Part 40: Biology Lab

Update 32: Biology Lab



Thank you, Ursa and Sophie...
Rrhrm.
I guess if you've got a town with so many friendly people, you've gotta have some scummy jerks to balance it out.
...Do I want to know what happened? Alternatively, can I probably guess it?
S-some people have no respect for fashion choices...
Some jerks said really nasty things to Freyja when we were coming back from dinner. Ursa and I made them regret it, though!
I guess a Hexer...or at least someone who looks like one...and a giant bear do make for a scary pair.

Today, we do more secret areas. Exciting, no?

We're gonna have to do them sooner or later, might as well do it when I'm about 5-10 levels below where the game expects me to be.



After I mess with everyone's Grimoires a little. Sophie, in particular, had no Grimoires equipped since I had her take a Rest a while ago.



I also remembered that Realga and Ursa had skill points from last update that I forgot to allocate.

Salve now heals for 122% healing power, while Protection Vow now lasts for 6 turns, can take 5 instances of damage, only loses 10% chance to protect per blocked instance, and reduces damage by 35%. Nifty.



...What, demon girl's not slavering over the frogs?
First, I've lost track of how many times I've told you that summoning stuff was just a show the fake cult hired Stardust to do effects for. Second, I just ate.

This is a kinda annoying puzzle. There's debris everywhere, and while that means they impede the Frog Lords' movement (if a Frog Lord hops in the direction of Debris, it will get stopped by it for one turn, and hop over it on the next move in the same direction), it's also easy to put them in a position that screws you over.


Why did we let the bear do navigation, again?
Rrrr...

...Like this. Oh well, I wanted to fight a Frog Lord to show something off anyway, so...



En guarde!




Good start.



Same setup as last time, honestly.



We have gone from a good start to an excellent start.



Wait what


Okay, no more letting the bear do navigation.

Oh my god I don't think I've actually seen this before: the fucking Frog Lords will pounce towards you if you're in their line of sight even in the middle of fights. This is bad.



Gather your inadequate friends, and flee! Flee in the name of Lance the rhubarb!


I can't go on...


Crafty frogs!
No no no, come on! I didn't even write my will! What's gonna happen to my savings?!


Time to croak...


Rrrerrgh...


...You think we'll turn into ghosts after we die?
Maybe? I dunno, I just hope there'll be--


...Tasty ghost food...


My...money...



Oh, hello, Realga.
Ranger? ...Where are we?
Some swirling red vortex.
Did I actually turn into a ghost...? Wait, if I'm a ghost, then why are you here? What happened to my money? ...And everyone else, I guess.
I'unno. I think whoever's in charge of the universe doesn't like what just happened.
Uh... Can we fix this?
Yep. All I gotta do is this.

I mean, I can't even really blame the game for that one. I even had Return Flutes, but it's easy to forget about that when your thought process is best summed up as "oh fuck oh shit no no no."



...I'm not even going to question how he can mess with time. Nope. Just gonna accept it and move on.
D-did you say something, Realga?
N-nope! C'mon, let's just get going.

You saw nothing.




Alright, how to do this without getting cornered by these stupid frogs. First, bait the top one out as far as you can.



There's debris over here, meaning the frog will try to hop toward you and stop just before the debris.



Take a step backward, and the frog will leap over the debris.



Run down, to the left, and then up again, and you'll have a newly frog-free pathway.



In the process of trying to do some fancy footwork to get to the chest, I accidentally fucked up and now the frog's in the worst spot possible.


Ohhh, I'm ready for you now, froggy. I've even got something special for you!
You're trying to preserve this thing?
If Sitoth values the skin so much, imagine what he'd give for the entire frog!




Don't worry, my memory isn't literally non-functional (just really terrible). The Frog Lord on the other side of the map can't hop to us--we're safe.

You might be wondering "why are you fighting one of these things again?" The answer is: I want to demonstrate Formaldehyde, since inflicting Curse on these things isn't really that hard and the only reason I can't do it is because Sophie doesn't have Corrupt Curse at the moment.

You've already seen a full Frog Lord fight before, so let's just skip to the interesting bits.



The thing's almost dead, and it can't use Toxic Secretion. Here is where I need to be really careful, since the Formaldehyde needs to go off before the thing dies, and if I end up wasting it on a turn where the thing doesn't die...then I'll be mildly irritated and restart the game.



I have everyone Defend while Sophie tries to put the Frog Lord to sleep, in order to amplify one instance of damage from either Freyja or Asriel.



This thing still hurts even through Defend, and if it uses Drain Dive again, things'll get hairy.


Rock-a-bye froggy, in the forest ground...
Something tells me frogs aren't much for lullabies.

Damn.



Damn.



Damn damn.



No biggie, I'll just purge all that poison off.



Wuh-oh.



Okay, really?


Urrrk...
Can you please make that thing fall asleep already?!
Maybe if I wasn't full from dinner...



...



Alright, enough of this nonsense.



Welp. Toxic Secretion's poison damage is already kinda annoying, being hit with it while we have Drain Dive on us is basically a death sentence.



Gee, great timing.



Now everyone's dead.



I really hope the frog stays asleep for a while, I really don't want to Game Over twice in one update.


Please come back...!
M-my head...



This was stupid. Sophie's equipment (namely, a staff) means she has way lower action speed than Freyja.

Actually, that doesn't matter, because...


So hungry...


Owowow... What happened here?!
Please, Realga, I can't go on for long...


I'm still gonna...preserve this thing...

Realga has the same speed issue that Sophie does regarding her staff giving her a really bad penalty.


P-please don't get upset...
Y'know what? Nah. Trying to preserve this thing isn't worth dying again.
Again...?

Ugh, what a disaster. At least an item isn't consumed if you select it and don't get to use it.




I just opted to go back to town and revive everyone at the inn.


If at first you don't succeed, die, try again.
Pretty sure it's "try, try again." Anyway, it's gotta work eventually!



Pattern recognition is, evidently, something I never learned as a baby.



At least we didn't have a catastrophe again.



Freyja gets another level in Phys ATK Up. With her Grimoire, this level basically does nothing.


Why can't these things always have, like, Amritas or Formaldehydes?

Four-Leaf Clovers aren't entirely garbage--I dunno if I've explained them yet but, to my best understanding, when used, they have a 25% chance to make any Grimoire generated on the turn they're used be level 10. I'd say these are useful, but the Premium Grimoire Chance Tea and a certain aspect about a postgame floor makes them kinda irrelevant.



We're almost done with the Frog Lords, I swear.

At this point, I just went back to town to heal up since fighting one of these things is a serious drain on Freyja and Asriel's TP.



What did Stardust say that one time? Something about the definition of insanity?
The law of big numbers means this'll work soon enough!



Ursa's collar and claws giving her an action speed boost means she's gotta make this work, right?



WRONG.

One more fight later...



Asriel's turn.


My my, that smell is something.
Urk... I shouldn't have eaten before we went in...
Imagine four or six years of this smell, and you know what med school was like.



YES


Least the smell's worth something--the body's perfectly intact.
...I'm kinda regretting this now. This thing feels like it's cursed somehow.

Note how we got the Cursed Frog Skin despite the Frog just having its head bound when it died.

All those frogs just to demonstrate Formaldehyde. Bleh.


Y'know, I didn't think it could get worse than the dinosaurs, but the frogs proved me wrong.
At least it's over. I think I've had my fill of frogs for, I dunno, the rest of my life.


This frog is heavy... Can we please go sell it before going further?
I haven't checked my savings in a while... Yeah, let's go back.

Time to go back to town.



...4800 en. For an entire Frog Lord. Rip-offs.

All that effort for something I won't even be buying until near the end of the 6th Stratum.

Curse Mail (War Magus ultimate body armor; +96 DEF, +3 STR, +3 TEC) is unlocked by selling 1 Cursed Frog Skin. It costs a whopping 205000 en, but given that War Magi are key to making several postgame fights not-incredibly-frustrating, I'm definitely going to be buying this for Colette at some indeterminate point in the future.




oh god



At this point, I remembered there were a few level ups I didn't spend yet. They speak for themselves, I think. I'm gonna need Corrupt Curse for some more conditionals in the 5th and 6th strata.




...



NO MERCY


It's more humane to put food to sleep before you cook it!
Or eating it raw, in your case.



I have literally never used Rose Prison up until now, and really unloading Force Breaks is just symbolic at this point.


I must still slaughter 99 of your kind for repatriation.


O-one of these is enough for me.

Rose Prison is a really trash Force Break, honestly. It has a high bind chance, yeah (in fact, it's 120% for each bind type), but think of it this way: is some small damage and unreliable binds worth locking your Dark Hunter out of Trance until you go back to town? Or wasting a turn where you could be using Ecstasy?


All of that pain. For this empty room.
C-c'mon, Realga, let's go get some lunch! _{She looks like she's about to explode...}




One more small locked door area.


I'll be honest, I welcome these things after the dinosaurs and frogs.
Speak for yourself.



Oh hey, another one of these things.


Wait. Wait wait wait. Freyja, didn't we kill Flame Demon a few months ago?
Yes. I remember it very well...

Oh yeah, boss respawns. These start happening after...it's either when you reach the final floor of the stratum after the boss, or when you defeat the next stratum's boss.



Note that Flame Demon's only movement pattern is that she'll turn to face you whenever you're close to her. She doesn't actually move at all.



Alright, the second and final secret area. What awaits us is...



...A battle.


Eww, it's literally all bone.
It's a miracle: a monster that Sophie doesn't want to eat.


Dinotyrant
HP: 2326, STR: 42, TEC: 31, VIT: 32, AGI: 23, LUC: 32
Skills:

• Curse Fang: Cannot be disabled. Deals 80% melee STR-based Cut damage to the entire party. Attempts to inflict curse on hit targets, with a 50% base chance. Has a 70% speed modifier and 99 base accuracy.
  
• Death Stare: Cannot be disabled. Attempts to instantly kill one party member, with a 70% base chance. Has an 80% speed modifier.

Drops:

• Normal: Bone Plate. 75% chance. Sells for 741 en. 1 needed to make Dino Cuirass (+50 DEF, +5% Cut, Stab, and Bash resistance). 7 needed to make Dragon Whip (+114 ATK, +15 HP).
  "Bony plate of myriad overlapping scales. If worked properly, it makes weapons or armor."
  
• Conditional: Pierced Heart (Kill with instant death). 100% chance. Sells for 1600 en. 1 needed to make Brave Gage (Landsknecht ultimate non-body armor; +46 DEF, +20 HP, +3 STR).
  "Dinotyrant's heart stopped in one strike. If struck when alive, its power changes."

Damage resistances:
200% 200% 200% 200% 200% 200%
Disable resistances:
50% 100% 100% 50% 50% 0% 50%
50% 50% 50%
0% 100% 100%

A vicious carnivore with a high vitality. Adventurers would do well to dispatch it quickly.

Oh hey, it's the Low-Resistance-But-Has-Curse gimmick enemy. Pretty much every EO from EO3 on has one of these, and their gimmick is basically that they have high HP, but also very low damage resistances. The catch is that they also have the ability to inflict curse on your party, meaning that cursed targets will take a lot of damage if they hit the enemy, since the low resistances inflate their damage.

None of this matters, because...


98 dinosaurs left until I have my revenge.

Another conditional that gives some kind of ultimate armor out of the way.



Anyway, yeah, the gimmick of the 10F secret area is small, twisty corridors.



Pretty much none of these corridors have anything interesting going on.


...I know I said I stopped questioning this place, but I'm going back on that: why?

Also, there's a gigantic open area with tons of doors leading to the corridors. I'm getting bad EO1 flashbacks.



Seriously, what is the point to any of these corridors?
Going by your reaction, to annoy explorers like us.



Seriously, look at this mess.


Wonder if that Overlord's the one to blame for this.
He'll pay for this, if so.



The only things that happen during this period are occasional Dinotyrant fights, none of which are worth showing.


Alright, that's the end of this floor, let's go back to town now!
U-um, aren't we missing a large part of the map?


Rrgh. Fine. Maybe there'll be treasure. If there is, though, I'm taking half of what it's worth.



Secret passage here.


...Um, what is this?
That's probably the most primitive gun I've ever seen.
Maybe Jackie can use it for something? It kinda feels like it's magic.

The Rock Cannon is another ailment weapon, but it's kind of special--30% base chance to inflict petrification with normal attacks. I normally dismiss these things, but since Scorpion is the only non-monster Grimoire skill that can inflict petrification, this thing's honestly our best bet for getting petrify conditionals.


Okay, NOW let's go back to town.
About two hours until dinner time... Eh, okay.




Brave Gage (Landsknecht ultimate non-body armor; +46 DEF, +20 HP, +3 STR) is unlocked by selling 1 Pierced Heart. Another bit of ultimate armor that's way out of our price range at this time.

Dino Cuirass (+50 DEF, +5% Cut, Stab, and Bash resistance) is unlocked by selling 1 Bone Plate. The physical damage resistances are honestly negligible, but I haven't upgraded Freyja and Asriel's armor in a while, so I buy one for Freyja and...

Actually, when was the last time I upgraded Asriel's armor?


You kids and your fancy, expensive armor. This stuff's served me well so far, and I'll stick with--
Uh, no. Abigail, what've you got that's not that expensive but also isn't super-flimsy?

...No fucking wonder the dude's been dying so quickly, oh my god. All of his armor is still from the first part of the 1st Stratum. I am good at Etrian Odyssey.



Much better. Hopefully he'll be less susceptible to being one-shot now.

That's all for now. Next time: the last of the secret areas, I swear.