Part 96: Salamox: The Fire Lizard

Salamox: The Fire Lizard

We still have some unfinished business in the 2nd Stratum. I need to kill Salamox again to get its conditional drop. If you're using a Gunner, I highly recommend going for it.













I'm not Revenge chessing this fight because you've already seen that tactic once. Also because I need Aliara to Dampen Salamox so Fedot's Fireshot can kill it.

Video: Salamox

PC-88 Version



Okay, time to fight this thing for real.


Salamox
HP: 4100
STR: 85
TEC: 65
VIT: 80
AGI: 75
LUC: 55
Exp: 0
Item Drops:
-Common: Flame Bone - 1 needed for Levantine (Sword) and Soma III. 2 needed for Megido Gun.
--Unyeilding bone with high fire resistance.
-Rare: N/A
-Conditional: Flame Puff - Kill with Fire. 1 needed for Agneyastra (Gun.)
--A lizard tongue that burns on contact.
Description: Wears a layer of flame as armor. Inexperienced explorers are advised not to attempt it.
Weakness: N/A
Resistance: Fire (0%)

Skills:

Breath: Uses the head. Deals a moderate amount of Fire damage to the party. Has a high chance to inflict leg bind.
Bloodcry: Uses the head. Has a high chance to inflict instant death or Curse on the party.
Tail: Uses the legs. Randomly attacks party members 3 to 6 times and deals a heavy amount of Bash damage. Somewhat inaccurate.

So this thing is kind of a pain to fight normally. Breath is mainly setup for Tail, which can be a total party kill if you get unlucky. But Bloodcry is awful to deal with. It has a very high chance to instantly kill your party, which can mean an instant game over in some cases. Bring Antivenins if you have them, or better yet, a Troubadour that has a maxed out Health. Aside from that, it's a pretty simple fight. It's all a matter of not getting unlucky.











Killing this thing is simple. Getting the conditional drop, less so. Salamox tends to use Breath on the 1st turn, so I try to set up a Magibait for that.







And I was right!





















And that's a total of 3325 points of damage!









Now this isn't necessary for Ken, since Orochi is both Cut and Fire damage, but Fedot needs it since Fireshot is purely Fire damage.









Okay, that was nowhere near enough for a killing blow.



And, this is going to get ugly.











Bloodcry can make or break this fight.



Unless you have Nectalls.





Exhibit A in why this was the only game they showed up in. Seriously, party members dying normally brings a downside of losing a lot of action economy, and you have to build it back up by reviving them one at a time. Nectalls throw that out the window.





Also this is why Somas got replaced by Madoras in EO3. I only wasted a single turn here, where as in every other EO game you would be scrambling for a couple of turns to recover, or just get a game over because the enemy has a massive advantage.





















ARE YOU SERIOUS!?











Okay, that was absurdly lucky. I'm not sure why Nick was the only one to get tagged by the instant death, but whatever.













Finally. I ended up killing this thing in two turns in an earlier take, but I accidentally had Nick kill it, which denied me the conditional drop.



And there's the conditional drop. As for why I wanted it?



Well it sells for a decent amount. But more importantly...



Ahahaha.



HAHAHAHAHAHA! With this, Fedot can now use Riot Gun every few battles. This is the Gunner's ultimate gun. I buy this immediately for him. Now he has ultimate power. Let's see about completing the Blood for the grail quest.

PC-88 Version



: Canaan? What are you doing here?

: Firefly... I am sorry to ask that we meet in a place like this. I have called you out here that I might ask a question.

Canaan gazes at the sky before he speaks again.



: Answer me honestly, Firefly. Did almighty Nuh live here? Did our god exist at all?





: I have searched every cubit of the castle, and found no sign of almighty Nuh...



: ...You're not going to like this answer, but no. The person who claimed to be this "almighty Nuh" wasn't a real god.

: I thought as much... I sensed no god in this castle.

Canaan continues to speak as he gazes sadly at the clouds.

: Almighty Nuh... what was our purpose in this world? As chief of my people, I must know who our god is... And ask him for what reason we exist in this world... Would you grant me a favor that I might satiate my curiosity? The answers I seek may lie in a place called the Forbidden Wood, above this castle.

Canaan looks directly into your eyes... You may cooperate with him, or refuse to go.



Canaan smiles joyously as you nod your assent.

: I heard that you carry the Foul Grail with you.

His words remind you of the other grail you obtained, which is still in your pack.

: It is no ordinary cup. It is the key to open the Forbidden Door. However, it cannot be used at present. You must first awaken its power.

: Uh, what?

Seeing that you don't understand, Canaan continues to explain.

: It requires a blood sacrifice in order to awaken.

: So the grail desires blood. That can be arranged.

: Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa! I am not agreeing to that!

: It need not be your own. Slay the demons roaming in the forest and pour their blood in the grail, then return here. Though the grail will not respond to the blood of weak or insignificant demons... You must feed it the blood of more powerful monsters.

: Ohhhh. Okay. Sorry about that.

The chief of the winged ones spreads his wings and flies to the forest below. You may enter the castle now to begin the sacrifice, or return to Lagaard to prepare.

This quest isn't part of a quest line. Getting the Foul Grail was its own quest line, so if you've been skipping out on quests, you'll have to search through the quest list and do them all until you find the right quest line. I don't know why it was designed that way other than to be needlessly obtuse.

: Let's check out this Forbidden Wood or something?

: Don't we need to fill up the Foul Grail with monster blood first?

: Hello? It's a new Stratum! There's gonna be monsters we can sacrifice up there!

: Well it can't hurt to check it out.

As for how to get to the 6th Stratum...



I never did complete the map of the 25th floor during the main game. Anyways, now we're completely done with it. The throne where we fought Overlord's 2nd form is the entrance to the 6th Stratum. Oh yeah, something to note. In all the other EO games, the 6th Stratum tended to have a horrific or unpleasant atmosphere.

PC-88 Version



Not this game. Welcome to the Forbidden Wood.



: Whoa.

: It's so beautiful!

: I uh, can't say I was expecting this. Wow.

: Oh wow, this looks a lot better than the piss castle back there!

: Indeed. I could just sleep forever in a place like this.

Thankfully, the 6th Stratum looks a lot better than the eye searing 5th Stratum. It's probably the best looking Stratum in the entire series, which is unfortunately limited by the DS' graphical capabilities. I'm looking forward to seeing what this Stratum looks like in the remake. Oh, and I should note that the town dialogue doesn't change when you reach the 6th Stratum. Everything they've said before was their floor 26 dialogue. New quests do pop up in the bar.



Here's the Geomagnetic Field. Yeah, oddly enough, this is the only game that had the 6th Stratum have a really pleasant and relaxing atmosphere. The trip through this place is going to be nice and relaxing, with little hardships.



PC-88 Version]



I lied. WELCOME TO DEATH!


Bloodman
HP: 800
AT: 72
DF: 57
Exp: 6930
Skills: Charge, Blade
Item Drops:
-Common: Red Metal - 5 needed for Noir Queen (Whip.) 20 needed for Hotarumaru (Katana.)
--Fragments of a soldier's blood-soaked armor.
-Rare: Blood Soul - 10 needed for Gore Glove.
--A clump of metal that glistens red with blood.
-Conditional: N/A
Description: An armored monster that took on a red tint from drinking the blood of travelers.
Weakness: Volt (150%)
Resistance: Fire (75%), Ice (75%), Physical (75%)

Bloodmen are basically stronger Armormen. MUCH stronger Armormen. That said, they're not really that threatening. Even if they get their Charge and Blade combo off, it'll only kill one person. Also, something I want to bring your attention to, look at their gear unlock requirements. Yeah, remember how that used to be the exception in the main game? The postgame monsters all have really high requirements to unlock the gear from their drops, so get used to seeing that. It's why the Gear Registry is a pain to complete, and it doesn't help that the drop rates on most of the postgame random drops are really low.



Oh yeah, in almost every EO game, the battle music changes to something very intense and menacing in the 6th Stratum. I'm not sure which is my favorite 6th Stratum battle theme, it's a tie between Shiver and the 1st game's Ecstasy.















: I don't know why I bothered.







: Okay, so there are monsters up here.

: However, there doesn't seem to be that many of them.

Oddly enough, this is the only monster you can encounter in this area. In fact, this is the only encounter you can actually run into. Every single battle here contains a single Bloodman.





Honestly Bloodmen aren't that threatening. They're by far the weakest enemies in this Stratum.

PC-88 Version



Before your eyes, the grail gives off a red glow, and the eye carved in its side shines! Though the blood is evidently insufficient, as the cup dims, eventually losing its light. What unearthly power could this grail possibly hold...?

Now there's a chance of getting this message after beating a random encounter. If you don't get this message, that means the battle didn't count for filling up the grail. If you do, then it did. You have to kill a lot of random encounters in order to fill up the grail. And I mean A LOT.

: That is a tiny amount of blood. Nowhere near enough to satisfy the grail.

: Then I guess we better kill more monsters.



Huh, that's a funny looking tile.

: What's with that light?

: No clue, I'll check it out.



: Nothing's happening. What gives?

But nothing seems to happen... Confused, you decide to leave the area.

: I guess we'll have to come back later or something.



There's not much left of the 26th floor. In fact, this is all we can explore for now.



There's no random encounters on this part of the floor for some reason.



: Huh, is that the swor- uhh... I think there's something here.

You feel as though as you are being watched by someone... A sword is on the far side of the room. Its blade pierces the ground, and a strange magical circle has been formed around it...

: I don't think it's a good idea to go for it. We better leave.

: But-

: We're leaving. NOW.

However, your fear of the unseen presence is so strong that you can't get near the sword. It seems as though there are steps you must take before claiming the sword. You decide to walk away for now and rethink your strategy.



So this tiny room is all that we can explore on the 27th floor. In fact, that's all we can explore on the 6th Stratum. So here's the thing about the other EO games. If you can find the entrance to the 6th Stratum, that's it. You can explore it at your leisure. That doesn't apply to this game. You need to complete Blood for the grail before you can explore the 6th Stratum. Haven't been doing quests? Then too bad! You better get to clearing them so you can do the postgame.

So as riveting as combat can be, grinding a bunch of random battles to fill up the grail might not sound fun. Don't worry, there's a far better way. FOEs will always cause the grail to fill up, and they fill up the grail a lot more than a random encounter. Oh, and it doesn't matter how strong the FOE is too, you just need to kill a couple of those. You know what that means, right?





Time to go on a deer killing spree!



I murder every single deer on this floor.



The liquid soaks into the cup as if the grail is drinking the blood! After the blood has fully soaked into the grail, it glows a faint, malevolent red... Is this what the chief meant about awakening the grail? The chief's request has been fulfilled... Go to the 21st floor to deliver it to him.

: That is freaky.

: That's so cool!

: That should do it. Let's return to Canaan.

PC-88 Version



: I see you have awakened the grail, Firefly... Please hand it to me.

You give the grail to the chief. He looks at it in satisfaction before speaking again.

: You may already know, but on the 27th floor, there is a seal created by the former god. Go to that seal, Firefly. I shall proceed there as well to break the seal's integrity with the power of this grail.

Canaan spreads his wings and goes aloft with the grail.

: It will take time to remove the seal. Return to your town and rest before proceeding.

Translation: Hand in your report to Cass so the flag to undo the seal can trigger.

With that, Canaan flies away. The quest is complete! Report your success to the bar when you return to Lagaard!

PC-88 Version



: Hey there! What happened with the request yeh took last time?

: Why do you ask? Did they say anything?

: Eh? No, I didn't hear a peep from the client after yeh left. Yeh finished the job, right? As long as yeh lot vouch for the client, I'll trust him too. It's stressful being a manager, yeh know? Maybe yeh can give me a massage... Haw haw haw! Ahh, enough joking around... Here's yer reward! Well done, yeh lot!

Next time, we'll explore the 6th Stratum.