Part 52: Slip Slidin' Away
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This must be the floor where the fearful beast dwells!
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Introduced in this game is a new type of tile. Slippery tiles. Walk onto these, and you won't stop until you hit a wall or a regular tile. They've been used in every game since this one except for the remake of the first game. I'll mark these with cyan.
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But it's been like 4 months since I started this LP? I dunno, I'm not getting through the game that fast. I would've been done by now on a normal playthrough.
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Even though the 3rd Stratum isn't really colorful, I really do like how it looks. Honestly most of the Strata look really pretty, even on the DS. EO2 has the best looking Strata in the series.
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Here's another tile hunt quest. But it's one we can't complete right now.
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This is the start of a new questline, and an introduction to a new type of quest.
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The Ice Sheet is a rare item from a Mine point. There's some on floor 12, so we can complete this while we're up there.
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You can't take this quest until you complete Many happy returns.
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Oh hey, clear and good hints for once! If you did a good job in mapping out the 11th floor, you'll know instantly where to look.
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So here's a new quest type. Sometimes you need to reach a certain location, but an FOE may get in the way. Except killing the FOE will result in instant failure. For obvious reasons this kind of quest didn't get used in any of the other EO games. These monsters are unique, and technically missable since you can avoid fighting them and they disappear after the quest is done. Thankfully missable monsters do not get recorded in the codex, even if you kill them so you don't have to worry about that. Now about that other quest.
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So these kinds of quests are really easy. You should either have the required number or be close to it when these quests are available. We only have 48 at the moment, so we should be able to complete it after exploring the 12th floor a bit more. Remember to actually report your findings by checking the monster codex option, otherwise the quest isn't considered finished.
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Advice that I should probably follow more often. I'm sure my playstyle would make several EO players scream at me.
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So we're gonna be exploring Frederik's shortcut and completing that quest on the 11th floor.
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You think back to the quest you accepted at the bar... You agreed to find the reason for a monster's rampage and report to the Duke's Palace. The monster is breathing heavily... it must have picked up your scent! You have been enjoined against slaying it, and you can do nothing now but flee! You must quickly find the cause of its aggression before leaving the area!
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Madsteps
HP: ??
AT: ??
DF: ??
It's just a stronger version of a Sleipnir. Don't kill it or you'll fail the quest and be forced to try again. It's also aggressive when it first appears. If you have an FOE item or skill available, you can just stun it and immediately go in the door.
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If you don't, you'll have to walk all the way around, which can be tricky since you'll have to get past that Darksoar if you haven't taken it out.
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The monster should find it more difficult to follow you now... You head further inward to investigate the area.
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Could this be the monster's nest?
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But what you find as you inspect it causes your shoulders to drop... Contrary to your expectations, there are no indications that it has been disturbed. In fact, you cannot even find the monster's child here! With no other avenues of inquiry, you decide to return to Lagaard.
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You must be careful, however... The rampaging monster still has your scent! You are aware that if you slay the monster, the quest will end in failure.
The quest isn't over until you report it to the bar. Killing the Madsteps will force you to start over.
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You're not trapped in there, and you can get out with a Warp Wire.
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The flavor text for this is the exact same as it was in the first Stratum.
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Unfortunately Foesense has a few downsides to it. One, it can't track invisible FOEs.
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It also can't track FOEs that only appear when you step onto a certain tile. So it can't keep track of Razekings or other surprise FOEs. Oh and when the Darksoar spawns, it's already aggressive and will chase after you.
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Exit, wait for it to go back a bit, because going back in immediately will cause it to be aggro'd again.
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And you should be able to sneak by while it's going back, or you can ambush it.
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Hey wanna see some big numbers?
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A 60% damage boost on top of the Ronin's already ridiculous damage output? Yes please! Oh god, imagine if Ken, Gilbert, and Frederik were all in the same party. Ken's damage would be through the roof.
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An armor upgrade was being guarded. I put it on Ken because as strong as he is offensively, he is really squishy. Anyways we're done here, so I go Warp Wire out.
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Should be very handy for an upcoming situation.
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I'm gonna go for Pauline's shortcut now.
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But I'm also gonna buy that bow we got from Chimaera's conditional drop for her. Just look at that power boost. I've said that Survivalists are one of the worst classes in the game, but that doesn't have to be the case. For the main game anyway.
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Well that's a great start.
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Fortunately, Bewilder doesn't seal the arms. Now 2-Bolt was unimpressive before, so how powerful is it now?
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Yeah, way too powerful at this point. I won't be using this bow now. (Unless people really want me to use it so Pauline won't be dead weight) I'll probably slap it onto her when we get to the 5th Stratum, when it won't utterly destroy everything.
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I use that level up to level Pauline's Bow mastery some more.
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The flavor text for these are a bit different when the required class is solo.
It seems that the path continues beyond the wall...
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The forest wall seems impossible to climb, but as a survivalist, you know certain tricks. You look above the wall and spot the branch you hoped would be there, then leap up to it. You move from branch to branch until you can see a hidden path through the wall below. From here, it would be child's play to move to the other side of the wall.
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Only a slight bit of resistance to all elements? Blech, no thanks.
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Now with that out of the way, we are completely done with the 11th floor. There is nothing more for us here. Been a while since we fully completed a floor. Now let's actually get to exploring the 12th floor.
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As you pass, he suddenly recognizes you and begins to speak.
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You tell him the story of the Ice Sheet, and he gives a slight chuckle in response.
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You thank the guard and move on. It appears this quest will take longer than you thought...
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Snowzard
HP: 219
AT: 25
DF: 25
Exp: 1286
Skills: Ice Breath, Freezing
Item Drops:
-Common: Torn Tail - 1 needed for Cutlass (Sword.) 3 needed for Biliomg (Axe.) 15 needed for Doom Mace (Staff.)
--Snowzard's tail with flexible skin.
-Rare: White Chip - See Darksoar bio.
-Conditional: N/A
Description: Similar to the Firezard, but with an affinity for Ice. Its breath can freeze anything.
Weakness: Fire (150%)
Resistance: Ice (0%)
They're just palette swapped Firezards, right down to the attacks even. The description even pokes at it. Ice Breath is a single target ice attack, while Freezing is an AOE ice attack.
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It's pretty easy to get to this treasure. Just get to the bottom and go up.
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I replace Ken's Life Belt with it. It's use as a defensive piece of gear falls off at this point. The defense boost from any pieces of armor is more important. Unless you're using a Revenge Hexer.
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It's easy to get to this door, just walk to the left, go to the bottom, and go straight up to the door.
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Wondering who it could be, you turn in the direction the voice came from.
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A soldier's forlorn voice pierces the cold air. The soldier walks to you, his teeth chattering as he fights against the wind.
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The guard falls silent and stares at the ground before he continues, chastened.
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The soldier sadly meets your eyes before continuing.
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The pitiful soldier stands there, hugging his own body from the cold and fear. It falls to you to investigate the ice-covered forest and find the Snow Blooms.
If you didn't accept the Find the Snow Blooms mission for some reason, the guard would stop you here instead of asking you to go on. We can actually talk to him again.
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When he notices you, he speaks in a pained voice.
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The pitiful soldier stands there hugging his own body from the cold and fear. You leave the poor guard and resume your hunt for the Snow Blooms.
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Clawbug
HP: 270
AT: 33
DF: 26
Exp: 1600
Skills: Whirr
Item Drops:
-Common: Space Husk - 1 needed for Aspis, Head Guard, Aqua Claw (Claw), and Therica AX. 2 needed for Chain Mail and Volt Axe (Axe.) 5 needed for Kuzunosada (Katana.)
--Carapace with metals beyond human ken.
-Rare: N/A
-Conditional: Stag Horn - Kill with Cut. 1 needed for Gore Chain (Whip.)
--Mustache-like growth around a beetle's mouth.
Description: A large crab whose shell is harder than human swords. Its whirring wings drive men mad.
Weakness: Volt (150%)
Resistance: Physical (25%)
Clawbugs are a returning enemy from the 1st game. They were a way to make sure that you had some form of elemental attacks in your party. Here they picked up an annoying new trick. Whirr is an AOE headbind, which is bad if it lands on your casters since you need elementals to kill them easily. If they're solo, they're a guaranteed blindside.
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They're not too much trouble if they don't head bind your casters.
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So what this whole floor is about, is that it's kind of one big ice sliding puzzle. There's a huge frozen lake in the middle, and you're trying to reach a bunch of side areas. It's not too hard to navigate around, there's not too many exact movements you have to make. It can be kind of a hassle at times, especially when you find out the other mechanic this floor introduces.
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So here's a map I pulled from Gamefaqs (And cut part of it off because it would've broken tables) to give you an idea of what I have to go through. I won't do this often, but I did this because it would be kind of a hassle to explain everything single bit of movement you have to make on this floor.
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Going up and to the right lets you reach this spot. Go to the left from here and you'll reach an event, but you have to be facing the ice to get it.
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Has the ice thinned and cracked? You can see crystal clear water flowing beneath the icy surface. If you enlarge the hole, you may be able to enjoy a bit of ice fishing here.
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Eager to try ice fishing, Aliara drops the first line.
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But Aliara slips on the ice and falls into the frozen lake!
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You hurry to pull Aliara out of the water, but it's too late...
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Aliara has severe frostbite! The fishing trip is hastily abandoned...
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A random party member loses 100 HP if you say yes to this.
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Pauline gets a level up after some more battles.
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Just another point in Bows.
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If you come back once the sun has set, the resemblance may become even stronger.
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Yes that's right, if you're exploring this floor at day, you cannot complete the mission. You have to come back at night. That said we still want to explore at day, because there's an area I want to get to that gets blocked off at night.
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That reason is because of these things.
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So these are the Helldras that the Snowsouls can summon. They don't move at all during the day, they only patrol at night. For the record, trying to fight them during the day will not have them start out asleep. The other reason to explore at night is because they're blocking off certain areas during the day. Oh and these nocturnal FOEs get used as roadblocks throughout the game. Okay, all the EO games have a day and night system, and there weren't really any differences between day and night in the first game. It only mattered for a handful of quests. So they tried to make up for it in this game. And the result was that in some parts of the game, you cannot progress unless you are traveling at the right time of day. Thought being roadblocked by the story was bad? How about being roadblocked by the game mechanics themselves? These nocturnal FOEs block off important paths during the day, so you're essentially told by the game to go fuck yourself and go back to town to change the clock. If you're wondering, why don't you just say screw that and just go kill the FOEs? Oh, well...
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Helldra
Type: Red
Behavior: Nocturnal, Patrol
Aggressive: No
HP: 3000
AT: 50
DF: 50
Weakness: N/A
Resistance: Fire (50%), Ice (50%), Volt (50%)
Yeah, good luck with that. At this point in the game, you can't kill these. Nocturnal FOEs have super beefy stats that make them very hard to take down until you're much stronger than when you first encounter them. And since they're resistant to all elements, you can't call on your Alchemist to make the big bad FOE go away. You won't be able to get these things into Climax territory, I've tried. You can't skip the puzzle, you have to play by the game's rules. It's annoying, and it's like that with all nocturnal FOEs, not just the Helldra. Thankfully EO3 toned down FOEs that act differently during the different times of day. The worst you'll have to do is take an alternate route. You're not roadblocked for coming at the wrong time of day. EO4 just dropped that concept entirely.
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More level ups.
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Nick is 3 levels away from unlocking the bait skills.
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Bellamy has unlocked Analysis. Which should help him clear mobs more easily.
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Down near the bottom right is the first of the mine points.
Mine:
Common: Celestine - 1 needed for Bipennis (Axe), Rune Gage, Bug Piece, and Head Guard. 5 needed for Nikari (Katana.)
-Sky-colored coin that turns red when heated.
Uncommon: Adularia - 1 needed for Pure Plate, Ice Wall, and Stab Wall. 3 needed for Fire Saker (Gun.) 5 needed for Flissa (Sword.)
-Icy, transparent variant of orthoclase.
Rare: Ice Sheet - 1 needed for Brio Wrist, Haste Pin, and Fate Beads. 1 needed for the quest Playing Cupid I.
-Soft plaster used in carvings and sculpture.
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This Helldra is blocking a path to a Snow Bloom.
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Through the middle door is this treasure.
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Which is a weapon that no one can use.
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Up near the top right is another Helldra.
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Head right from there and you'll reach a Mine point.
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But more importantly, you'll find a Snow Bloom.
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Here's Ken's shortcut. You can't come here during the night because the Helldra's patrol path would block it off.
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Walk all the way around and you'll get to this sweet treasure.
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Which is a pretty hefty upgrade for Ken. Like, he really didn't need this. EO2, do you want Ken to tear you apart?
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A row of small, black creatures is lined up here. The group carries a flat pedestal. You freeze, thinking that they may be a new type of monster, but they don't seem hostile.
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You stand puzzled before the black creatures when your hexer pushes you aside to step forth.
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The hexer mutters a few words and the black creatures respond with sudden excitement. Your hexer explains that they are called Kotodama, and can be ordered about with curses.
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With them at your command, you can use the pedestal they carry to climb over the wall.
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The Snow Quill does provide a good amount of terror resistance. The problem is that nothing can inflict terror at this point.
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Now this area in the bottom right leads to the stairs, but...
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The desolate atmosphere is broken by an incongruously cheerful voice.
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The impish girl gives you a probing stare.
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The girl's eyes flick toward the door momentarily, then back to you before she continues.
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The black-haired witch is none too subtly blocking your progress further. You have no choice but to turn back for now... You nod to Artelind and leave the area.
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You can go back in for another scene.
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Artelind is determined to prevent you from going further. You have no choice but to turn back for now... You nod to Artelind and leave the area.