Part 100: Drake: The Blizzard King

Drake: The Blizzard King

It was decided that the guild has their priorities straight and will go save the girl before going for the ultimate gun. But before they do that, they need a power boost.











Hmm, some nice stats, but I think we can do better.







I went ahead and retired the whole guild and ground them back up to a decently high level.



I also make sure to stock up on some supplies here. I recommend buying some Ice and Stab Mists, and some Nectalls as well. I also went ahead and bought every piece of ultimate equipment available, except for Aliara's armor. She's stacking HP for Revenge.

PC-88 Version



Anyways, the Innkeeper's daughter is right here, where escorted her last time. I should probably point out that she's not actually smiling, her mouth is just open. Which is kind of hard to see on the DS, but it's more clear in the actual artwork.

The small, faint figure must be the innkeeper's daughter. It was the quest you accepted at the bar that brought you here... You came to find the little girl's whereabouts. She is crouched over, working intensely on something.

: Oh! There you are!

: Oh... Firefly... h-hello...

She straightens as you approach, and you can see that her hands are full of white clover.

: Your charm... it withered away... so I was picking flowers to make a new one!

It seems she has fashioned a new accessory from the Labyrinth's clovers.



: What were you thinking!? Do you know how dangerous it is to go into the Labyrinth by yourself!?

: I... I just didn't want you to get hurt...

She looks at you with watery eyes... The tears may come at any moment. You sigh and give her a gentle lecture before taking her back to Lagaard.

: If you want to go into the Labyrinth, at least ask the guards for an escort.



You smile and gently warn her of the danger she may have faced.

: Wow! Thank you! But you really shouldn't have come in here by yourself. There's monsters everywhere.

: I'm...sorry. I knew if I told someone, they would say no...

You kindly pat her on the head and praise her for her efforts before taking her home.

: It looks very nice. Now let's go back to High Lagaard.

: Phew! At least we didn't have to deal with any big monsters or something like that.

: Well at least that's over with. Now stay close to us- what the- DROP HER! NOW!

: Huh? What's going o- Ho-ho-ho-holy sh-shit... Not good!



You have no notion of when it appeared, but you now face a powerful adversary. Three necks, spear-sharp horns, foul yellow eyes, blue scales... It's a dragon!

EO1 vets, say hi to Drake!

You freeze, seeing that its claws are clutching the innkeeper's daughter... She is breathing, but unconscious. She must not have had time to even scream... The dragon's twelve eyes pierce through you, and its three heads give a mocking howl! You clutch your ears at the high, screeching noise as the dragon soars into the sky!

: After him!

You attempt to give chase, but it disappears into the southeast side of the forest. The situation is grim... You must chase the dragon if you wish to save her life!

: Crap. It got away!

: Doesn't that part head to the Ice Duke's tomb, though?

: You're right. It's probably roosting there. Come on!



Hopefully you've unlocked the shortcut to the tomb at this point. I make my way over there.

: So, that was the Drake thing you were talking about earlier, right?

: Yep.

: How uh, dangerous is that thing? Like you think the girl is safe or something?

: Well the one I fought in Etria almost annihilated an entire guild that made it to the 4th Stratum and ripped off the survivor's arm.

:

: So yeah, we better hurry.











This is the result of retiring and grinding. I should probably note that my builds changed a bit. For one thing, Ken has Shiraha maxed instead of Clarity, and Aliara no longer has Corrupt. Instead, she has Frailty maxed out. This means that Frederik is no longer using the Cursecut build since it falls off hard in the postgame.



The innkeeper's daughter lays unmoving at its feet...

: Crap. I hope we're not too late.

: We can check on her after we kill this thing. Let's go!

Praying for her safety, your knuckles whiten on your weapon as you prepare for battle!

Video: Drake

PC-88 Version



Unlike the other two dragons, Drake always had the Scatter About theme. Though his moveset and resistances did get changed a bit in the transition from EO1 to EO2.


Drake
HP: 12000
STR: 92
TEC: 92
VIT: 100
AGI: 90
LUC: 70
Exp: 0
Item Drops:
-Common: Ice Scale - Unlocks Dragonbane and Ice Orb. Limited stock.
--Uniquely sharp scale of the magnificent Drake.
-Rare: N/A
-Conditional: Frost Bone - Kill with Ice - Unlocks Hisamenaru (Katana.) Limited stock.
--The bones of a Drake.
Description: An ageless blue dragon. Against its myriad arsenal, death is a near certainty.
Weakness: Volt (??%)
Resistance: Ice (0%)

Skills:

Frigid: Uses the head. Deals a severe amount of Ice damage to the party.
Iceblock: Uses the legs. Increases Drake's resistance to Volt and Physical attacks to 0% for 5 turns.
Regen: Uses the head. Heals Drake for 840 at the end of each turn for 5 turns.
0 Point: Uses the arms. Deals a moderate amount of Ice damage to the party. Has a 50% chance to inflict Instant Death.
Shower: Uses the arms. Randomly hits the party 3 to 11 times with heavy hitting Stab attacks that have a moderate chance to Stun.

Drake is a member of the elemental dragon trio, a series staple. In every EO game (aside from 3), Drake is considered to be the hardest dragon to take down. This is because he has a very tough moveset to deal with. Now like the other elemental dragons, he'll use his elemental breath on the first turn, and then every 5 turns after that. Now with the other fights, you'd just have your Protector use the right Anti skill on those turns. Not with Drake. With Drake, you need to have your Protector cast Anticold every single turn. The main reason for this is because of 0 Point. The damage component of the move isn't anything to write home about, but the Instant Death component is very deadly and can instantly cause a game over if you're unlucky. Anticold will stop the Instant Death from kicking in as long as it procs and the skill either nullifies or absorbs the attack. In the first game, there was a bug that let the Instant Death component bypass Anticold if the skill was at level 6 to 10. Which is why Protectors were forced to leave Anticold at level 5 in the first game. Not here, that bug thankfully got fixed. A Troubadour can also use Health to knock down that 50% chance to a 10% chance, which is unlikely to cause a party wipe.

Now in most of the other games, the elemental breath attacks do a massive amount of damage and cause a party wipe if not properly defended against. Not here. All the dragons elemental breaths do manageable amounts of damage, which is why a Protector really isn't necessary in the postgame. A mist of the right type can bring down the damage even further. Now this is a boss you want to bring a buff eraser for, like a War Magus or a Troubadour. Iceblock is a very annoying defensive buff to deal with, since it essentially makes Drake immune to his weakness and every type of physical attack. That can be canceled out with any defense debuff, but the real reason you want someone that knows Erase is because of Regen. There's no debuff equivalent of that skill, so the only way to dispel it is through Erase. If you don't have a way to erase buffs, Drake can just shrug off all your attacks and can recover 4200 HP. And you there's nothing you can do about it. Now Shower is by far Drake's worst move. It's a very hard hitting move that's capable of one shotting your squishier classes, and if you're unlucky, it can cause a party wipe. You want to bring a Stab Mist to bring the damage to manageable levels. Now unlike Dragon, Drake doesn't have a hidden supermove that will erase all your buffs, so feel free to use as many of those as you want.











I'm opening up with Force Skills because I am not giving this boss any mercy. I'm not using Revenge yet because I want to set up a Dampen first.



: Show that fiend no mercy.

: Heh heh heh, I won't.









: You better not have hurt her!

: I hope she's okay.

: Okay...



: FIRE!





And this lets me avoid Frigid.









: You're not going anywhere!





: Hang on! We'll get you out of here!







Now that everything is set up, I can start going on the offensive.



: Now crush the fie- oh dear god.





: Ahhhh... Sweet bliss.

: I'm really glad she wasn't awake for that. At least I hope she's just unconscious.





: Aww, how sad for you.













Some more nice damage.









: Not so tough now that I've got a better gun, huh?

: That was a different dragon.

: Same difference.

Now that Fedot has a much better gun and is higher leveled, he can actually contribute to these fights.





Okay, I can't use Ecstasy again, but I don't want to since I want to go for that conditional drop.











He didn't try to use Iceblock again, so he essentially wasted a turn.







: Hang on there- wait what was her name?

: I dunno. No one ever told us.







:

Oh come on!



I'm so close, too!



I'm using this just in case Drake decides to use Shower once his arms are unbound.



And reapplying Dampen since it's about to wear off.













Apparently that wasn't enough. Yeah, killing Drake is easy. Getting the conditional drop, less so. Although I handled it really stupidly here. Even if Fedot is the only one with Ice attacks, I could have just bought some Freeze Oils and applied those to Ken and Nick to make getting the conditional drop much easier. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20.





And since Drake will use Frigid on the next turn, I have Aliara apply an Ice Mist to the party.



Oh crap.



: Saw that coming!

What you saw right here was Shiraha kicking in. It essentially provides an extra chance to evade an attack. Now the check for Shiraha applies after all the accuracy and evasion calculations are finished. The final result will always result in an accuracy of 20% to 100%, even if the initial accuracy of the move was something like 0% or 10000%. This means that Ken can avoid attacks that are normally supposed to be unavoidable, which makes Shiraha a really good passive. If Shiraha kicks in, that message pops up, which lets you know that's what saved your Ronin.









: Don't think you're done with me...

I really should have had Frederik heal Aliara. She doesn't need Revenge anymore.







You know, another method I could have done was to use a calculator and add up all the damage I was doing so I'd know when to use Iceshot. But that would have made the video drag on too long.





This is me having a massive brainfart about turn orders. I needed to have Nick use the Nectar, not Ken.





Because I ended up wasting the Salve 2.

: oh, I forgot I couldn't heal the dead.



: don't worry, I got her!

: Now, prepare yourself for my wrath!





: Holy crap, that's cold!



: Maybe you should you know, wear a shir- AAIIEEEEEE!



: What a foul smell.



: I should have brought Aegis with us.



:

: Oh look, an Aliara flavored popsicle! Wait, I shouldn't be laughing about that.

: Just thaw her out.





: Okay okay. Sheesh.



: HAHAHA! I rise again!



This is gonna hurt.





: Tsk tsk, too predictable!



: And I die again...

: Goddammit Aliara.

Aliara is probably gonna rack up the most deaths in the postgame due to how risky the Revenge strategy is, especially in long drawn out fights. In order to capitalize on Revenge's benefits, you need to end fights as soon as possible.







: Somebody please remove this icicle from my stomach.

And that's why you want to bring Stab Mists. It turns Shower from a party wiping move into something that won't set you back so much. Hopefully.





Oh hey, the Gunner's terrible AGI coming to bite me in the butt here.















Normally this would be a very bad thing.







Unfortunately for him, it won't help.

: End of the line, Drake.

: Now we better check up on the girl.

: I hope she's okay.

PC-88 Version



Now I never have to do that fight again. I really could have handled that better.

PC-88 Version



The ice dragon falls at last to your final strike! Victory! You have defeated one of the Labyrinth's strongest monsters and saved the girl!

: Holy crap, that took too long.

: Yeah, I'm surprised that I didn't get taken out once.

: Hey! HEY! Are you okay!?



The innkeeper's daughter rubs her eyes as you help her up. You let out a long-held breath, and laugh quietly.

: You know what... A big monster came... I was really scared... But then I knew you'd come to save me... so I wasn't scared anymore...

You see now that the smiling girl is holding the Auratum you gave to her previously. Suddenly, the Auratum shines, and changes its form in her hands! Once the light fades, the girl is holding a pure white whip! It is intricately decorated and a marvel to behold. These are the Ice Vines, the favored weapon of the Ice Duke. They have deemed you worthy...



The innkeeper's daughter uses a Warp Wire to return to the city. You should follow suit.



"The most powerful whip", eh?

: Ooh! I can't wait to try this thing out!





Why would I want to give up the ability to use Dominate as often as I want for slightly more attack? I mean, the Ice Vines do dish out more damage than the Dominator, but the Force Up attribute provides a ton of utility for Nick.

: If you're done with that, we better go back. I'm sure everyone back in High Lagaard would be happy to hear about this.

PC-88 Version







The Ice Scale just unlocks the Ice Orb, which reduces the effectiveness of Ice attacks by 50%. Not really that great.







The Hisamenaru is a katana for Ken, but he already has a better one equipped.



: Ahhh, here come the stars of High Lagaard! Haw haw haw!

:

: Oi, don't give me that look! The innkeeper was just by to express her thanks. Looks like the whole city's relieved to hear the girl's all right. Yeh did it again! I heard yeh had to fight quite the beastie in the process! Were yeh hurt at all?

: Other than almost getting frozen to death and being impaled by an icicle, not really.

: Haw! The real immortal fiends in all this mess are yeh lot! Here yeh go... Yer reward, plus a little on top, courtesy of the city. Come back anytime! Haw haw haw!