade partners of each class, which is really weird, especially for Fafnir.
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I invest some money in the West Ward, unlocking both the Alchemist Union...
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...and the War Lore Study Society. Might as well see if this ever leads to any useful Grimoires for Colette.
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I got the West Ward to a Rank Up and stopped Town Development there for now. Onto cleaning up the two FOEs we haven't killed yet.
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Raptor
HP: 3484, STR: 19, VIT: 14
Skills:
- (G) Paralyze Fang
- Normal: Brass Fang
- Normal: Cut, Stab, Bash, Fire, Volt
- Weak: Ice
- Normal: Blind, Poison, Panic, Sleep, Curse, Fear, Stun, Head bind, Arm bind, Leg bind
- Resist: Paralysis, Petrification, Instant Death
Its jaws tear through a human, and its fangs secrete a paralyzing toxin.
Even now that we've killed Chimaera, Raptors are still somewhat dicey to fight. Without blinding them or otherwise disabling Paralyze Fang (which hits a row for pretty big damage and attempts to paralyze them), we basically have no chance of killing it before it kills us. We also need some serious damage to chew through nearly 4000 HP (remember that Chimaera started at 5500 HP after being dropped in traps four times).
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I'm not entirely confident Nadia can blind the Raptor, so I have Colette user her Force Boost. She doesn't get the Vampire heal this way, but oh well.
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The Raptor hits hard even outside of Paralyze Fang, so I have Ursa use Desperation and start tanking.
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I need as much damage as I can get out of everyone.
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And I have Milly buff up the party's damage.
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Mind you, this is just the Raptor's basic attack with Hit-Taker's damage reduction in effect. These things hurt.
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I make no apologies for the use of Google Translate.
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Milly has a Healing Rhythm Grimoire equipped. Whenever she has buffs, she is healed at the end of a turn.
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Whenever you activate Transform, the battle music changes to Bloody Fight.
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Alright, time to admit: I'm slightly cheating here. The only way to get a Fafnir into a Classic mode game is to use New Game+ on a Story mode save. However, doing this with a Fafnir that doesn't have all of his story-granted abilities means you get a Fafnir that is permanently missing several of the abilities that make him actually good. So, I imported a 4th Stratum Story save I had, where Ranger has all of his powers. Ranger is far more powerful than Fafnir should be at this point, but his absurdly tiny TP pool and serious lack of skill points early on makes this less obscenely broken than you'd think.
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Any abilities granted by Transform have red backgrounds. The three at the top are special, one-use-per-Transform abilities granted by defeating certain bosses.
The Wave skills are based on Fafnir's current Flame/Freeze/Shock Sabre level, and actually are TEC-dependent skills that use the head. They're also purely elemental, unlike the Sabres. This is why Fafnir has a TEC stat well above pretty much every other physical damage dealer in the game.
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War Song pauses the duration of all current buffs on the party, and prevents enemies from dispelling them.
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Vampire in action.
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Ice Wave hits the enemy with 10 random-target Ice attacks, while Delayed Chase activates after any elemental attack, and deals Cut+(Element last used) composite damage.
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Ranger's heal here is from Self-Regenerate, which is given after a certain boss later on. It regenerates 30% of his max HP at the end of every turn.
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The fight's not going to last for long; why not use True Endurance?
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Accelerate is a supremely broken ability, which you will see in action shortly.
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Same reasoning as using True Endurance.
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Milly has nothing useful to do this turn, so I have her cast Ice Prelude on Ranger. The Preludes are basically elemental Oils as skills, except for one thing: because they're technically elemental attack buffs, they do not count as normal attack buffs like Warrior Song, meaning that they give their full attack buff even if the user has a normal attack buff on them already. It's not much at this point, but why not?
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Yes, I did not edit this GIF. Accelerate lets Ranger perform 3 different actions in one turn, and they all go first in the turn order.
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Crusade buffs the damage the party deals and reduces the damage the party takes by 50% each for one turn. It also stacks fully with attack buffs and other Force Boosts. Can you guess what I'm setting up here?
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This is gonna hurt.
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Ranger opens his turn by dealing a little over 500 damage with Ice Wave...
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Meteor Smash is a one-use-per-Transform Bash attack that deals pretty hefty damage. It's unlocked when you kill Chimaera in Story mode.
And finally...
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Akashic Nova is the final upgrade to Transform you get in Story mode. It replaces Ignition Ray, deals composite Fire+Ice+Volt damage to all enemies, and might be slightly overpowered for this point in the game.
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I go back to town at this point because everyone's Force is spent.
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Back to your regular scheduled programming.
Luck Necklace is unlocked by selling 1 Brass Fang. It provides +3 LUC. I considered buying one for Nadia, but decided not to.
Stun Gas is unlocked by selling 1 Brass Fang as well. It tries to inflict paralysis on every enemy with a pretty low chance. Worthless.
And onto FOEbucks, where Regina starts talking to us immediately:
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Grimoire Recycling is now unlocked. Basically, we can just dump a bunch of trash Grimoires we don't want onto Regina, and after a while in the Labyrinth, the next time we enter FOEbucks, she'll give us a random Grimoire of a level that's based on how many Grimoires we recycled and what level they were. It's basically a fancy way to delete Grimoires and get a little something in return. I don't use it much, though.
Also, Regina is a liar, because she immediately starts talking again right after that:
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At this point, I remembered I still had the Poison Damage 2x food on, and tried to swap it out for Max TP Up...only to realize I was out of Rye. A quick trip back to 1F later, and Regina has one more thing to say when I come back:
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And we can now advertise to two different Wards at once for an ad campaign.
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...too bad I already have one running and didn't feel like cancelling it.
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Let's go finish off the Terrible Hunter and be done with the 1st Stratum.
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Terrible Hunter
HP: 5280, STR: 20, VIT: 16
Skills:
- (G) Rending Bite
- (G) Menacing Glare
- Normal: Brass Claw
- Normal: Cut, Stab, Bash, Fire, Volt
- Weak: Ice
- Normal: Blind, Poison, Paralysis, Panic, Curse, Fear, Arm bind, Leg bind
- Resist: Sleep, Petrification, Instant Death, Stun, Head bind
The leader of the raptor population. Do not go up against it if you are not prepared!
You can probably infer this, but the Terrible Hunter is basically the Raptor but even harder to fight (its HP is just shy of 200 less than Chimaera's was after the traps). I'd really advise having a Troubador or Sovereign on hand to dispel Menacing Glare--you really do not want the Terrible Hunter hitting harder than it already does.
I do pretty much the same stuff I did for the Raptor: Ailing Slash, Delayed Chase, Blind Arrow, Warrior Song.
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Except this time Nadia blinds the thing on the first turn, essentially wasting War Edge Power. Bah.
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I'm not kidding when I say every action I've taken up till now is identical to how the Raptor fight played out.
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Even Ranger's Accelerate actions are the same: Ice Wave -> Meteor Smash -> Akashic Nova.
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With Crusade to amp the damage.
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It's not as much as it was versus the Raptor, but it's still way above the curve for this point in the game.
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Here's what True Endurance's end-of-turn retaliation attack looks like. Yes, Crusade boosts its damage.
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Consider that I have only two notable damage dealers, and the Terrible Hunter is already on the ropes on the 5th turn.
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Here's Ranger's major downside for almost all of the game: outside of Transform, he's really mediocre. His damage is meh at best and he's pretty fragile. It won't be until maybe the very late game, definitely postgame, that we'll be seeing Ranger at his most powerful. At that point, lots of stuff will die very quickly due to the fact that the Fafnir class is balanced around the Story mode party, which is best described as "four defensive supports and Fafnir."
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Menacing Glare reduces a row's physical defense; however, because we had Shelter Song on, it just nullified Shelter Song.
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Back to town, since I used everyone's Force.
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Dragon Scimitar is unlocked by selling 1 Brass Claw. Still a downgrade from Hrothgar's Sword. It's the only thing we unlocked here.
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This quest is unlocked when you reach 6F, and it's very special. It's part of a quest line that's exclusive to Classic. It's also the only quest I'm taking for now.
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Ginnungagap is an entirely new five-floor labyrinth added in EO2U. It didn't exist at all in the original EO2. In Story mode, Ginnungagap is basically where everything important happens, much like EOU's Gladsheim, which was also a entirely new labyrinth added for Story mode purposes.
Being able to access the Story mode labyrinth is actually a massive improvement EO2U made over EOU. In EOU, Classic mode parties couldn't access Gladsheim, full stop. Not only did this lock you out of being able to 100% the game in a pure Classic mode run, due to several enemies, bosses, and items only existing in Gladsheim, but it also meant that Classic mode parties were pretty much always underleveled compared to what EOU expects the party to be. It wasn't that big a deal on Normal and obviously meant nothing on Picnic, but it makes Classic on Expert in EOU one of the least fun experiences in the series. The farthest I've ever gotten with Classic Expert in EOU is the Queen Ant, and I was quite a few levels below where the Story mode party should've been despite fighting every battle I could've.
Classic mode parties actually get off better than the Story mode party with regards to Ginnungagap; in Story mode, Ginnungagap is just something you have to do as part of the plot, meaning you don't get the money or EXP rewards from quests.
Once we accept the quest, this happens when we leave town:
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SYSTEM: You walk along the titanic valley, and see ancient ruins that stretch down along the cliff, across the length of the rocky floor.
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SYSTEM: Your task is now to investigate these ruins at the bottom of this great gorge.
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The left door just leads to a dead end.
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Jackalope
HP: 97, STR: 8, VIT: 8
Skills:
- (G) Jolting Blow
- Normal: Strange Horn
- Normal: Cut, Bash, Fire, Ice, Volt
- Weak: Bash
- Normal: Blind, Poison, Paralysis, Sleep, Curse, Fear, Petrification, Instant Death, Stun, Head bind, Arm bind, Leg bind
- Weak: Panic
Though it looks like a bunny, it is likely to swing a powerful fist if threatened!
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If you want a good indicator of when you should be fighting Jackalopes, the game gave 9 EXP to every party member here.
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Remember that Sunflowers are enemies from 2F. The Story party starts exploring Ginnungagap MUCH earlier than Classic parties do.
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I literally just use Auto-Battle for everything because none of the encounters pose any threat at all.
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A big, empty room for pretty much no reason.
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SYSTEM: If you wish to further explore the dungeon, then you will have to eliminate the beast before you now. If you are ready, draw your weapons and attack the monster!
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Mercenary Boar
HP: 672, STR: 9, VIT: 9
Skills:
- (G) Swing
- Appraise
- Normal: Black Muzzle
- Normal: Cut, Stab, Bash, Fire, Ice, Volt
- Normal: Poison, Paralysis, Panic, Curse, Fear, Stun, Head bind, Leg bind
- Weak: Blind, Sleep, Arm bind
- Nullify: Petrification, Instant Death
I really don't know why Scarlet Rain plays here. Even in the context of fighting this thing at levels 4 to 5 with the Story mode party, it still makes no sense. This thing is weak enough that all I have to show you is how much damage I did in one turn:
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Yeah.
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Nadia was 1 EXP from a level up before. Hooray, I suppose. I level up Paralysis Arrow with it. Slightly more damage.
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These drawbridges have their own dynamic map icon. Put one down where a bridge is, and the icon will orient itself to the same direction as the bridge, indicate whether the bridge is raised or lowered, and show where you can manipulate the bridge from.
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SYSTEM: There must have been a bridge here once, but there is none now, and only a thick darkness spreads before you. As you ponder what to do, you notice something like a switch on the floor before you.
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SYSTEM: Though you blink in wonderment at seeing the marvelous bridge in action, you compose yourself and continue exploring.
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The drawbridges on B1F basically function as 2 things: shortcuts, and primary components in FOE puzzles we'll see later. You can also see how the map icons change in response to raising or lowering the bridge.
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Haggis
HP: 546, STR: 11, VIT: 10
Skills:
- (G) Holy Shock
- Normal: Yellow Plume
- Normal: Cut, Bash, Ice
- Weak: Stab, Fire
- Resist: Volt
- Blind, Poison, Paralysis, Panic, Curse, Fear, Petrification, Instant Death, Stun, Arm bind, Leg bind
- Weak: Sleep
- Resist: Head bind
Haggises are dicks. They start the battle asleep, yeah, but they require more damage to take down than you'd expect, and Holy Shock HURTS. You'd best burst these things down very quickly, or you will regret it.
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Thankfully, Haggises have a Stab weakness, so Nadia can deal decent damage to them, especially from sleep.
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Neither of the Haggises ended up using Holy Shock, so the battle was, on the whole, uninteresting.
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We'll get that treasure soon enough.
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Yeah, the Mercenary Boar model gets reused for this FOE.
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Here's the FOE's gimmick, and the floor's main gimmick as well: when you lower this bridge...
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The Boar Captain aggros towards your party. It takes one step for every step your party takes, but they're generally positioned around one-tile wide passages, meaning you either have to take the long way around...
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Or you can just fight them.
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Boar Captain
HP: 1728, STR: 20, VIT: 17
Skills:
- (G) Swing
- Command Boars
- Normal: Timeworn Hilt
- Normal: Cut, Stab, Bash, Fire, Ice, Volt
- Normal: Poison, Paralysis, Panic, Curse, Fear, Stun, Head bind, Arm bind, Leg bind
- Weak: Blind
- Resist: Sleep, Petrification, Instant Death
A chief amongst the wereboar population, leading its kind into battle with abandon.
Boar Captains aren't that strong as far as FOEs go. They hit decently hard, but that weakness to being blinded seriously throws a wrench into their damage output. They can summon Wereboars and perform a very hard-hitting combo attack with them, but you can almost certainly kill them before it gets to that.
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The strategy here is very simple: kill the Boar Captain as fast as possible. I use War Edge Power just to get more damage in case Nadia doesn't blind the thing.
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I'll hold off on Desperation utnil Ursa's HP dips low enough.
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Ranger's TP is lowered from using Sabres during random encounters, so I skip using Delayed Chase and just go straight to Transform.
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I'm banking on the Boar Captain's weakness to blind here.
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And Milly does her usual Warrior Song opener. I also use War Song because why not.
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Dammit. Oh well, War Edge Power's active anyway.
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Double dammit. Should've used Desperation; I forgot that Boar Captains do hit very hard, and tanking their hits 3 times is way more than Ursa can handle.
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Setting up for next turn. For most of the early game, you can expect me to repeat the same actions with Ranger, due to his currently low max TP.
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Milly's turn is better spent reviving Ursa than casting another buff.
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Triple dammit.
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Okay, now I'm scrambling to end the fight as soon as possible. I don't want to be on the receiving end of Command Boars.
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I did more damage than I thought over two turns. Ranger's Accelerate actions alone'll probably either kill the Boar Captain or put it very low.
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Better safe than sorry.
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Like I said, same combo.
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Even down to using Crusade.
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Ranger artificially inflates my power a little, but most well-constructed parties can take down Boar Captains easily enough at this point.
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I'll go through the way you're intended to get around the Boar Captain later, but for now I just opt to lower a shortcut bridge and head back to town after expending everyone's Force.
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Blind Gas is basically a low-level Blinding Curse. It has a fairly low chance of inflicting blind on every enemy in a fight. It even uses the user's LUC stat to calculate the blind infliction chance.
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Yeah, I wasn't kidding when I said Holy Shock hurts. If the main hit was on either Colette or Ranger, it would've killed them. The splash damage also really hurts, and can easily finish off someone who's even slightly hurt. Remember that Haggises tend to come in pairs, too!
That was the last encounter in Ginnungagap before I went back to town. Selling all our materials netted us:
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Antler Staff is unlocked by selling 1 Strange Horn. It gives +8 TP and +2 VIT, which is useful for Chloe in Story mode, given that you'll be visiting Ginnungagap before you even finish 1F, but is pretty bad now.
Fushuu is unlocked by selling 1 Timeworn Hilt. It gives +10 TP and 63 ATK. It's a very big upgrade over Ranger's Warabide, so I buy one for him.
Hachigane is unlocked by selling 1 Chipped Blade. It gives +5 HP and +10 DEF, but I don't buy it for anyone.
Leather Shoes are unlocked by selling 1 Black Muzzle. It gives +3 DEF and +1 STR. Again, another bit of equipment you're intended to buy much earlier in Story.
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Next time: we go through more of Ginnungagap B1F, and hopefully at least reach that giant lizard the guard mentioned.