Part 112: Let's Break Etrian Odyssey II

Let's Break Etrian Odyssey II

So in this update, we're gonna do something a bit different. You know how I've shown that this game isn't exactly... polished? Tons of bugs and the stuff? Well, we're gonna break it even more.



For one thing, I'm going back to an earlier save I've kept. This is right before I killed Chimaera for the first time.

PC-88 Version



First things first, let's activate the floor 3 Geomagnetic Pole. Now, see that Furylord FOE? It's the one I've circled in red, if you don't remember.



But what if we go to this spot back on the 2nd floor?



And then use a Warp Wire?



Let's head back to floor 3 to see what's changed.



Huh? Something's different. Where's the Furylord?



Well, looks like it's actually gone. So yes, you can actually erase FOEs (temporarily) by standing under initial spawns in a lower floor, and then use a Warp Wire to get out. When you come back through a Geomagnetic Pole, (And only a Geomagnetic Pole) the FOE will be gone! You can do this to any FOE in the game.

Now the question is, does this work on bosses? Let's find out!



Okay, so there's Chimaera. (Excuse the messy map.)



And on floor 4, this is the spot where Chimaera is standing on the 5th floor.



Now let's go back.



Oh my! Chimaera's gone!



He's really gone!



PC-88 Version



And we're in the 2nd Stratum!





We just sequence broke the game! Nothing can stop us now!



Oh. Right. Yes, let's hand in our report first.



Which we can't do, because we didn't actually kill Chimaera. Yeah, there are actually triggers tied to his death. At the very least, we can get a preemptive strike on him if we come in from the 2nd Stratum Geomagnetic Field.

Now let's see if we can do the same thing with Hellion.





Well, there's Hellion.



But on the 9th floor, we run into an obvious problem. We can't get under Hellion.



Even if you were to get past the locked door, getting under Hellion would still be impossible. So what should we do?



How about the 8th floor?



You need a Medic in order to get to that spot, since it's blocked by a class specific shortcut.



Will this work?



Let's find out!



Oh my, I don't see anything this time!



He's totally gone.



FREEDOM!

PC-88 Version







But again, you can't explore the 3rd Stratum until you hand in your mission report.



Which, once again, we can't do because we never killed Hellion.

Now does this work on Scylla? She's a huge pain to fight, so skipping her would be really nice.



I've marked the spot where she sits. Now you can't skip the Artelind and Wilhelm fight because that's tied to an event.



Use a Warp Wire on the tile right below Scylla...



And go back via Geomagnetic Pole.



Yep! No more Scylla!

PC-88 Version





Oh and yes, the erase glitch doesn't last that long. Once you go up any stairs or leave in any other way, whatever you've erased will come back.



And remember, the only mission that's in the 3rd Stratum is the one to gather the Snow Blooms. Which has nothing to do with Scylla, so you actually skip her permanently!

Next up is Harpuia.





Once again, use a Warp Wire on the tile right under her...



Yeah yeah, okay.



Once again, gone! Though she's a really easy boss, so I don't suggest skipping her entirely.



Something of interest to note, Canaan doesn't talk to us since we haven't killed Harpuia. I guess he's not falling for it.

PC-88 Version





Overlord will still wonder why we've come here.



And remember, this mission requires you to kill the Overlord in order to turn it in. So yes, you do have free reign of the 5th Stratum. Now what about Colossus? This glitch does not work on him. Mainly because Colossus only spawns when you actually enter his room, so it's scripted. This means he can't be erased. Sorry.

Now, let's move onto another interesting bug.









Now, people wanted to know how much damage Aliara could take, since she took reduced damage from the back row when she got nuked by Begone the first time. And everyone and I thought to myself, can this damage be boosted further?

So I made a new character, a level 1 Gunner since they start out with 3 points of VIT, which is lower than the Hexer's starting 4 points of VIT.



For the record, he has absolutely no armor. Just the very first gun you can buy in the game.







Well, that's not much of an improvement, but the Gunner does have a skill that increases the damage they take.



So I leveled up the Gunner to 4, so I could get a level 1 Riskshot, which amplifies any incoming damage by 520%. He only has 6 points of VIT at this point.







So this is where the bug kicks in. Apparently the poor guy took so much damage that it underflowed to a few thousand points instead of a few hundred thousand. There's no hard cap for damage. It would've dealt around 213428 damage normally. The later EO games don't have this bug. EO3 has much more cartridge space and the engine got fairly overhauled for that game, and the 3DS games are also much bigger and can afford to work with bigger values.

At this point, everyone wanted to know what the actual damage cap was.



So what I did was make another dummy character to tank hits. Her stats don't matter, what matters is that the Gunner is in the back row.







And somehow, he took even more damage than before, even though being in the back row was supposed to reduce it.





But, let's see what happens when we use Riskshot now.















Well, that's one way to survive it. Yes, the damage overflowed to the point where the test subject only took 2 measly points of damage.

And if you want proof of this phenomenon, here's a video of it. I rerecorded to get a better comparison, and to prove that this wasn't a fluke. Which is why the numbers are different.







This was the highest recorded damage output. Through further testing and research, it was concluded that the actual damage cap is 65536. Anymore, and it loops back to 1. This is because EO2 uses 4-digit unsigned integers to handle damage numbers, and the max value is FFFF. (Thank you forums user, Orange Fluffy Sheep!) The later games use higher values to handle this stuff.



Oh, and here's a GIF of Riskshot, since I never used or invested in that skill in this LP.

Now onto my last trick in this LP! This one isn't a bug, but it does take advantage of certain game mechanics to create an... interesting result.





You remember these guys, right? It's okay if you don't, since they were created several updates ago. I said at the time that they would be needed for something down the line. Well, they're needed now.



First, we're going to the 6th Stratum. I take those two Landsknechts with me, along with Emilia, Aegis, and Aliara.

PC-88 Version



You need at least 1 Riptor alive for this.



And a bunch of Axcelas.



I'm gonna have everyone except my Hexer feed them to my Protector.









I don't specifically need a Hexer, but I do want to take down this Riptor quickly in case things get hairy.







Any other damage dealer will do, but Revenge is the fastest way to kill them.



Oh and chances are that this is gonna happen. Better than them using Fangs and killing the entire front row.



So Aegis needs one more Axcela to reach max Force, which isn't a problem.





And finishing off this thing. Aliara's job is done.



PC-88 Version



I revive Simone, because I need her alive for the next part.





















Now I don't want all the Landsknechts wearing any armor for the next part. They still need a weapon, but it doesn't matter what weapon as long as they don't get a defense boost.





You'll see what this will result in in a few moments.













Video: Ur-Child

I highly, highly recommend watching this video before reading on. Because what I'm about to show off is a lot more effective if you see it in motion, instead of screenshots. For an explanation of what happens in the video, read on.

PC-88 Version



Well here it is, the big bad final boss.









I'm gonna do the same thing I did with the Riptor and have everyone feed Aegis Axcelas.



Except for Aegis, he'll be using Painless.



And Aliara won't be using Revenge. We won't need it.













Debuffs do go through Painless, so beware of that if you're using a Protector in your game.



And everyone restores Aegis' Force so he can use Painless again.











As for why I'm doing this, I guess you could say I'm waiting for something.







Just what am I waiting for?



This.













PC-88 Version



Yes, this can work on some other bosses with physical attacks. They just have to hit you hard enough to do it. As for why this worked? Well you read the Landsknecht Class Discussion, right? If you didn't, here's a refresher.


And since the first version of Hymn does a severe amount of Stab damage to Landsknechts, they took a huge amount of damage, which was reflected back at Ur-Child. So he essentially died because he hit himself so hard.

PC-88 Version



So if you watched the video, you may have noticed that there's no after battle text when you kill Ur-Child. In all the other Etrian Odyssey games, it usually pops up after defeating the true final boss, congratulating you. Well uh, funny story about that. There is actually after battle text in the game. The problem is that the programmers actually forgot to set a trigger for it to pop up. So that plot about monsters heading to High Lagaard to invade it? There's absolutely no resolution for it. None. Well I guess Etrian Odyssey II just couldn't end on any other note.

At any rate, here's a completed map of floor 30, so now we've completely mapped the whole Labyrinth!

PC-88 Version



Now, the Eden Apple is the most valuable drop in the game.





It unlocks the Masamune, which is actually known as the Anemo-Habakiri in Japan in the first two games, and in English in the rest of the Etrian Odyssey games. In every single EO game except for 4, it is the ultimate katana that is unlocked by killing the true final boss. So unless they were the first thing you went for when you reached the post-game, this is effectively a flashy ultimate weapon that's effectively useless because there's nothing else to use it on. Oh well.

Next time: The End.