Part 2: The First Foray
Part 1: The First Foray
Alright! That's all the paper work sorted, so as your obvious leader, it's time to introduce ourselves! I'm Gerson! Stay behind me and you won't die! I'll try not to kill everything before you can, but I make no promises, gahaha!
Hi, I'm Lavin. I definitely won't be left behind when it comes to killing stuff, the Radha's taught me well! We'll conquer the labyrinth no problem!
Hmm, these two are too cocky for their own good. Liana, if you can see it, I can probably shoot it, especially when all the proper preparations has been made and no one screws up any plans!
Charmed to meet you all, I'm Simone! While I might not match up to you two boys in swordplay, I'm quite adept at fighting monsters, ESPECIALLY in this get up, so no questioning it, GOT IT?
Man, you're noisy, but I'm used to loud workers, I suppose. I'm Ryu, I've read more books about magic than leaves on a tree, so so long as you're all working efficiently, I can cast my spells no problem.
Meat Shield... Hm? My shield, did you say? Well of course I'll be! I'll take any kind of damage you throw at me! Perrrfect. I'm Karin, I'll heal you no problem, so make suuuuuure to get injured in all kinds of interesting ways!
Greetings new travelling companions, though some of you may have heard of me, I am Wagner. My hit songs will delight and empower you, even if I don't have the full effect of my backing band... Hmm, can't say I've ever heard of you. You played in a band, old man? I'M ONLY TWENTY FOUR! Ahem, this hair is due to stress, something you wouldn't know about.
Tch, it's like I'm back home with all this squabbling. I'm Aryll, I am a samurai so I will fight with honour and be loyal to those who help make this trip as long as possible. I have zero interest in returning home.
Squirrels don't want you to go home. Uh, that's comforting? Cheese, was it? Hehe, yep, I'll be sure to make all our enemies cower in FEAR from my master's skills. My cute little fluffy friendly masters. Good, good! Now that introductions are out of the way, it's time to explore the labyrinth! Uhhhhhh, you, you, you and you. Come with me! If you say so muscle man. Th-The name's Lavin, in case you forgot... Alright. Alright, I can do this, let's go! I'm starting sooner than expected. Let's put all these theories into practise! Aww, well have fun you guys, get some cute armour for me, kay?
The Roadside Trees Outside the Window
Welcome to Etria, properly this time! We'll visit each facility from top to bottom.
Please, make yourself at home. Ooh, fancy digs. Nothing like the barracks. I've had bigger, but this will do.
The inn is where you go to heal and to quickly advance time. Sleeping skips ahead to 5am the next day, while Napping skips to 6pm, but cannot be used again until morning. And of course saving, oh beautiful progress keeper.
Not that the time of day matters that much in this game...
The inn kinda sucks in EO1, at least compared to later iterations. No storing items, no curing death/petrification, just...sleeping and saving.
What are you writing there? Gotta keep track of what's happened, so I can figure out what there's still to do.
We also offer medicines to take with you. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! Oh where's the fun in that? Hrmmmm If you're wounded in the forest, then come back here, and we'll do everything we can for you.
Aww, cheers. When your party dies, and they will die, you need to come here to revive them. Medicine is also incredibly important, even if you're using a Medic.
It is weird being able to buy Amrita right away, though with the amount of money we'll end up having, it's best to only use them in emergencies. Medicas are great if you have a Medic to ease their TP, or an absolute necessity if you're not using one. Axcelas aren't very useful, since they don't help much with Boost. I really don't like Ceft Apothecary on a gameplay level. Having a separate facility for getting incapacitated party members back up and buying restorative consumables is annoying and blurgh. It was pretty much a thematic thing, before they realized they could put the revive function in the inn, and buying healing items at the shop. Also say hi to our resident Trauma Center cameo, Dr. Hoffman! (Before those got dropped in later games anyway.)
When a game like this is telling you to bring a Medic along, you better listen! For one thing, you'd have to stock up on a lot more Medicas, which would be pretty taxing on your starting funds. It's good being so needed, I can do everything I could ever want. Ehehehehe. What are you giggling about over there? The Lounge Where We Speak of Tomorrow
Uh, hehe, 'allo to you. You pipe down.
Are you t'guild I hear 'bout wit' only new folk? Explorers like you are my best customers! I look forward t'doing business witcha!
Shilleka's Goods is where we'll sell item drops and craft new weapons and armour that suck slightly less than what we already have. If you're used to later games, don't expect equipment to have big numbers, especially Armour and Accessories.
Basic selection, it seems, but that's a fine weapon. Well I'm sure we can spare a few coins! Eh, I already have what I need. There's isn't a starting weapon for every class, but since three of our guild will have swords and the other three staves, I'll take what I can get.
Armour is incredibly mediocre in this game compared to others, everything is only +1 DEF, but it is of course necessary to upgrade, especially early on where 1 DEF point is pretty important. Boots are usually more interesting in that they often boost AGI, but since it's not a great stat, it's pretty whatever to begin with. Don't be like me and buy a bunch of boots out of habit.
These two sections will eventually get better. Right now, 5 HP might be the difference between life and death, but not for that much cash. We short on supplies lately, so I han't been able t'make anyt'ing good... whatever y'find in the forest, bring it here. I'll buy anyt'ing y'bring me! Of all the games to LP, it had to be the one with Shilleka's dialogue... Boy am I glad I have a script dump for EOU.
Suppose while we're thinking about new equipment, that vaguely relates to the menu. There's cool backgrounds depending on where you are.
You have a bag space of 60, no more, no less. Well, okay, you will have less for most of the game, since there's some items you'll need to have no matter what, so you might have around 40-45 spaces for item drops. Probably less if you like being prepared.
Here's the Heal button, er, I mean the outside of battle skills tab. We should probably learn some of those.
Here's a nice overview, even if I won't use it much. All characters start off with a Knife and Tweed, aside from Alchemists, Medics and Hexers, who start with Wands. The stat screen in EO1 makes me so mad. It's full of pointless stuff. Why do you need to see the total skill points a character currently has? Why do you need to see the lowest floor they've reached? AGH.
This is important to remember as a fair few attacking skills need a certain weapon to use, otherwise they can't do anything. Remember how there's no Katanas in the shop? Right now, Aryll can't use any of her skills, even if we put points into them, so make sure you've got the right weapon. It's not something to really think about in this game past the start, only Lavin will use different weapons throughout.
Now onto the main event, every character starts with 3 skill points and you gain 1 extra for each level, resulting in 72SP overall from the level 70 cap. Since EVERY skill in the game can be maxed up to level 10, you can't learn everything, nor should you. The list is a bit to get used to again after the lovely charts from EO4 on, but it has all the info you need, aside from a couple times it's incorrect.
I'll be going over every character so you have an idea what I'm aiming for to begin with, since it'll be a while until we get some of those skills. Refer to the class overviews to see how the skills all link up. For Lavin, we need Allslash, but that's a bit far away, so we'll get Tornado first so he has something to do, then get Axe skills for a bit later. Level 3 is a 112% boost to Sword attacks.
Gerson is going for Defender, focusing on F. Guard first, for an 80% damage reduction, down from 100%, on either row, with Shields being a 95% reduction.
Liana is beelining for Multihit, to keep up with the other front line attackers, then 1st Turn, then Apollon. This is a 114% boost to Bow damage, since Bows is a pretty nifty passive skill overall. Ah, the days when masteries didn't feel like ass to put skill points in. Well, "day" more like, since EO1 was the only game where that's true. I really wonder why they dropped that from later games. For reference, mastery skills tend to cap out at a 111% to 115% boost there. Yeah...
Ryu will get all three elements for coverage and then Poison, because oh my word will that be fun for the early game. That's a 110% boost to Fire and Ice skills and an 80% power Fire attack with 10 bonus damage, woo.
Karin's got a very smooth skillset, so we'll be going Cure, Revive, Salve, Immunize, which will take a bit of time to get to since we'll be putting a lot of points into Healer early. A 107% boost to most healing skills, so Cure heals 24 instead of 23. Riveting I know, but we gotta start somewhere.
Simone will be focusing on swords so Cheese has a reason to be here, going for Confusion, Drain, Bait and Petrify. Same scaling as the Landy's.
BRAVERY, RIGHT NOW. The other songs will be useful to dispel debuffs if nothing else and we'll need the elemental songs to make Ryu's and Gerson's lives a lot easier. Wagner will also sit in the back with a bow so he's not completely useless. A 110% boost to song speed, so Bravery has 90% speed instead of 82%, while boosting ATK by 115%.
Until we get a katana, Aryll will be hitting things kinda hard with a sword, but the stance to go is of course Overhead, leading to Midareba and Orochi, yum. Katanas has the same scaling as Swords.
Cheese will go Sapping, so we don't die, then Torpor into the binding skills. A 110% boost to ailments and binds and an 80% reduction for the stat curse.
Oh yeah, onto the rest of the menu. You can rearrange your party at any time, but you'll only use this to put your front row back at the front after they've all died and forced your back row to the front to also get slaughtered. Yeah it's a great time.
Handy to keep track of the Quests you're doing out in the labyrinth, but otherwise unnecessary.
Ah, much better, Gerson needs a Shield for his skills and Liana definitely needs a bow. We could give Lavin an axe, but we've already ran out of money getting Armour for everyone.
Man I need a dri- hey wait a minute! Oh hello. I hope you didn't expect us to wait in the guild. May *hic* sqizzles protect thee. That's only your second ale... I'm just glad you're able to keep up with me, oh busssshido! Oh? This alcohol is different to what I'm used to handling. I wonder... ehehehehehe. Again with the giggling...
Every adventure's got to go through Radha Hall before they're officially recognized. Sorry, hon, but my hands are tied. I can't give you any work until then. Have fun you lot! Aw man...
Hmmm... better finish that mission from the Radha before talking to me, kiddos. I know mapping the forest is hard, but everyone has to start somewhere. Good luck out there. Ugh, quests. Aside from some occasionally neat rewards, if you don't care about completing them, then feel free to skip most of them. I'll do all of them, of course, but I won't be rushing to complete these asap. violent retching noises Quests are awful in this game, but some of them have to be completed to unlock some things later. Festival of Worship
I assume, newcomers, that you are en route to investigate the forest. Damn straight, now point us in its direction! Have you no manners? However, we don't recognize just anyone who manages to throw together a guild. If you wish to become licensed adventurers, first complete the mission we give you.
Radha Hall is where you accept missions to progress the plot and reports the monsters and items you encounter in the labyrinth. The latter only matters for a couple quests and the TRUE ENDING, so skip it if you don't care.
When adventurers discover new beasts and objects, we are equipped to note their findings. It would be a great help, explorers of Edda, if you would contribute as well. Prepping against monsters is my forte, you can count on me! Sounds interesting, I'm used to cataloguing all kinds of items.
Those who cannot accomplish this elementary task are better off staying out of this forest. Explore the 1st floor and map everything you see there. This method will be useful later. Here is a small map to start you off; fill in the rest of the details as best you can.
Drawing? Pah, I'm not a kid anymore. Let me do it, you need a good map as a soldier!
Oh, what's this pillar of light?
Huh, nothing happened. I've read about these. We'll need to find similar ones in the labyrinth before this does anything for us. Whew, that was a long set up, but now we're ready to enter the labyrinth. Strap in folks, we're in for 30 floors of fun. The Green, Green Woodlands
Wow, it's so pretty! Hah, my brothers are gonna be so jealous. Be on guard though, you can feel the malice in the air. Gods, it's even greener than it was in EOU. Probably my favorite 1st Stratum track in the series. Has a very nostalgic feeling, which actually works on multiple levels in this game. (You'll see what I mean by this later.) Give it a listen!
Way ahead of you game!
You may already be aware of this, in which case this advice is happily unnecessary. If so, then hesitate no longer to begin your adventure in this lush, green forest!
First, seek the soldier waiting in the known areas of the forest! Hey, I'm the leader and I say we go this way! And as your, you know, Survivalist, who can help you survive, we need to know what we're doing first. Keep walking straight, the soldier's right there.
So what're you doing all by your lonesome while in the way? The soldier answers your question slowly.
My orders are to make sure no one--you, for example--gets in the forest without permission. If you want in, start the way everyone does. Make a map of the floor we're on. As I'm sure they told you back at the Radha, everyone goes through this initiation. With that, the soldier points to the map of the forest you hold in your hands.
Ah, the main draw (HEH) to Etrian Odyssey. In this series, you're mapping a big ol' labyrinth using your stylus. Some of you might think fans of the series are weird for this, but it can be a lot of fun. Though of course, since this is the first game, map drawing is its most... basic here. "Basic" more like "aggravating." It's not too bad, all things considered, but drawing maps in EO1 feels like ass compared to even just EO2, let alone the 3DS games. Even simple things like "detecting when you've drawn a valid edge" feels clunky. Considering that most dungeon crawlers demanded that you use graph paper to make maps back in the day, or in later times, using 3rd party software to help make maps, actually not having to resort to those sorts of methods really helped modernize this kind of game for today's audiences. In fact, this was the very reason Etrian Odyssey started off on the DS instead of another system. It's actually a pretty good usage of the touch screen, unlike most other DS titles which either barely used it, or shoehorned in the touch screen's functions because they could.
Yep, I can draw a map no problem! This area inside the red border shows where you've got to map. Finish that part and see me. What can you tell us about the Labyrinth?
The ecology here is completely different than the one in the world above, where we live. It goes down so deep that no one has ever seen the lowest Stratum. If you plan on exploring down there, then make sure your guard is up at all times. His speech delivered, the soldier loses interest in you and returns to his post. You hesitate, unsure whether to ask him another question or let the matter drop. You decide to leave the soldier alone. Well that ended awkwardly. Blame Gerson, he decided to just walk off. Let's goooooooooo!!!
Let's see... it went a bit like this, then this far along. Hmm, how many tiles down is this corridor...? I wonder if I have something to break him out of this trance? Time to get mapping an entire labyrinth. It's all touch screen, so easy enough with a mouse, but a stylus is of course the best way. We only have the one blue colour, as well as only a few symbols, so we'll need to get creative at some point. Notice how the game doesn't give you a bit of cushion space on each side that show an extra row/column each, which would allow you to draw walls for tiles at the very end of the map. It's small things like that which make mapping in EO1 feel clunky after playing later games. Even compared to EO2, the map drawing tools in this game really feel primitive. All those icons to the side? Yeah, those are the only icons you can use to mark your map in this game. Even EO2 gave you a lot more to work with!
What's that?!
Could it have belonged to an adventurer? You weigh the options of picking up the dirty boot or leaving it where it lies.
I'm not touching that dirty thing. Alright, finder's keepers! Wait, wait, wait. Am I going to have to stop you from doing something dumb every time? Look around.
The signs point to dangerous beasts lurking nearby. Eyeing the boot, you wonder whether picking it up is worth whatever danger is in store. Sure it looks dangerous, but this is what we've been training for! Let's pick it up. You gingerly pick up the dirty boot. It's rather heavy, due to the ivory-colored stones its previous owner hide inside.
As you marvel at the stones, the ground begins to shift unnaturally. The dreadful monsters who likely killed the boot's owner ambush you! Initial Strike
Hehe, it's battle time! They're kinda cute, but those claws look pretty sharp. Focus, focus! I can do this!
Mole
Level: 3
HP: 23
STR: 12
VIT: 15
AGI: 10
LUC: 10
TEC: 7
EXP: 15
Skills
None
Damage Vulnerabilities
100% 
100% 
100%
100% 
200% 
100%Disable Vulnerabilities
100% 
100% 
100%
100% 
100% 
100%Drops
Normal: Soft Hide. 32% chance. Sells for 9en.
1 required for Hide Ring (Accessory, DEF+1, Slash Resist Up 5%)
3 required for Hide Hat (Headgear, DEF+1, TP+5)
5 required for Fang Whip (Whip, ATK+10)
7 required for Jerkin (Light Armor, DEF +3)
9 required for Hide Boot (Footwear, DEF+1, AGI+2)
10 required for Hide Aspis (Shield, DEF +2)
7 required for The leathersmiths's favor
Rare: Beast Bone. 20% chance. Sells for 11en.
1 required for Bone Staff (Staff, ATK+5)
5 required for Bone Axe (Axe, ATK+11)
15 required for Bone Mace (Staff, ATK+15, HP+7)
Conditional: None
This probably won't be the first encounter you have, I got lucky with the encounter rate, but this is a bit of a mean one to throw really early on. But Moles only really hit kinda hard and that's about it, so if you're good with your healing and defending, you'll be just fine. "This probably won't be the first encounter you have" my butt. My first time playing EO1, I checked that boot expecting a breeze, and got mauled for my troubles. Moles are definitely very rough to have as a first encounter, especially 3 of them! There isn't much to them, but when they can hit decently hard, they don't need to do much else.
Right, Attack is just using your basic attack with whatever weapon you have equipped, Cut for Swords, Whips and Katanas, Bash for Staves, Axes and Shields, and Stab for Bows. It's what we'll be using 99% of the time until we actually get not only different skills, but also TP to use those skills. Defend reduces all damage by 50% and can definitely save your ass if you know something big is coming. Items let's you use anything in your pack to heal and stuff. Boost is only selectable when you've gained enough Boost points and it either makes your regular attack do 50% more damage, or boosts your current skill by 5 levels, letting you go past level 10 to 15. We won't be in the labyrinth long enough for it to matter for a while, but it's very important, if uninteresting. EOU did a very good thing by making Boost build much quicker than it does in EO1. Seriously, Boost takes way too long to build for what it does. Hey, it actually builds up pretty fast! ...If you're constantly attacking or using skills. (+7 to your gauge, maxes out at 100 points.) Otherwise yeah, it builds up super slowly. (+3 to your gauge. In EOU, it's +5 to +15 in most cases.) And supports are really what you want to be using Boost on. So the classes you actually want using Boost are typically gonna get their gauges filled up last...
Gah! These guys are no joke! Sorry, I can only lessen damage, not prevent it altogether yet.
As you can see, this game doesn't fuck around. That's half of our tankiest member's HP gone. If these Moles decide to all target one person, they're dead, quite frankly. We'll see if their AI plays along. Also note how they all went before us. Scary! Moles also have a 2 level advantage on the party, which means they deal 8% extra damage to them, and they deal 8% less damage to the Moles. ...Which only affects damage output by like 1 point right now? Kinda sorta matters at this point in the game, since 1 point of damage could mean the difference between a party member living or dying, but it's not something to worry about yet. Also something to keep in mind is that a lot of the time, enemies will go after the party member with the highest amount of HP on that turn. Which helps Protectors do their jobs, and makes it so that damage is distributed fairly evenly among your party without having too many instances of one party member being ganged up on for several turns in a row.
I feel like I could do more than that... Every attacking type you do has a different animation, so you'd better learn what is what! Obviously Karin's not doing much with that STR stat, but being at the back makes physical weapons 50% less effective, so she should only attack if there's no one to heal. All of the animations have awkward nothing-happening pauses and take a bit too long for my tastes. (I have nice things to say about EO1, I swear.)
Heh, just like back home.
Aw crap, I've gotten rusty.
Too easy. Uh, why are you shivering? M-Me? Nah, I'm just, uh, excited! That was close... This is why Alchemists are amazing, that was nearly triple Liana's damage without weakness!
S-Still standing!
Ooh, I had no idea claw marks could go so deep. Where did I leave my tape measure...? Hey, poke and prod me all you like, but stay behind me! Yes, sir!
This is way more fun than ordering lackeys around. Get The Treasure
A lot of experience, but only one drop... we'll have to fix that later. Out of the three drops an enemy can have, it rolls backwards, so 3rd drop, then 2nd, then 1st. If you get any of them, it stops rolling, which can be a hassle with how low the rates are. For those of you that have played the later games, this is actually a decent amount of exp at this point. EO1 uses an entirely different exp curve than the later games did. The Green, Green Woodlands
There's a lot to catalogue in this place. I should know...
Ah, that's much better. Where to next, boss? Ooh, I could get used to that. Uh, to the right!
These guys are really what you're intended to run into first to ease you into the battle system. So small, but apparently very deadly. This place is strange.
Treerat
Level: 2
HP: 19
STR: 10
VIT: 14
AGI: 9
LUC: 9
TEC: 7
EXP: 6
Skills
Summon: Uses the Head. Summons another Tree Rat under certain conditions. Has a 10% speed modifier.
Damage Vulnerabilities
100% 100% 100% 200% 100% 100%Disable Vulnerabilities
100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%Drops
Normal: Small Fang. 45% chance. Sells for 10en.
3 required for Dagger (Sword, ATK +9).
5 required for Fang Whip (Whip, ATK +10)
Rare: Soft Hide. 25% chance. Sells for 9en.
1 required for Hide Ring (Accessory, DEF+1, Slash Resist Up 5%)
3 required for Hide Hat (Headgear, DEF+1, TP+5)
5 required for Fang Whip (Whip, ATK+10)
7 required for Jerkin (Light Armor, DEF +3)
9 required for Hide Boot (Footwear, DEF+1, AGI+2)
10 required for Hide Aspis (Shield, DEF +2)
7 required for The leathersmiths's favor
Conditional: None
Pretty weak and unremarkable, but still has a sting this early on. It's very rare it'll actually summon something, only when there's 3 or less enemies and it's past the 3rd turn. You should definitely have killed them by then. Tree Rats are your resident trash mob, and are something to help ease you into the battle system. They don't hit too hard, and can spend their turns doing things that aren't attacking you.
Woodfly
Level: 2
HP: 19
STR: 11
VIT: 14
AGI: 9
LUC: 9
TEC: 7
EXP: 12
Skills
Whirr: Uses the Arms. Attempts to Head Bind a single target. Has a 70% infliction chance and a 10% speed modifier.
Damage Vulnerabilities
100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 200%Disable Vulnerabilities
100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%Drops
Normal: Bug Wing. 30% chance. Sells for 10en.
5 required for Theriaca A (Medicine, removes the target's binds).
Rare: Tiny Petal. 15% chance. Sells for 8en.
1 required for Tweed (Clothing, DEF+1, AGI +1)
10 required for Petal Ring (Accessory, DEF+1, TEC+1)
10 required for Medica II (Medicine, heals the target by 100HP)
1 required for Remembrance of a friend
Conditional: Insect Eye (Kill with magic damage). 70% chance. Sells for 20en.
5 needed for Fashionista I
Definitely the weakest regular enemy in the game. Unless it targets your back row, you don't care about Whirr and it doesn't do a lot of damage anyway. Just a little tanky. Head binds are funny in EO1. In later games, head binds are arguably the most powerful type of bind when used against the player. Here, they...barely matter. Woodflies basically serve as a soft introduction to disables. Head binds at this point in the game really won't do much, other than causing you to miss a bit more. Your Alchemist gets their head tied up? Well you (hopefully) have other party members that can attack. Medic can't heal? Well most of the enemies on the first floor can't really hit you that hard for that to matter. And Troubadour songs really don't do much at this point in the game yet.
Hey get back here! Ah whatever, your friend will do.
Hmm, definitely stings a bit. Never knew butterflies could hit so hard. Wonder what they're made of?
That was not a lot of steps before another encounter. Get used to that, especially when you don't want it.
No need to show every fight, though we've been exploring enough that Ryu and Karin are both deadweight. Yes, already. TP in early EO games: it's very limited!
What a surprise, this place is crawling with monsters. 
Yahhhhhhhh! Take that! *pant* *pant* O-Oh? That definition... What? Cast your spells in a different direction! Ah, I wasn't... Crits are pretty nice, though they only happen on regular attacks. They reduce an enemy's DEF to 0 for that damage calculation, but they won't exactly turn a battle around. The extra damage can be helpful in the earlygame, but it falls off hard later. Something to keep in mind is that unlike in later games, monsters can deal critical hits too! And the extra damage is far more helpful for them since it can mean the difference between your party members living or dying.
Bah, just scratched it! Like your Defend, the effect is all turn, though the animation only plays when it's their turn.
Not a bad haul, and we get our first level up!
Now a 114% boost. Hell yeah scaling.
77% damage reduction for the front row.
116% boost.
Now we can one shot the Moles probably twice over!
112% heal increase, so 25HP. Yeah, a fair few times the level ups won't be very interesting, so I won't go over all of them all the time.
Hey, where did those things come fr-mmhm? Ah, that's a relief. They blend so well with their environment though. Blindsides are nasty, giving the enemy a free turn, which could kill someone if three Moles decide to be dicks. Preemptives are the reverse, giving us a free turn, which you can make happen in some circumstances. EO1 blindsides are never fun.
You keep doing that, I guess. Mmmmhmm. Even after seeing it twice, I'm still not sure how it stopped them from talking. It's now weirdly quiet. Binds stop certain skills from being used if they use that body part, as well as reduce a certain stat by 30% (Accuracy for Head, STR for Arms, AGI for Legs). This only applies to Ryu or Karin, since everyone else uses their Arms, so this is just free turns for us. 
Fancy. Can't you just burn those away? Even if I had the stamina, those are pretty sturdy. The crystal is emitting a barrier anyway.
I'm surprised you can't do anything with these trees. I can only use my bow right now, okay? Foraging was never my thing... Gathering points are a way to annoyingly lock certain drops and equipment behind wasted SP. Use a gathering party for this stuff to get a bunch of free money, but don't actually learn these skills, your party has better things to do.B1F D3 Chop Point
Mugwort. 50% chance. Sells for 20en.
1 required for Bravant (Medicine, increases the target's ATK by 125% for 5 turns)
Hardwood. 30% chance. Sells for 13 en.
1 required for Shortsword (Sword, ATK+15)
5 required for Hand Axe (Axe, ATK+18) Required for A favor to Shilleka I (Quest)
5 required for Wazikashi (Katana, ATK+20)
10 required for Aspis (Shield, DEF+2, VIT+1)
Red Fruit. 10% chance. Sells for 25en.
1 required for Red Charm (Accessory, DEF+1, TP+5)
Most of the items can't be found anywhere else, so we'll need to come back to these eventually. You might have noticed that it doesn't add up to 100%. Indeed, while ambushes don't exist yet, there's a chance you'll find... NOTHING! The amount you get from the gathering skills refreshes daily and more points in a skill a better chance of finding rarer items. The amount of gathers are tied to your level, so it can be useful to put at least 1SP into them, but ehhhhhhhhh. Gathering is never a fun or engaging mechanic, and EO1 is no exception. I'll take finding nothing over being ambushed, at least. As unengaging as gathering can be, it does serve one very important function in every EO game and that's letting players get more money for their guild and more materials to unlock various items for the shops without having to battle enemies. (Well until they introduced the concept of gathering blindsides in the next game, but even then, the chances of those happening are pretty low.) It basically lets players find another way to get a leg up if they can't handle enemies on a newer floor. Getting more money to buy stronger equipment and supplies, and unlocking stronger weapons and armors can end up making a big difference in some cases.
Hmm, I wonder... Found something?
Since we're close enough... can you take a look, Liara? Ah, yes, there's definitely a passageway here!
We're by the entrance. What a relief, I'm pooped! Agreed, good hustle team, our first adventure was a success! Alright! Heh, I'll surpass them in no time...
Shortcuts are super useful to find, thankfully they're usually nice enough to put them where two areas meet after half a floor of travel. But you'll be rubbing your face up walls until you find them. Thank you Gamefaqs. Since there's no arrow markers of any kind in this game, I could use a door symbol, since that's what shortcuts basically are, but that doesn't apply to every shortcut, so I'll use this. EO1 mapping tools, everybody! Also the later games would give you indications where shortcuts existed. Here? Yeah, look them up or just check every wall. Which is even more annoying when you can't sidestep in this game! So you have to walk up next to a wall, turn and check every one, turn to move to a tile you can walk to, and then repeat that process again for every area that you suspect may have shortcuts in them.
Pretty happy that no one died, but there's still a fair bit of the floor to go. The Lounge Where We Speak of Tomorrow
First stop is always Shilleka's, since the money we get will let us do other things in the early game.
1 Beast Bone required for Bone Staff (Staff, ATK+5), sells for 200en.
3 Small Fangs required for Dagger (Sword, ATK +9), sells for 250en.
1 Soft Hide required for Hide Ring (Accessory, DEF+1, Slash Resist Up 5%), sells for 310en.
We've got enough money to buy everyone their fourth piece of armour. I probably should've gone for the Leaf Boots, but I thought I'd need 5, forgetting that Gerson is already stocked fully on armour. The +1 AGI is whatever, but it's still an alright stat, so might as well give everyone boots later on.
Goodnight everyonzzzzz ... Huh, fell asleep on the stairs. No matter, she's in my room anyway. Inn stays are the sum of your FIRST FOUR party members' level x 2. Sure, this means you can put level 1s in your first four slots to only make it 8en, but eh, cba with that. Is it a bug, is it intentional? Who knows man, all I know is, next time, we'll finish up the first floor. I don't know why they did this, but it got changed to a more sensible formula in the later games. (Highest Leveled party member x 5.) gee a character using medic 2 for a portrait falling asleep out of nowhere and someone having to carry her back to her inn room WHERE HAVE I HEARD THIS BEFORE i'm joking