Part 67: Look Out Below

Look Out Below

PC-88 Version



This time we won't kick the rock.

There is always the risk that you may miss the rock, lose your balance, and fall... You shake your head. There's certainly no time to idly kick rocks on your urgent quest.



For the record, this event is only a guaranteed blindside if you say yes. I just got unlucky when I said no in the last update.

PC-88 Version




Petaloid
HP: 316
AT: 35
DF: 39
Exp: 2835
Skills: Petals, Sleeper
Item Drops:
-Common: Hazard Eye - 1 needed for Thorn Rod. 5 needed for Risk Claw. 1 needed for the quest Dinner for one.
--A bulb that extrudes vines in search of prey.
-Rare: N/A
-Conditional: Hazard Bud - Kill with Instant Death. 1 needed for Safeguard. 1 needed for the quest The sorcery-reflecting lens.
--A dangerous bud, cut before it could blossom.
Description: A deceptively sweet-smelling flower whose aroma puts unlucky humans to sleep.
Weakness: Fire (150%)
Resistance: Immune to Sleep

Petaloids are an enemy that no one likes. They've been in every game, and they're always an unwelcome sight. They were kind of annoying in the first game, but not that dangerous by themselves since all they could really do was put you to sleep. They got buffed in this game, and gained an AOE Cut attack that hits for a moderate amount of damage. Sleeper has a really high chance to put your party members to sleep, and pretty much what they'll use on the first turn. When one of your party members is asleep, they'll use Petals, which hits for a lot of damage on sleeping targets. If you get blindsided by two or more Petaloids, well I hope you've saved recently. They got nerfed hard in EO4 and are significantly easier to deal with there.

: Okay, you have to be careful around Petaloids because they can-





: What was that?

: ...Never mind.



Ah, sweet catharsis.

PC-88 Version



You get this notice after each item for that quest. I have the others in storage, so I'll fetch those later.

: That should be all the ingredients.

: But what kind of dinner uses these as ingredients? They're all poisonous!

: Maybe we should have Cass look into this later.



I leveled up Cure 2 since the combat Medic build wasn't really working out. Caduceus ended up dealing the same amount of damage as a single Ricochet bullet. Which would be a 125% damage attack. Caduceus has a 430% damage modifier. Well that experiment was worth a try anyway.



This is the spot you need to go to for Playing Cupid III.

Each particle of sand glistens brightly, as if it were a drop in an ocean of gems. The sight reminds you of the quest you undertook at the bar... You agreed to search for a mineral that crystallizes into the shape of a rose. This sandy area could be just the place to begin your search. You consider investigating further in the hopes of finding something.



: Does this not look like a good spot to look for that Wood Rose?

: This spot? Of all places?

: Might as well start somewhere. Maverick. Aliara. Keep an eye out for monsters.

You stand around the ridge, post a lookout, and split up to sift through the sand. To your chagrin, however, the sand is fairly deep... It won't be easy to find anything here. As the search progresses, you at last feel a hardened object under your spade.

: I found something!

Taking care not to lose it, you pry around the area to dig it up.



: What the hell is this?

: That... doesn't look like a rose.

: Maybe if you look at it this way... Nope.

You wince at the hideous sight of... whatever it is that you hold. With a lot of imagination and a fair amount of myopia, it might resemble a rose, but... You throw it away in disgust, and wonder if you should bother to continue digging here.



You remain wary of digging into unknown sand... Anything could be hiding beneath the surface. Putting your own safety first, you leave the place untouched.

So this quest is another luck based thing. You have to keep saying yes until you find the Wood Rose. I have no idea what the point of this is really. I don't know if you can find anything other than the black clump, because that's all I found until I finally got the Wood Rose. If you say yes, the text just repeats until the part where you find something.

: Ah! I have struck something!



: Now that's a rose!

It's resemblance to an organic, blooming rose is uncanny... Having found what you sought, you cover it in a cloth and carefully store it away.





: So, you think this will finally get the girl to like him?

: No.

: Yeah, same here.



And here's the stairs.

: Already?

: We barely explored this floor!

: Calm down, there's a path this way. We haven't explored all of it yet.



Right over here is... a dead end. No secret passage or anything.

: That was a waste of time.

: There is a part of the floor we didn't explore yet.

PC-88 Version





: Bellamy you know what overkill is, right?







: No.


Windsnip
HP: 317
AT: 35
DF: 35
Exp: 2455
Skills: Slash
Item Drops:
-Common: Razor Edge - 1 needed for Gale Whip and Wind Arm. 2 needed for Wind Claw. 15 needed for Knout. (Whip.)
--Windsnip arm that looks like a sharp scythe.
-Rare: N/A
-Conditional: Wind Blade - Kill with Volt. 1 needed for Volt Gun.
--A Windsnip's arm that can slice the breeze.
Description: Few notice this blazing fast creature until its blade-like arms have already struck.
Weakness: Fire (150%)
Resistance: N/A

New enemy, and not exactly a threatening one. Slash is a Cut attack that deals some splash damage. You do want to get the drop since the Volt Gun is needed for a quest. No not the drop itself, the weapon it unlocks. You'll see what I mean later.

PC-88 Version



The left path holds... yet another dead end.

: Okay, I guess there really is nothing left to explore. Huh, that's kind of weird.

: Don't look a gift horse in the mouth!





Fedot's close to doubling his TP pool.



I'm serious, this is all we can explore on the 17th floor.

: You guys SURE you didn't miss anything?

: I'm in no mood to start up that line of conversation again.

: Likewise.

: Okay, just what the hell happened back in the 3rd Stratum?

: Nothing important.

: If you say so.





And we're at the Geomagnetic Pole already.

: This seems too convenient.

: Well we haven't explored the whole floor yet. Speaking of, which way should we go? Left or right?

: By left, do you mean my left or the map's-

: East or west?

: East?

: Sure, whatever. It's not like we have a clue where to go.



: That pile of leaves looks a bit suspect. Gilbert, YOU should investigate!

: OW! Me? No, I insist that YOU take a look!

: Quit shoving!

: You stop shoving!

: Fight fight fight fight fi-

: Hey, watch where you're go-



: AAAAAHHHHHHH!!



: Oh, so they have pitfalls here too. Fantastic.

: Lungs and face... crushed...

: Bellamy, get your hand off my butt!

: I would if Gilbert's wasn't crushing it!

: Fedot... please... get off of me.

: Whoa, sorry guys.

: Phew! Thought I was gonna- oh crap. Look over there.



: Another one of those pumpkin creatures. It doesn't appear to be looking this way. Shall we?

: Oh, I'm ready to fight!

PC-88 Version




Flygourd
Type: Invisible
Behavior: Line of sight
Aggressive: Yes
HP: 1470
AT: 48
DF: 48
Skills: Pain, Dance
Item Drops:
-Common: Lilac Vine - See Wrathbud bio.
-FOE: Small Bone - 1 needed for Fairy Boot. 1 needed for the quest A diviner's tools.
--Small bone fragment with a mysterious aura.
-Conditional: Curse Vine - Kill while fully bound. 3 needed for Dominator (Whip.)
--Cylindrical, boneless body of a pumpkin monster.
Description: A pumpkin monster that lures travelers in with hand-like appendages in order to assault them.
Weakness: N/A
Resistance: Physical (0%), Fire (0%)

Meet the next member of the gourd family, the Flygourd! Like the Trigourd, they resist everything except Ice and Volt. Pain is the same AOE Fire skill the Trigourd had. The exact same AOE Fire skill. Like, it's super weak at this point. Their regular attack is far more threatening. Dance on the other hand is really annoying. It hits everyone and will place one random bind on each party member. Other than that, they're not really threatening. They're just a nuisance. But, this is an important FOE. Mainly because of the conditional drop.

The conditional drop requires you to kill the Flygourd while it has every single body part bound. You pretty much have to use the Dark Hunter's Force Skill on it to get it, but if Dance manages to bind their arms before they can get it off, oops! They just wasted all that Force! And you don't need 1, but 3 of the Curse Vines in order to unlock the weapon. Why am I going into so much detail about this? Because the conditional drop unlocks the Dark Hunter's ultimate weapon. And it makes them skyrocket in usefulness. You really want to get this weapon for them.





: HA- it's still standing?

Eschaton's starting to peak here. Alchemists peak early and just never really get better after that. Their damage isn't terrible, but maintaining one in the postgame is a lot more trouble than it's worth because of their super high TP costs.









: Nope.





Like I said, their regular attack is the only real threatening move they have.





So the way the Flygourd FOE patterns work, is that they'll be looking in a certain direction (and you can't tell where since they're invisible) and if you walk in their line of sight, they'll turn aggressive and start chasing you around.

PC-88 Version



Here's the other Chop point on the floor. A bit risky to get to since it's in front of a Flygourd, and being ambushed here would be terrible.



: Oh, there's a way out!

: But we didn't find anything on the other side.

: Must be a one way passage.

: How does that even work?

: I have no idea.

So here's what the 17th and 18th floors are about. They're interconnected, and act like one mega floor instead of 2 different floors in terms of level design. A few floors in the EO series act like that from time to time. Most of the 17th floor is normally inaccessible, so you have to fall from a pitfall on the 18th floor, which are marked by a pile of leaves, in order to get there. Some areas also have these one way passages so you can get out. This is also the first time the EO games actually mark a shortcut. The rest of the games start doing that from an earlier point.









: WHY ME!?

And sometimes a character will die because the RNG decided to screw them over. Let's get back to the 18th floor and see what's down the other path.



Oh whoops! Almost ran into a Voltking.

PC-88 Version





Oh hey, two new enemies. And they're about to die.


Big Moth
HP: 297
AT: 33
DF: 37
Exp: 2678
Skills: Scales, Feather
Item Drops:
-Common: Plum Quill - 1 needed for Pattisa (Sword) and Morion. 5 needed for Purple Rod. 7 needed for Lush Beads. 1 needed for the quest The item trade III.
--Surprisingly lightweight Big Moth wings.
-Rare: N/A
-Conditional: Dark Lymph - 1 needed for Sting Maul
--Rare lymphs found in moth wings.
Description: This dangerous moth's glands secrete poison, and its wings can stir up powerful gusts.
Weakness: Volt (150%)
Resistance: N/A

Big Moths are a support monster, and they're not a threat at all. Scales is an AOE move that tries to apply Confusion to everyone. Except it has a really low chance of actually working. At best it'll tag one or two people after several failed tries. Feather is just an attack that hits harder. These things aren't a threat, but you don't want to let them stick around for too long if they're not alone. By the way, running into a solo Big Moth is a guaranteed blindside.


Diatrima
HP: 324
AT: 36
DF: 36
Exp: 2169
Skills: Peck
Item Drops:
-Common: Dew Beak - 1 needed for Heaven Bow. 10 needed for Seven Whip.
--Large, metallic beak with a white band.
-Rare: Celestine - See 3rd Stratum Mine info.
-Conditional: N/A
Description: Once its gigantic mouth clamps onto its prey, it will not let go.
Weakness: Stab (150%)
Resistance: N/A

Trash mob. The only thing notable about them is that Peck can hit really hard. That's all there is to them.







: Ah, excellent teamwork Aliara. Slap my hand!

: But I hate you.

:





And Bellamy learns Megido. Deals a decent amount of untyped damage to an enemy. It'll be handy if I don't have Aliara to Dampen any enemies.

PC-88 Version



This will be handy for the upcoming boss fight. Assuming I don't get a party that will completely destroy it in two turns.



A Voltking patrols the area down here.



Taking the left path brings you to this Take point.

Take:
Common: Crabapple - 1 needed for Medica III. 3 needed for the quest In the cold, white night.
-Sweet-smelling red fruit that recovers some HP.
Uncommon: Cordyceps - 1 needed for Stun Gas.
-Mushrooms used to restore some TP.
Rare: Volt Fruit - 1 needed for Cut Jar, Stab Jar, Bash Jar. Limited Stock.
-Combustible fruit that activates talismans.

Unlike Stratum 3's Take point, this one isn't all that important.



I somehow spent so much time here that it turned night. Oh, and there's a shortcut we can't get through.





I kind of hope that I max this out soon.



It would be a simple matter to snap the branch and take it.





You easily take the branch with the flower, but there are more branches you could also reach.



: Do you think we could get more? I see more of those branches.

: Wow, someone's greedy.

: Oh, quiet.



You easily take the branch with the flower, but there are more branches you could also reach.





You take the branch with the flower, then suddenly hear heavy breathing behind you!

: Guys! Turn around!

You spin to find a beast whose habitat has just been fouled by your actions! It rears up to attack... You must draw your weapons and defend yourselves!

PC-88 Version



: Is that it? Let me handle this.









: Oh my!

: That's quite the aim.

: When did you learn to do that!?

: Eh, I've known how to do that a long time before coming here. Took me a while to pull that off again. Guns are pretty heavy, they're not like bows at all.



And sometimes the RNG works in my favor. You can get 3 Bloom Woods easily here. Saying no just has you leave early with no consequences.

PC-88 Version



: CANNONBALL!

: Should we go after her?

: ...What the hell do you think!? Yes, let's leave a 12 year old to fend for herself down there, I'm sure that's a great idea!

: I was just asking a question.

: Ask better questions next time.



PC-88 Version





: Let the world end now. It matters not to me.



: Don't put me on the front next time.

: I can't make any promises.



Another Flygourd in this area. You're supposed to bait it and then juke around the pillars. Of course that's not how I roll.

PC-88 Version









I don't feel like dealing with this thing since my party's running low on supplies and TP.













So everything's going well so far, until I make one fatal mistake.

: lets go hit him with our sticks

: yay sticks!

I accidentally turned on autobattle. And didn't notice for 3 turns. I don't even know how I managed to pull that off. My own stupidity surprises me sometimes.



: he didnt like my stick



: i don't think throwing my stick worked



: my stick was insufficient





: What the ever loving hell just happened?

: I think we all came down with a case of the stupid. Somehow.



And then I finally realized what happened when I saw 3 dead people on the screen.

PC-88 Version





This is what the Trigourd was guarding. Not really that useful.



Here's the one way passage out. There's another area to the right, but I'm low on supplies and well everything right now. I'll explore there next update.

: We're not staying here, are we?

: With three people out of commission? No way.