Part 111: Strategic Notes: Ur-Child

Strategic Notes: Ur-Child


Ur-Child
HP: 25000
STR: 110
TEC: 110
VIT: 110
AGI: 110
LUC: 110
Exp: 0
Item Drops: Eden Fruit - Unlocks the Masamune.
-Strange red fruit found on the Ur-Child's wings.
Description: An organism created by the overseers of heaven. Its power surpasses even that of higher beings.
Weakness: N/A
Resistance: N/A

Skills:

Sacrifice: Uses the arms. Deals a severe amount of Bash damage to a single target. Deals a heavy amount of splash damage to adjacent party members. Targets have their attack debuffed.
Hymn (1): Uses the legs. Deals a severe amount of Stab damage to Landsknechts, Protectors, Dark Hunters, Ronin, and Beasts. Other classes take a negligible amount of damage.
Hymn (2): Uses the legs. Deals a severe amount of Stab and Volt damage to Survivalists, Troubadours, and War Magi. Other classes take a negligible amount of damage.
Hymn (3): Uses the legs. Deals a severe amount of Stab and Volt damage to Medics, Alchemists, Hexers, and Gunners. Other classes take a negligible amount of damage.
Boast: Uses the arms. Deals a severe amount of Bash damage to the party, and has a 12% chance of inflicting Sleep, Confusion, or Curse.
Obey: Uses the legs. Deals a heavy amount of Bash damage to a single target. Deals a moderate amount of splash damage to adjacent targets. Targets have their regular attacks imbued with Fire.
Rest: Cannot be disabled. Heals Ur-Child for 210 HP.
Solitude: Uses the legs. Deals a variable amount of Stab damage to the party. Damage dealt to the party depends on how many party members were alive at the time of cast. Overkills the party if 5 members are alive. Deals a heavy amount of damage if 4 members are alive. Deals a moderate amount of damage if 3 members are alive. Deals single digit damage if 1 or 2 members are alive.
Anger: Uses the head. Randomly attacks the party 3 to 7 times, dealing a severe amount of Fire damage, and has a 15% chance to inflict Sleep and all binds.
Sadness: Uses the head. Randomly attacks the party 3 to 7 times, dealing a severe amount of Ice damage, and has a 15% chance to inflict Terror and all binds.
Mercy: Uses the head. Randomly attacks the party 3 to 7 times, dealing a severe amount of Volt damage, and has a 15% chance to inflict Blind and all binds.
Wildance: Uses the arms. Attempts to inflict Instant Death, Petrification, Paralysis, Confusion, Poison, or Curse on the party. Each ailment has a 20% chance to land. The poison component deals around 100 damage.
Begone: Cannot be disabled. Overkills the party with untyped damage. Survivors have their heads and arms bound.
End-Wind: Cannot be disabled. Overkills a single target by attacking them twice with untyped damage.
Dirge: Uses the legs. Overkills Medics, Alchemists, Hexers, and Gunners with Stab and Volt damage. Other classes take a negligible amount of damage.
Hatred: Uses the arms. Deals a severe amount of Cut damage to the party. Dispels all buffs.
Heatskin: Cannot be disabled. Counterattacks all physical attacks with untyped damage that overkills the target.
Light: Uses the head. Removes all buffs from the party.
Release: Uses the head. Dispels all debuffs and heals Ur-Child for 25000 HP.

Okay, so you finished the main game, and that wasn't enough for you. So you trudged all the way through the post-game, and at last, you've reached the final challenge. The Ur-Child, the final test of Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard. Pay close attention to what I'm about to say, because he is not a fight to be taken lightly.

In all the Etrian Odyssey games, the true final bosses follow an attack pattern of some sort, and Ur-Child's no exception. Knowing what these attack patterns consist of is the key to success in all the Etrian Odyssey games. Ur-Child's pattern is as follows:

Turn 1: Sacrifice
Turn 2: Hymn
Turn 3: Boast
Turn 4: Obey
Turn 5: Boast
Turn 6: Rest
Turn 7: Solitude
Turn 8: Anger
Turn 9: Sadness
Turn 10: Mercy
Turn 11: Wildance
Turn 12: Rest
Turn 13: Begone

And it loops. Now Hymn actually differs between loops. Ur-Child will use the 2nd version on the 2nd loop, and the 3rd version on the 3rd loop. And then back to the 1st version on the 4th loop, assuming the fight even lasts that long. Now, this is really more of a guideline than a concrete thing. See, Ur-Child doesn't always follow this attack pattern, occasionally he'll deviate from it and use a different move. You've probably noticed that this attack pattern doesn't use all the skills I've listed. For one thing, Ur-Child actually has a 3% chance to use Heatskin every turn, instead of the appropriate move. If you have a Dark Hunter and use Bait or Magibait, he has a 5% chance of using Wildance on the next turn. He also has a couple of special countermoves. If your party has 12 or more buffs on a turn that Ur-Child is supposed to use Boast, he'll use Hatred instead, which hits a lot harder than Boast. But if your party has 12 or more buffs and Ur-Child has 2 or more debuffs, he'll have a 60% chance of using Light every turn until your buffs are dispelled. Release is another countermove that Ur-Child only uses in special conditions. If he gets hit by Dampen, or has 3 debuffs, he'll have an 80% chance of using that every turn and essentially reset all your progress once it goes off. So don't do that. Besides, Frailty is the superior debuff since he doesn't have any resistances. Dirge isn't actually used in this fight, but he does have the move. Now when Ur-Child uses one of the above moves to break his pattern, the pattern doesn't break permanently. If he was supposed to use Boast on the current turn, but he uses Wildance instead, he'll just use it on the next turn and the pattern will continue from there.

As for how to deal with him, Ur-Child is by far the easiest post-game final boss to deal with in the DS games because he's completely predictable, so his moves can be planned around. Okay, there's Heatskin, but it rarely has a chance of popping up, so I don't really consider it a factor. If it does, well, tough luck. And it doesn't counter elementals or untyped attacks, so your Alchemists and Revenge Hexers are safe. Also, Force Skills and Axcelas exist to trivialize the fight. Just don't use too many buffs, which can get complicated if you use a Troubadour, since Obey is mainly setup for Hatred if you like using AOE buffs. Sacrifice always attacks the back row on the first turn, so be aware of that. Rest is mostly a free turn for your team. No, I didn't make a typo, he actually heals himself for that little. But it's also a warning sign of a more dangerous move to come. Solitude can end the fight if not properly defended against. You may want to bring a Protector or some Stab Mists to deal with that. Alternatively, you can let some party members die, and wait to revive them after Solitude is used. If you have a Protector, the elemental moves are just three free turns. Wildance can really throw a wrench into things, so bring some Therica BXs to deal with it. Assuming your party doesn't all die or get petrified. Or have a Troubadour use the Health song and reduce the chances of an ailment landing to a measly 4%.

Begone is the real problem with the fight. There's a few ways to deal with it, but if you don't have any of the following methods, the fight becomes a race to take down Ur-Child before he gets to use it. Now it doesn't use any body parts, so Dominate can't be used to avoid it, but Painless can have your party avoid the damage and the bind components. Riot Gun can stop it from being used altogether, but your Gunner needs to be fast enough to have it go off before Ur-Child casts it. The Medic's CPR is a bit more RNG based, but it has a decent chance of reviving your party members at max level after they get killed, so that's another way. Now there's also one more method that I've hinted at in my class discussions. A few special skills will have Ur-Child use a different move, End-Wind, instead of Begone when used on the turn where Ur-Child uses Rest a second time. If a Protector's Provoke, a Survivalist's Baitstep, or a Beast's Preen or Doze Off are used on turn 12, Ur-Child will kill them with End-Wind on the next turn. Yes, they'll die, but the rest of the party will live. This doesn't count as breaking the pattern, so the attack pattern goes back to turn 1. It doesn't matter what level the skills are, the game just checks to see if they've been used on the previous turn. Which means the buffs applied from the skills doesn't matter, so you can't preemptively use them on an earlier turn to avoid Begone.

Hmm? Oh, if Ur-Child only uses Begone on turn 13, why did he use it on the first turn a few updates ago? Oh yes, funny thing about that. You see, the fight with Ur-Child changes drastically depending on when you fight him. If you fight him at day, which is from 5 am to 5 pm, he'll do everything I've said above. But if you fight him at night, which is from 6 pm to 4 am, he... doesn't have an attack pattern. He just uses most of his attacks randomly like the rest of the bosses in this game. Yes, this include Begone, which he has a 20% chance of using every turn. Wildance also has a 20% chance of popping up, and Ur-Child actually uses Dirge in this version of the fight. Have fun! Now he doesn't use the special countermoves in his nighttime fight unless you fulfill the conditions for those, so you don't have to worry about him using Release and undoing all your progress if you don't use Dampen or 3 debuffs. Also, you don't have to fight nighttime Ur-child unless you want an extra challenge. There's no special conditional drop for pulling it off, or any other benefit other than maybe losing your sanity. Also, Force Skills can also trivialize the fight.

Now onto voting. Yes, I'm holding a vote despite everything I've told you. Why yes, I am quite the masochist, you're just figuring that out now? Anyways, I want you to format the vote as follows. Vote on if you want me to tackle the fight at daytime or nighttime, and pick from one of three choices:

1. Fair and Square: You get to vote for the party, which a restriction in place. I will refrain from using Force Skills unless absolutely necessary.
2. Destroy Ur-Child: Any party votes are automatically thrown out if this choice wins. I bring in the same party that I've been using for most of the 6th Stratum; Ken, Nick, Frederik, Fedot, and Aliara and utterly humiliate the boss. Absolutely no holding back here.
3. ???: ????????

Oh yes, no matter which choice you pick, you're allowed to vote up to five party members you want to see in this fight. Although if choice number 2 wins, all votes will be invalid. But you should probably vote just in case choice number 1 wins. Here's some more info on your party member choices.

Required to Win

Okay, technically none of these picks are actually required to win, but there's a chance that I may get a party composition that can't end the fight in under 13 turns, so I'd like to actually have the fight be possible to win. If none of these choices end up in the top 5, the most popular option will be moved up there, kicking out the least popular choice.

: A Protector is a fantastic support to bring to this fight. They can buy 3 free turns for the team, and turn some of Ur-Child's one hit kill moves into hard hitting, but survivable moves. Also Painless and Provoke can help avoid Begone, but the latter will kill them in the process. Though they can be revived on the next turn.

: Gunners can deal a great amount of physical damage, and stop Begone with Riot Gun. They're a bit squishy, yes, but every class that isn't the Protector is pretty much squishy in this fight.

: Medics have great healing, can heal ailments and binds, and CPR is a fantastic buff since Ur-Child has a lot of kill moves. In fact, it can help the party survive Begone. But since CPR revives the party, the head and arm binds won't apply if the buff procs. But Medics are pretty slow, so be aware of that.

: Survivalists do have 1st turn, which can be useful in a fight like this, but they have no damage. Begone is avoidable, so Airwalk can be used to boost the chances of that happening, but that's a really unreliable way to get past that turn. But Baitstep can be used to avoid Begone altogether, but the Survivalist will die in the process.

: Beasts deal a great amount of damage with the Rampage build, but Protectors are by far the better tanks. But Loyalty will pretty much guarantee that they will kill themselves since Ur-Child's attacks are all multitarget. Still, both Preen and Doze Off (No, I have no idea why this move pisses off Ur-Child of all things) can be used to help avoid Begone, though the Beast will die in the process. Alternatively, Loyalty may proc and have it tank a hit for someone else.

Offense

: A Hexer is by far one of the best classes to use in the fight. Sure, Dampen is unusable, but you don't want to use that anyway since Frailty is superior. Which really boosts your party's damage without using up a buff slot. Also, Revenge is by far the best damage skill to use for the fight. But their ailments and binds aren't really that usable since Ur-Child is either really resistant to them, or outright immune.

: Ronin are great physical damage dealers, and Shiraha can help avoid a ton of attacks, including Begone.

: Dark Hunters are also a fantastic choice for a damage dealer. The Baits deal a great amount of damage, though they may anger the Ur-Child and force your party to eat a Wildance the next turn. That said, their binds are incredibly unreliable since Ur-Child is either resistant to them, or outright immune. Though Dominate will still work on it, and there's no consequences for fully binding Ur-Child, unlike the Muckdile.

: Um, Alchemists can avoid getting hit with Heatskin since they use elemental attacks and have Megido? Not really a powerhouse compared to the other options, and their skills cost way too much TP for what they do.

: Well Landsknechts can use Blazer as their chaser of choice, since Obey imbues the party's regular attacks with Fire, but other than that pfffffthahahaha.

Support

: War Magi are decent supports since they can buff someone's attack with Warmight. But Salve 2 isn't gonna cut it unless a Protector is on the team since the healing is so small, and they can't dispel ailments or binds, or revive anyone like the Medic can. They are fast and will act before the Ur-Child can.

: Troubadours aren't really fantastic choices for the fight since they're really limited in what they can do. Bravery can be used to boost the party's damage, but Health is by far the better buff to use since it will reduce to chances of Ur-Child's ailments and binds landing to nearly nothing.

Vote for whether you want to see me tackle this fight at daytime or nightime, pick from one of the three choices, and up to any five party members. Votes must be bolded.