Part 43: The Worst Robot

Update 34: The Worst Robot



Okay, no, enough's enough. How the hell can everyone but me understand this stupid bear?
Oh, good morning, Realga! You can't understand Ursa?
No! All she does is make bear noises, how do you get comprehensible English out of that?!
You never asked politely. Did you ever consider asking politely?
?!
...Okay, no, Nadia. Come out here. We're not doing that.
Ahahaha! Sorry, Ursa and I've been planning that all week.
You both do realize that I hate you now, right?
Eh, whatever. I killed some time. Like I've been doing for months now.

Let's finish up the last of our pre-4th Stratum business today because it's been almost a real-life month since we last saw Petal Bridge, and that's frankly inexcusable by my standards.



Remind me, what was our goal again?
It was something along the lines of "grasp the invisible power," I think...
That could mean literally anything.


W-what's growing on the walls?
I dunno, but it looks organic, and I'm not touching it.
The water down in those small gaps looks like it's glowing, too.

Welcome to Ginnungagap B4F, aka Corridors Galore.



All the monsters are the same as what we saw in B3F, which makes sense.



Nothing happens until we actually go to one of the points marked on the map, but I just felt like mapping out the entire floor before starting the main gimmick to better give an idea of what's going on.



There really isn't a lot to comment on at the moment, as such.



Aside from this happening after a boring random encounter, yesssssssssssss. This is basically going on Freyja as soon as I leave the floor and it's never coming off. She's essentially only eats a +6 increase to TP cost for +80% or so base damage, meaning around 400% more damage when using Ecstasy on a fully bound target.



Like I said, corridors galore with no interesting new encounters. Let's head towards one of those marked tiles, shall we?


SYSTEM: Nothing is visible here, but you can sense some mysterious power in the air.
Rrr.
At least our bear can sense this stuff, I guess.
SYSTEM: When you reach out with your hand, the power dissipates and silence returns. You decide to resume exploring the ruins in search of the remaining seals.
Anyone just feel like the area just got a bit more evil?


...Where did those FOEs come from?
Suppose it was magic. Let's just get moving.

"Grasping at the invisible power" causes Dazing Pumpkins to spawn at basically each of the corners of the map. They take one step for every step we take, but (and this is really important): if there is a wall in the way, they will teleport to the other side immediately.


Y'know, most of the monsters we've met so far...look like monsters. But how do you explain that thing?
Whoever's making these things wants to make me happy, obviously. You've had pumpkin before, right?
Would a living, moving pumpkin really taste the same as the kinds you grow...?



For the record, each of the invisible power spots has the same dialogue.



When you activate a new one, though, they cause the pumpkins to despawn and respawn in new spots.



I'll spare you the trouble of going to the third one and just skip to the end. Very little happens on this floor, and while that's for good reason in Story mode (Dr. Fetus is going to have a field day with that one), in Classic mode it's just a really short, boring floor.

One trip back to town later to heal up, and we're ready for the upcoming boss fight.

What, you didn't see that coming by now?



SYSTEM: If you wish to progress any further, exercise great caution! Within, you will almost certainly encounter something of unearthly power...
Everyone ready for what that weird voice is gonna throw at us?
I think we're beyond the point where you need to ask.

The more observant of you might notice that I linked to the FM version of the soundtrack. That is because this upcoming fight is so boring that one of the few things I could think of to make it slightly less boring was to switch soundtracks for a short bit.



SYSTEM: In the middle of the room, the power you felt earlier manifests as a swirling hurricane-force wind...
W-what's going on?!
Welcome, adventurer. You now witness the remainder of Ginnungagap's power. This is all that remains of the might it once held... But even that...is enough to measure the abilities of a mere human.
Can you really call us "mere humans" after what we've been through so far?
Whether pursuing ancient riddles, or simply curious... For whatever reason you now stand here in this realm of isolation... The time has come to show me your power. You now face an illusion of Ginnungagap's conjury. Its power far exceeds that of the man that once walked these halls, long ago. If you can overcome it, I shall teach you the truth of this land. Come forth, Incarnation of Fafnir!

https://zippy.gfycat.com/GrippingDapperGnatcatcher.webm (No GIF version available)



There's no further dialogue between that pan around Demi-Fafnir and the fight starting.

VIDEO: Boss Fight: Demi-Fafnir



That thing looks like it has more to do with fire than...whatever a Fafnir is.


Demi-Fafnir
HP: 10800, STR: 31, TEC: 35, VIT: 35, AGI: 28, LUC: 33
Skills:

• Rising Flame: Uses the head. Deals 120% ranged TEC-based Fire damage to the party. Has an 80% speed modifier and 99 base accuracy.
  
• Release Flame: Cannot be disabled. Summons two Control Devices. Deals 15% (if only one Control Device is alive) or 80% (if both are alive) ranged TEC-based Fire damage to the party at the end of each turn for 4 turns. Release Flame ends when both Control Devices are killed. If the final Control Device is killed with an end-of-turn action (such as Additional Palm), Release Flame will become bugged--the visual effect will persist, but no damage will be dealt. All further Release Flames will not deal any damage.
  
• Nihil Blade: Cannot be disabled. Deals 110% melee STR-based Cut damage to one party member, with splash damage. Attempts to bind hit targets' arms, with a 20% base chacne. Has a 120% speed modifier and 99 base accuracy.
  
• Flame Formation: Cannot be disabled. Deals 10 instances of 50% (if both Control Devices are dead), 150% (if only one is alive), or 500% (if both are alive) ranged TEC-based Fire damage to random targets. Can hit the same target twice at most. Has a 0% speed modifier and 150 base accuracy.
  
• Condemn Blade: Cannot be disabled. Deals two instances of 70% melee STR-based Cut damage to random targets. Can hit the same target multiple times. Has an 80% speed modifier and 90 base accuracy.
  
• Overpower: Uses the head. Reduces the party's physical/elemental attack by 30% for 4 turns. Attempts to inflict fear on each party member, with a 30% base chance. Has an 80% speed modifier.
  
• Soundless Blade: Cannot be disabled. Deals 110% melee STR-based Cut damage to one party member, with line-piercing effect. Attempts to inflict blind on and bind the heads of hit targets, with a 20% base chance. Has a 120% speed modifier and 99 base accuracy.

Drops:

• Normal: Undying Flame. 100% chance. Sells for 3500 en. 1 needed to make Flamberge (+104 ATK, normal attacks become Cut+Fire).
  "Flame with an endless burn. One can sense eternal power from its light, even in death."

Damage resistances:
100% 100% 100% 0% 100% 125%
Disable resistances:
50% 100% 0% 0% 0% 25% 0%
0% 0% 0%
25% 0% 75%
AI pattern:

• 100% to 75% HP:
  • Turn 1: Rising Flame
    
  • Turn 2: Attack
    
  • Loops until Demi-Fafnir drops below 75% HP.
• 75% to 50% HP:
  • Turn 1: Release Flame
    
  • Turn 2: Nihil Blade
    
  • Turn 3: Attack
    
  • Turn 4: Nihil Blade
    
  • Turn 5: Flame Formation
    
  • Turn 6: Rising Flame
    
  • Turn 7: Attack or Condemn Blade
    
  • Turns 6 and 7 loop until Demi-Fafnir drops below 50% HP.
• 50% to 25% HP:
  • Turn 1: Release Flame
    
  • Turn 2: Overpower
    
  • Turn 3: Nihil Blade
    
  • Turn 4: Attack
    
  • Turn 5: Flame Formation
    
  • Turn 6: Rising Flame
    
  • Turn 7: Condemn Blade or Soundless Blade
    
  • Turn 8: Rising Flame
    
  • Turn 9: Overpower
    
  • Turns 6 to 9 loop until Demi-Fafnir drops below 25% HP.
• 25% HP to death:
  • Turn 1: Rising Flame
    
  • Turn 2: Condemn Blade, Soundless Blade, or Nihil Blade
    
  • Turn 3: Rising Flame
    
  • Turn 4: Overpower
    
  • Turn 5: Rising Flame
    
  • Turn 6: Condemn Blade, Soundless Blade, or Nihil Blade
    
  • Turns 3 to 6 loop until Demi-Fafnir dies.

All that remains of one who failed to become a Fafnir. There remains no trace of humanity...

[NO IMAGE]
Control Device
HP: 400, STR: 36, TEC: 35, VIT: 35, AGI: 28, LUC: 33
Damage resistances:
100% 100% 100% 0% 100% 125%
Disable resistances:
0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%
0% 0% 0%
0% 0% 0%

Demi-Fafnir is a complete and utter joke. He's weaker than Scylla, for crying out loud, with a whopping 8 less STR and 3 less TEC. The only stat he has an advantage in is VIT, which he has 1 more than Scylla. Woo. None of his skills deal significant amounts of damage, and their low base chances combined with our current LUC totals means him disabling anyone is really unlikely. There's a reason he's so weak, and that's tied entirely to Story mode--but I'll let Dr. Fetus show that off when he gets to it.

I will take advantage of the fact that I have so little to say about Demi-Fafnir himself that I will mention his origins. Internally, Demi-Fafnir is referred to as "fire emperor" by his AI script. Not to spoil much, but there are two DLC bosses both named Frost King and Thunder Queen (both of their internal AI scripts call them pretty much the same). See the pattern yet? If you don't, what I'm implying is that Demi-Fafnir is just the Fire Emperor design being reused for a hastily-done Story mode plot point.

What's most interesting about these three is the fact that their AI scripts are all prefixed with "scr_n"--the prefix used for Ginnungagap bosses (DLC bosses use "scr_dl"). What this probably means is that instead of Basilisk, Arachne, and Demi-Fafnir, the Ginnungagap bosses were originally all themed after the elements, both Fire/Ice/Volt and physical (Demi-Fafnir does a lot of Cut and Fire damage, the Frost King does a lot of Bash and Ice damage, and the Thunder Queen does a lot of Stab and Volt damage). Why this idea was scrapped before the game was finished is up to your interpretation. I will say, though, that Fafnir fighting a set of bosses themed after the elements to gain new powers makes a lot more sense, given that his entire thing is dealing lots of elemental damage.



Apparently Ursa didn't think this boss was as big a joke as he should be.



Demi-Fafnir's completely immune to arm binds, so I'll have Freyja focus on his 75% leg bind resistance instead.



You can probably guess that Asriel will spend the entire fight spamming Horse Slash and setting up Upper Stance when necessary.



I contemplated having Ursa set up Protection Vow, but I decided against it since that was being too cautious for a boss as easy as this.



Maybe I should get Realga a Song Mastery Grimoire or something, since she casts this thing basically every fight she's in.



Demi-Fafnir may have 25% resistance to head binds, but Sophie has a whopping 29 LUC advantage on him, and Creeping Curse is already bonkers on its own.


This thing's like a gigantic Byeah. On fire.
That's...one way of looking at it.



I'd normally type "damn" here, but not for this.


Owwwww...
Metal and fire... I can't say that sounds tasty...
It's worse than bad, it's actually painful. Ow ow ow...



Ha ha, welp.



I use Chase Heal so much that I should maybe consider leveling it up some more.



Switching to leg binds now.



Okay, that's slightly unlucky.


...Rrr?


Even that might be too much for this thing.

Like I said, Demi-Fafnir deals absolutely pathetic damage.



Asriel's consistently lopping off around 5% of this thing's HP every turn.



Hands up if you didn't see that coming.

If you raised your hand, you might want to re-evaluate how big a 29 LUC advantage is in EO2U.



Two binds is the best I'm going to get against Demi-Fafnir. Time to show off level 20 Ecstasy, even though the conditions aren't as nice as I'd like.



At this point I remembered Asriel's Force Boost exists and decided to turn it on.

I should mention that it's about this point in the game where Immovable becomes a lot less useful. Ronin skills still cost a lot of TP relative to their TP pool, yeah, but now it's manageable instead of being a fairly big problem.

There's an argument to be made for just reclassing (a mechanic I'll discuss soon enough) a Ronin into another physical damage class, since Immovable, at this point, turns into one of the worst Force Boosts due to the fact that it provides no damage bonus.



I could've had Sophie try to blind Demi-Fafnir, but instead I just opted to guarantee an extra turn of both binds sticking.


How do you even make a giant robot that's on fire suffer that much?
It's... It's just natural...

That's fucking 25% of Demi-Fafnir's HP gone in one hit. If I could bind his arms, Freyja would lop off half of the thing's HP in one hit.



Fun fact: there's another message that preceeds the Black Mist message we've normally seen, but it lasts for all of two frames.


Ow ow, hot hot hot!
Rrer?

Ahaha, look at how little damage Ursa takes from this.



Asriel only used one turn of his Force Boost, but frankly this fight's so easy I'd rather just kill the Control Devices now.



Sophie's job is pretty much done, so I just have her fall back to trying to blind Demi-Fafnir.


That's enough of that.



50% of Demi-Fafnir's HP, just gone in two turns. I have not been exaggerating when I say Ecstasy is an incredibly broken skill.



What a paltry amount of--


Oof.
That's it? Just an "oof?"
Those "blades" feel like foam.

...Well, I guess the shoe of statistical improbabilities is on the other foot now, so to say. All those lucky ailment/bind inflictions had to come back to me eventually, I suppose.



One of the binds fell off, but consider that we're on turn 5, and we've dealt this much damage, when we have all of two damage dealers, one of whom is a Dark Hunter who can't get a 3-bind Ecstasy off, and the other is a Ronin with a skill build that's quickly becoming sub-par, and you can start to see that me talking about how weak Demi-Fafnir is anything but hyperbole.



Fuck it, why not?


Was that really necessary?
No, but do you see how badly hurt that thing is already? It looks like it's gonna topple over at any second.



If I'll be perfectly honest, it's not just Ecstasy that makes Freyja so busted, it's Trance. A 200% damage bonus against enemies you're already getting bonus damage against is just so ridiculously good. There's a reason that when people do reclass shenanigans with physical damage classes, they usually reclass into Dark Hunter.


You really think that's gonna do anything?

For crying out loud, Asriel's our most fragile party member, and he still takes a very manageable amount of damage from this thing.



Both the binds fell off, so while Cuffs has no chance of binding Demi-Fafnir's arms, it's still Freyja's best option for damage right now.



I almost feel bad.



This is just taunting Demi-Fafnir at this point.



I've run out of things to say by this point, honestly.



Except that this is just kicking Demi-Fafnir while he's down.


Uh, that thing looks like it's getting serious.


Never mind, I guess.


Rules of nature.

I'll restate that the reason Demi-Fafnir is so weak has to do with Story mode, but I'm clamming up on the matter from there.




...Yeah, "long and painful." Sure, let's go with that.

...Children of man... I am moved. It is enough to make me reconsider the true potential of humankind...
SYSTEM: The mysterious voice seems surprised at your victory.
Our progress in the Labyrinth wasn't enough?
SYSTEM: However, it is still not enough. An overwhelming power is sealed deep in this land. But I refuse to lead you to your deaths. You require more power yet... I bid you now return to your own world. There, challenge the Labyrinth you know well, and conquer its lofty heights!
Believe me, after all that secret area nonsense and this stupid ruin, I'm welcoming going back into the higher parts of that tree. Where's your treasure, anyway?
Once you have surpassed even the Ruler of the Heavens...only then shall I pass on my wishes to you. I await you here...
SYSTEM: The voice, heavy with newfound regard and expectation, fades away... There is still much you do not understand, but you have completed your investigation of the area you were assigned. The quest is now complete. Return to town, and report your success to the bar to complete the quest.

For the record, if we try to go through that door, this happens.


SYSTEM: Without any means of opening the door, all you can do for the time being is to go back the way you came.
Bah. Alright, let's just go tell Cass we're done, then.




Back to the normal soundtrack.

Oh, welcome back. Everythin' go okay?
For certain values of "okay."
We fought this weird robot thing and may have gotten involved with something really big.
...What? Weird enemies...and a strange voice? Well, the Palace probably wanted yeh to find out more about 'em. Personally speakin', though, it ain't my business! Haw haw haw! Here's yer reward, just as promised! See yeh next time!


Hee hee, hard to say no to more money!
Remember, you'll be paid when we finish our exploration. Not now.
Grrrr...



Freyja maxed out Phys ATK Up (with her Grimoires, it basically does nothing) and unlocked the really goddamn terrible Bait skills. Go look at Meet the Dark Hunter if you want to see how godawful these things are.



Salve not only heals for 155% healing power and costs 24 TP now, but also now has a 150% speed modifier instead of 125%.



And Sophie gets a value point in Corrupt Curse for enemies that require conditionals involving Curse. This is probably all she will ever put into it.



Flamberge (+104 ATK, normal attacks become Cut+Fire) is unlocked by selling 1 Undying Flame. It gets outclassed pretty quickly by swords you can easily make from the 4th Stratum. Oh well.



I will mention that I bought Realga a Luck Staff, because I value TP on her more than TEC or VIT due to how the healing formula works (your base stats obviously play a big part in it, but a Medic's innate TEC/VIT spread means they'll always heal for pretty much enough), and that +10 LUC bonus helps offset the fact that Medics have the lowest innate LUC out of any class, meaning they're much more susceptible to being hit with ailments and binds than anyone else. I'm sure it doesn't take a lot to deduce that our Medic is the worst person to get hit with a debilitating ailment or head bind.

Well, that was a pretty short update. Next time: we finally head back into Yggdrasil.