Part 45: Through Hellion's Domain

Through Hellion's Domain



I finally put that skill point into Bravery. Now it's a 17% damage boost.



I also make sure to buy some Luck Beads because I need our party's total luck to be at or above 101 for something later.



On the way back up to the 10th floor, 3 of my party members get a level up.



Midareba now deals 85% damage per slash.



Ling just gets another point in VIT.



Aliara now has a massive TP pool. Now I have to put 5 skill points into a stat that doesn't do much for her. But it'll be worth it. Oh, trust me. It will.

PC-88 Version



The guard's still here in case you want to buy that really expensive Warp Wire for some reason. And yes, he has a stock. He doesn't sell just one.

It seems that this quasi-guard is still plying his unethical trade here... His specialized shop that sells only Warp Wires for the unreasonable sum of 1000en!



There's no need for you to waste your money on the item, but the choice is still yours.

If you already have a Warp Wire, the game will remind you so you can avoid wasting your money. The rest of the text is the same as before.

PC-88 Version







: A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight, walking in a winter wonderland.

: You need more practice.

: I am practicing!

: Great...



: I really wish we had Fedot with us.

: Or that Alchemist. What's his name anyway? Belltower?

: I think it was Bellamy.



Maverick gets a level up and we get the conditional drop.



And he finally unlocks Salve 2 after putting a 4th point into Cure 2.

PC-88 Version



: Hey, those two aren't here anymore. I think we can pass through now.



The next room is a Trigourd minefield. It's very difficult to keep track of them if you don't know their exact movement patterns, and it's easy to accidentally get into a battle with one.

PC-88 Version



I really hate these enemies.


Addleowl
HP: 171
AT: 20
DF: 22
Exp: 1168
Skills: Powder
Item Drops:
-Common: Glow Quill - 1 needed for Greaves and Beheader (axe.) 2 needed for Hard Plate.
--Mysterious luminescent feathers of an Addleowl.
-Rare: N/A
-Conditional: Curse Nail - Kill with Fire. 1 needed for Scorch Bow (Bow.)
--Cursed bird's black talons, de-poisoned.
Description: It is said that the spot where you encounter its maddening powder spray will be your grave.
Weakness: Stab (150%)
Resistance: Immune to Sleep

Remember those owls in the first Stratum that would put us to sleep? Yeah these guys are kind of like that, except their version of Powder confuses everyone instead of putting them to sleep. That's much more annoying to deal with because Sleep can be dispelled pretty easily. Confusion can't. That said, they rarely use Powder. Most of the time they'll just attack your party. Unless you get blindsided by them. At which point their AI is different and they'll always use Powder on the first turn. Certain enemies in this game will always perform a certain action if they blindside you. This is kind of your introduction to that. A very painful introduction. And the consequences for being blindsided will get much worse as the game goes on. They're also immune to sleep, so you can't use Torpor to deal with them.



Just making sure I get the conditional drop.







: Oh come on! It's daytime!

I still use Torpor because dealing with 1 enemy is better than using Poison and dealing with 2.



Nothing much happened in that battle. Addleowls aren't really a threat most of the time.

PC-88 Version



So here's two of their movement patterns. There's 4 Trigourds in the room though, and they don't all have the same movement pattern, which can throw you off.



You can hear chirping and rustling from within.

: Are those little baby birds?

It seems the tree is home to an animal nest with young chicks inside...

: Hmm, maybe they're hungry. Hey Maverick. You know these things eat?

: I think a Tri-Fruit would be good for them. Do we have one?

You search your belongings for a Tri-Fruit you can feed to the baby birds.



: I think there's one in here. Oh, here it is.

: Thanks. Eat up!

You remove a Tri-Fruit from your pack and place it into the hole. The chirping stops momentarily, but eventually resumes as they begin eating the fruit. You feel the warmth of a good deed done, and leave the area behind you.

If you're wondering what that was for. It's nothing but flavor text. That event does absolutely nothing other than getting rid of a Tri-Fruit. Saying no does nothing either.



There's the two Trigourds we saw earlier. You can use some of these doors to bypass them.



A Redwood patrols this area.



Our party is strong enough to fight it at this point, so I'm gonna take it out and see if we can get its drops.

PC-88 Version





Well this is a good start.


Redwood
Type: Normal
Behavior: Patrol
Aggressive: No
HP: 810
AT: 29
DF: 29
Skills: Poison
Item Drops:
-Drop 1: Sharp Nail - 1 needed for Shida (Katana.) 5 needed for Pain Aspis.
--Powerful monkey claw that can crack boulders.
-Drop 2: Blood Hide - 1 needed for Pale Round. 5 needed for Pain Aspis.
--Monkey fur that has grown matted with blood.
-Drop 3: Beast Hide - See Gigaboar bio.
Description: A muscular ape with long, sharp, poison tipped nails to finish off its opponents.
Weakness: Fire (125%)
Resistance: Ice (50%), Volt (50%)

It's the weakest FOE in the Stratum, so it'll probably be one of the first ones you can take down. The poison can be something to watch out for, but just roast it and it shouldn't be too much of a problem. It's another enemy that doesn't have a condtional drop. Oddly enough their drops are needed for a postgame shield. Not really a good one unless you want to turn your Protector into a damage dealer, but that's something to keep in mind.





I've said before that the Ronin is the best damage dealer in the game, and it's about time I showed that properly.



: Okay, now was I supposed to put my feet here, or here? Oh screw it.



Stacking even more damage buffs on Ken.

: GRRAAAA!



: Mmph.







: Hey, I'm actually pretty good with this! Just need a bit more practice.

: I'm kind of scared to see just how good you can get with that thing.

If you think Ken's strong now, just wait until Midareba hits level 10. It gets ridiculously powerful by then.



: Maybe I should be more careful about using that. Oy, my stomach.



But eventually...



Got all of its drops too!



And here's another Amrita. The game's been oddly generous with these.

PC-88 Version



Oh, and it's the strongest monster in the Stratum.

: Oh my. I think we may be outmatched here.

:


Poseidon
HP: 500
AT: 32
DF: 25
Exp: 1504
Skills: Charge, Scurry
Item Drops:
-Common: Brute Bone - 1 needed for Pale Round and Shotgun (Gun.) 2 needed for Katzbalger (Sword.)
--Powerful dinosaur's huge thigh bone.
-Rare: N/A
-Conditional: N/A
Description: This herbivorous beast is one of the largest in the forest. It may inadvertently trample.
Weakness: Fire (125%), Ice (125%), Volt (125%)
Resistance: Physical (75%)

It's big and scary, so it's a really tough enemy, right? Not really. They'll always spend their first turn using Charge, and then use Scurry on the next turn, which is a physical AOE than can party wipe you. Except at this point you can probably tank it if your party defends. It's also not a threat because it gives you an extra turn to take it down. Elemental attacks destroy it, and even if it blindsides you, it'll always use Charge, so you can run away if you need to.





: 3, 2, 1.





: Oh.

: What a chump.

PC-88 Version



Back in the Trigoud minefield, I accidentally got into a battle with one of these things.





Okay, that's really lucky.

: GO AWAY!



Infusing Ken's weapon with Ice just so his regular attacks can do something to the Trigourd. I wasn't actually expecting to poison it.

: Don't worry guys, I got this. It won't be standing after I do THIS!







:

: PFFFT! Can't even cut open a pumpkin! Just let my poison wither the thing.


Trigourd
Type: Invisible
Behavior: Patrol
Aggressive: No
HP: 780
AT: 27
DF: 27
Skills: Pain, Whisper
Item Drops:
-Drop 1: Curse Bone (1 needed for Mirage Rod.)
-Drop 2: Gourd Head (1 needed for Pumpkinhat.)
-Drop 3: Bendy Tool (See Fangleaf bio.)
Description: A 3-headed beast that rarely shows itself without a jack o'lantern present.
Weakness: N/A
Resistance: Physical (0%), Fire (0%)

Another enemy that has 3 drops, but no conditional. It's also really tanky. Physical and fire attacks won't do too much against it. Ice and Volt are technically its weaknesses in the sense that they're the only elements that can really hurt it. Honestly you really want to wait until later in the game before taking these on. Most classes can't really put a dent in these at this point. Pain is an AOE fire attack, while Whisper curses your party.



Aliara's poison is the only way we can take these things out at the moment. The more reliable method would be to bring Bellamy along. He's the only one who has enough firepower to take these things down since his skills operate off of a different damage formula than everyone else. Even though Fedot has elemental attacks, his skills won't do that much damage to it.



Okay, 1 more turn should do it.



Dammit. For the record, even with Frost, Ken only dealt 38 damage to it.



Dammit game! Okay, you know what?



If I do nothing but hoard these, they're never gonna get used at all.



Finally.





I used up a rare consumable at this point. That better have been worth it.



GODDAMMIT GAME!

PC-88 Version



Even if you do know their patrol route, it can still be hard to keep track of them. I do have to wonder why these kinds of FOEs didn't get used again. Maybe Atlus thought they were too unfair.



This room might seem empty at first, but there's a shortcut over here.



: Ooh! We can never have enough of these!

: I dunno, I kinda wish we found something better.

: The ability to get you back on your feet isn't valuable enough for you? Do I need to remind you of why Gilbert had to save us?

: Okay, okay.



The upper path isn't the way forward, but there's some treasure up here.





: I told you! I told you!

: Okay, I get it.



: You don't have to rub it in.



There's a path going up, but don't go through there. Just walk around.



Our party's total luck is 97, so I have Ling equip the Luck Beads, bringing that total up to 107. The reason this is important is because of this event.



They look soft and inviting... It would be an excellent place to take a rest.

: Oh man, I just wanna dive in there and take a break.

You're sorely tempted to dive into the fallen leaves and forget yoru cares for a time.



: Are you sure? I mean we haven't been exploring for that long.

: I'm the leader, and I'm saying we're taking a break! I dunno, we can take turns keeping a lookout if you're that concerned.

: If you say so.

: Whee! This is fun!

:

: Whoa! Hey, careful with that pack! Ken, you almost crushed it! Hey, this is pretty cushy!

: Ah! Pure bliss! The leaves, they are like the soft pillows of Heaven!

Taking turns standing guard, you dive into the fallen leaves one by one. The pile acts as a soft cushion for your bodies, feeling like a luxurious mattress. You frolic amongst the leaves for some time before returning to your exploration. Ken, who managed to avoid standing guard the entire time, feels completely refreshed!



: Ah! I really needed that. Okay, let's go back to exploring or whatever.

So this event is actually a luck check. If your party has a total of 101 luck or above, a random party member gets healed for 30 HP. But if it's below that number, what happens is that instead of your party having a good time, someone accidentally crushes the pack of items. Which results in you losing an Amrita, or losing 1000en if you don't have one. If you thought Atlus was being suspiciously generous with those, that's why. And then your party laments their bad luck, hinting at how the whole thing could have been avoided.





A defense boost for Aegis, but no one in our party can use this. As for the reason why I told you not to go up earlier.



Double Razekings is why!

: AAAAAHHHHHH!!

Triggering their appearance meant that going for the other treasure would've trapped you.



: How did we miss this?

: Dunno. Who cares? Go through it before they catch up!



: A way out!

: Wait! We're close to that other shortcut.



The Chop point for this floor.



And now we can skip past that Trigourd minefield on future trips.

: Okay, I'm still in a lot of pain, and we just discovered a shortcut. Let's go back and restock on supplies before any more bad things happen.

And I go do that.



Look at Aliara's TP pool. She's gone from being a panic button to mob exterminator. Now I can use Poison or Torpor whenever I wish.



Gilbert gets a level up from a battle.



Bravery is now a 20% damage boost.

PC-88 Version









: Voy a cortar a todos hacia abajo!

: Arf! Arf!

: Can I hug that owl? Wait, I wanna hug that boar!

: You can fix them, right?

: One at a time? Yes. All at once? Ask Fedot about that.



: I am going to kill each and every one of you for that!

: Calm down. Those owls are gone. And at least you didn't get hurt from trying to hug a boar.

: I won't calm down! They'll pay for what they did to me!



: Thank you.

:

PC-88 Version



So this door is the one that lets your progress.



There's a branching path here, but I'm gonna go down because even though it's the way forward, it also leads to the Geomagnetic Pole, so I don't have to do as much backtracking in case things go wrong.

PC-88 Version



Oh, now that's what I like to see!

: KILL IT NOW!

: Aliara, would a winter song calm your nerves?

: Sing at Ken, not me!



And we get some level ups from that.

PC-88 Version



Midareba now hits for 90% damage per slash.



Ling just gets more tanky.



: WOO! We have to be close to Hellion now!

: Let's not be hasty about it. We need to let everyone else know so we can prepare properly.

: And you know, organize a team to fight it.

: Oh, I hope I get to be on that team.

I actually hope she doesn't.



More level ups.



Maverick finally gets Salve 2, so he has some AOE healing now.



Aliara essentially has throw away 5 skill points now.



: Grr...

: Are we ever going to open these?

This is another locked door, but it's the last locked door in the game. So we don't have to do too much backtracking since they're just in the first two Strata. Now that we activated the Geomagnetic Pole, let's see what was down that other path.





: Hey, this could be handy for dealing with Hellion!

The mists place a buff on the party that increases their resistance to a certain element. People actually liked using them in this game because they helped with dealing with certain brick wall bosses. Hellion isn't one of those, but the Fire Mist should still come in handy. People liked using mists so much that Atlus nerfed them in future games. Instead of making it so that the party is resistant to that element, the mists make it so that everything in the fight, enemies included, is resistant to it. So they became a lot more situational to use, and an outright hindrance with some party set ups.



Oh hey, a Razeking.

: AAAAAHHHHHH!!



Oh hey, a secret passage.

: Through here!



: An empty room? What a bummer.

: Hey, there's something over there!



However, the wall before you is thick, and passing it will not be an easy feat. However, your troubadour has a keen ear and picks up on an unusual sound.

: Do you hear that?

: What is it?

It's very faint, but it's definitely a musical scale. As the troubadour hums along with the scale, something in the forest begins to change...! The troubadour's voice echoes through the forest, gaining volume and strength as it goes! The trees before you suddenly begin to move as if alive, and a path opens up. You stand in awe of the event before realizing that the way forward is clear.

:

: What just happened?

: No clue, but we can pass through now.



: Onwards, friends!





Fate Beads are a huge boost to luck, which is great for Aliara. But her Life Belt is a much better accessory, so I just leave that on her. There's actually another class specific shortcut in that room.



But the way to the path is blocked, and there seems to be no way to walk through it.

: Any ideas for this one?

: There's a branch up there. I bet Nick could reach it.

As you discuss the issue of how to cross the forest wall, you notice a branch jutting out.



: I dunno, I mean that branch looks kind of rotten. Even if we had him with us, would we all be able to cross over?

So this class specific shortcut needs a Dark Hunter, but there's actually an additional requirement they don't tell you about unless you have one with you.

Sometime later



: Alright Nick, do it.

: Here goes! Ha!



: Okay! Uh, guys? What's wrong?

: I don't think that branch is going to support all of us.





: It won't. It's too rotten. If we all go, it'll snap and we won't be able to cross over.

: How many do you think that branch can support?

: Three at most.

: So we'll just split up. What's the big deal?

: Leaving two people out here alone is a bad idea. We'll just have to come back with less people. Splitting up the party like that is too risky.

Yep, in addition to a class requirement, there's a party limit for some of these. And some of these class specific shortcuts require a solo class to go through. And they lead to secret areas, not just a 3x3 room with a treasure chest in it. In fact there's one on the next floor. But lets not worry about that for now and go back to our regular party.



: Crap! I forgot about that guy!

: Shh! It doesn't know we're here. I think we can sneak past it.

Going through that hidden shortcut makes it so that you can explore this area safely without being chased.



And here's the final item point, the mining point.

: Okay, we've explored everything we can. I think it's time to go back.

Here's a little status update on how the guild members are doing.



: Oh boy. I hope this goes well tomorrow.



: Mmph.



: Okay, I think that should be enough medicine for the fight. I hope that's enough.



: Now which curse would be best for something called Hellion?



: Do re mi fa so la... How did the rest of it go?

These five are the same.



: An immortal monster? Sounds like a fun challenge.

Nick's mostly the same, except I relocated his points in Gag into Cuffs, which he has 8 points in now.



: These spells should come in handy.

Frederik now has a level in Salve 2, so he also has AOE healing.



: Okay, so the powder should be mixed like this... Better fix this sight. Hmm. Now who would be the best ones for taking Hellion down?

Fedot has maxed out Ricochet, which can hit enemies from 3 to 5 times, and the damage modifier is 125% for each hit. It's his best damage skill, which is really effective on single targets. The skill has a 70% chance to hit 3 times, a 20% chance to hit 4 times, and a 10% chance to hit 5 times. So it's an even better version of the Survivalist's old Multihit.



: I shouldn't be doing this. I need to lay low. Except this is the safest place to be right now. What should I do?

Aegis has some points into Provoke and Parry. Provoke now aggros enemies 100% of the time.



: Arrows are in good condition. String is taut. Hope I get on the team!

Pauline has maxed out Apollon, and has 4 points in 2-bolt.



: Ha! That Hellion thing won't know what hit it!

Emilia's mostly the same. She has a few points in Axes and STR Up.



: My formulas are in order. With a name like Hellion, ice should be effective against it. I hope it is, because that's the only formula I've bothered to work on.

I relocated Bellamy's points in his fire skills to his ice skills. He now has 3 points in Freeze, which is one of his strongest spells right now.