Part 110: Muckdile: Atlus' Middle Finger

Muckdile: Atlus' Middle Finger

We're gonna be hunting down the Muckdile in this update. It's a very special enemy. In all the other EO games, it's just been an unnotable FOE. Nothing too special. This is not the case in this game. For one thing, it's a regular monster now.



Meet the king of dick moves in Etrian Odyssey 2. The single biggest fuck you in the game. The physicaldigital manifestation of Atlus' hatred. This guy is the pure, unadulterated essence of . For one thing, it's a rare encounter on floor 30. You have around a 5% chance of running into it when you go through a door. Some doors don't contain this encounter, and it's more common in others. So it's a huge pain to look for. Oh, and they appear in gathering ambushes, but if that happens, you're pretty much dead. At any rate, if you're unprepared, this will probably be the result.





So you'll probably think that you should go all out the next time you see this thing, using Force Skills and the like.

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And this is another possible encounter to find them in. Yes, they don't always appear alone, and this is one of the worst ones, since Confusion and Curse are already a pain on their own.











Well, let's open up with our standard tactics. Force Skills should shut this thing down.



I buff Ken here since getting rid of those Mothlords ASAP is more important than increasing the damage of Riot Gun.



Wait, crap! It went before Riot Gun!







CRAP CRAP CRAP!







Well, at least it isn't Confusion.





Ah, good. I can get the Dominate off.









Now it's completely and utterly helpless.





All I need to do is revive everyone, and everything will be fine.



Using Revenge here may seem like a stupid move, since Aliara is Cursed, but if you kill something while under Curse, you won't take damage. And the Sauromar only had 1800 HP, so the Muckdile can't have that much more.





Okay, good. Now all I have to worry about are the Mothlords.









WHAT!?























You're joking. You've got to be joking.









And insult to injury.











Why yes, my party is effectively helpless right now, why do you ask?



OH COME ON!









Okay, so there is a way to stop that attack.



I've made a small dent in it, and that's it.













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Yeah, at that point, I had no choice but to wait for death.



So this time, let's bring out the big guns. 1st Turn combined with Riot Gun should hopefully take it down.

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Really? The Mothlords again?





Time to bust out my secret weapon.









EAT STUN! AHAHA- wait, why didn't the stunned message pop up?



ARE YOU SERIOUS!?

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I'll just spare you the trouble and say that yes, everybody died.

Video: Muckdile

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Okay, so let's deal with this thing for real this time.


Muckdile
HP: 10000
STR: 80
TEC: 80
VIT: 80
AGI: 80
LUC: 80
Exp: 50000
Item Drops:
-Common: Croc Skin - 1 needed for Speed Boot.
--Fine crocodile leather. Smooth, yet durable.
-Rare: N/A
-Conditional: Iron Fang - Kill with Physical. 1 needed for Dainsleif (Sword.)
--Sharp fang of a rare metallic substance.
Description: A rarely encountered crocodile-like creature. It is eager to "play" with strangers it meets.
Weakness: N/A
Resistance: Immune to Stun, Instant Death, and Petrification. Physical (25%)

Skills:

Bite: Uses the head. Deals a severe amount of Cut damage to random party members.
Frolic: Cannot be disabled. Has an extremely high chance of binding all the party's body parts.

So this is the Muckdile. You know the WarMECH from the very first Final Fantasy? A regular encounter so strong, that it might as well just a boss? That's pretty much what the Muckdile is. You can't beat this fight by brute force. You have to carefully think out what you're going to do. And pray. Because everything can still go wrong even if you've laid out the best plans.

So this thing only has two attacks, but they amount to killing your party, and making your party completely helpless. So they can kill your party later. Not only does it have high stats across the board and a huge amount of HP, but it's the only enemy in the game immune to Stun! Not even the Ur-Child is immune! Riot Gun works just fine on it! Oh, and if it has two or more body parts bound, it will spam Frolic over and over, which is essentially an AOE Dominate. (Which I'm guessing is it prancing around like a ballerina in an attempt to get its binds off. Because look at that sprite.) So using Dominate on it is a death sentence. Yes, it's specifically designed to counter Force Skills. Which means that Atlus knew how broken they were, but didn't bother rebalancing them because??? Anyways, despite all that, there are a few ways to deal with it.



First things first, get rid of those Mothlords ASAP.









Well, I hope this works.







: Bad boy! Stay!

Muckdiles do not have any resistance to binds or statuses whatsoever. Head binding it is an absolute priority. This is why I had Nick learn Gag instead of the other two binds. Still, Gag only has a 65% chance of success, which is a little risky. But it landed, so the Muckdile is completely helpless. For real. Binding the head and only the head is how to deal with this thing.

Now if you're playing the remake, do not do this! The Muckdile got buffed in that a single bind will set off Frolic, so you have no choice but to weather the storm there.



: Crush everything in sight!





: Aw, what's the matter? Can't chomp with your mouth closed? AHAHAHAHA!









: Get outta here!

And that's one problem dealt with.



: Bedtime...

Sleep is also another way to deal with them. Put them to sleep, and keep applying until you've bound their heads.



: Really?

Eh, doesn't matter. Its head is bound, so it's no longer a threat.











: Feels like these things are tougher than I remember.





Time to get rid of that pesky physical resistance so I can get that condtional. Yes, Dampen is safe to use on it.







This is all it will keep doing. It will never use its physical attacks unless confused.









: Aliara, could you hurry up with that curse?

: Hey, I'm casting it as fast as I can! This stuff takes time!







: We really would appreciate it, though.



: Wow, you guys are impatient.



: Ha ha! Now that's more like it!

: No thank yous?











: Thanks, Aliara!





And the sleep actually landed that time. It's usually a reliable way to disable it.









I think you get the point, so let's skip forward a bit.





: Good riddance!

: Sorry. I didn't expect something like that to pop up during our training.



There are other ways to deal with the Muckdile. Painless works on it, and I'm assuming that's because they couldn't figure out a way for the Muckdile to get past it without outright breaking the game's rules. Since the Muckdile's Bite skill is a Cut attack, a Cut Mist or just stacking Cut Walls on your party members is enough to knock down the damage to more reasonable levels. Though that does leave you open for the other monsters, so be careful about that.

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Here's the rest of the equipment in the game. All that's left is what the Ur-Child drops.







Now the Iron Fang...





Unlocks a really terrible sword. I mean, it is technically the best sword you can make from a regular monster drop, but the better swords are available earlier.







The Croc skin unlocks a much better item, despite being the regular drop. The Speed Boots are the best boots in the game, providing the biggest defense and AGI bonuses.



Asshole.

Now if you're thinking to yourself, that didn't seem too bad, or that seemed really tough to deal with, I'll tell you this. It can get worse. MUCH WORSE. How much worse?

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