Part 37: Five Fools or One Chilly Billy?
Part 36: Five Fools or One Chilly Billy?
One Chilly Billy.
You all wrapped up warm? Good, cause today we're taking on the second hardest dragon. Mainly because there's additional stuff to it so it's more interesting to cover first.
He told them about a vast space surrounding a small island on the 15th floor. It could be that's where the blue dragon lives. But no one's found a way there from the 15th floor... you may have to search another floor. The Radha's investigating the 14th floor, but they don't have enough men to search the 16th. It could be a fool's errand, but I'd like to ask you kids to investigate the 16th floor. There's no guarantee the path to the dragon is there... but be very careful anyway.
Alright everyone, get ready, we're going dragon hunting!
Yes, sir!
Oh yeah, that's that GOOD shit!
Please don't make it weird.
I'm letting you borrow it, but BE GENTLE! It's a first edition! Oh yeah, that's that GOOD shit! The level we're attempting this dragon is frankly ridiculous, but it's perfectly possible without Immunize... since you're, uh, seeing this right now. You sure about that...?
It's even possible to do all the dragons without a Protector! But uhhh, I wouldn't recommend doing that unless you are a crazy person.
Everyone's kitted out as best as they can, so let's get going. There is one important thing I was missing, but we'll go over it soon enough.
The Withered Forest
How did we only just find this now? We surely mustn't have needed to come this way until now! Let's roll with that instead of saying we completely overlooked it.
This postgame exclusive area is... weird. Like there's no way to get to it before taking the quest but there's nothing to really indicate that until right at the end. After all, we're dodging SICKWOODS! They're also just patrolling around normally with no interest in us. You know, completely opposite to how they've been throughout the game.
B16F C1 Mine Point
Hard Shard. 50% chance. Sells for 70en.
3 required for Ebon Aspis (Shield, DEF+10)
5 required for Breaker (Axe, ATK+151)
3 required for Under construction
Steel Chip. 25% chance. Sells for 86en.
1 required for Steelsword (Sword, ATK+125)
1 required for Blade Whip (Whip, ATK+115)
3 required for Brigandine (Light Armor, DEF+32)
3 required for Ebon Aspis (Shield, DEF+10)
5 required for Godendag (Staff, ATK+99, HP+19)
5 required for Shida (Katana, ATK+149)
5 required for Wyvernmail (Heavy Armor, DEF+26, All Resist Up 5%)
7 required for Flame Boot (Footwear, DEF+6, AGI+9)
5 required for Under construction
Cullinan. 20% chance. Sells for 350en.
1 required for Royal Ring (Accessory, DEF+1, Bind Resist Up 15%)
50 required for Adamas (Accessory, DEF+6, Physical Resist Up 15%, must be restocked)
1 required for The diamond charm
Turns out I was lying when I said we were done with gathering points. We'll never be free of them...
Somehow I feel stronger from that fight. The enemies are completely pathetic at this point. Even the other secret area we visited not long ago had 5th stratum enemies, come on game! Anyway, Smite deals 260% damage and has a 20% base Head Bind chance. That's good. But he won't be able to use it during these battles much for obvious reasons. That's bad. But it does more damage with the Pain Shield. That's good. The Pain Shield contains potassium benzoate. ...that's bad. Can I go now? Please use an actual shield when playing the games yourself. The Pain Aspis isn't worth it.
I don't like sand. We know dear...
It gets everywhere, even though I'm a perfect sphere!
Uh, cool postgame item. I'm also glad I can wipe the encounter orb, I'm already completely over these random battles. The DS EOs are...generally really bad about making threatening random encounters aside from, like, throwing five Gorezards at you. Or three Gorezards and two Oldcrabs. That's not really threatening so much as battles that never. Fucking. End. But that's a tale for another time! (Also EO2 has plenty of actually threatening random encounters, good gravy.)
You prep to fight an ice dragon... you have to traipse through the desert... ooh I'm getting dizzy. I don't see what the problem is.
???
Unfortunately this padding isn't even the worst part of the secret area.
The further we travel through this area, the more Sickwoods start chasing us. This one was aggroing on us before we even really got to it.
But again, it's a SICKWOOD!
But hey, that's finally the entirety of B16F! We're not seeing the rest of the Sickwoods coming after us since I still have the walls cheat on even though I don't need it. Whoops! The Thousand Year Old Blue Woodlands
I'm getting that feeling of dread. Perhaps the biggest enemy we face... is man. No, wait, I meant the labyrinth.
Enemies are still whatever. Just 4th Stratum enemies, but by the time you get access to this place, they really should be nothing. Man, seeing these enemies in environments they weren't meant to be in is surreal. It's kind of a shame you don't really see that past this game.
So yeah, this area fucking blows, it's a bunch of square rooms with water in the middle and a bunch of doors. Boring layout, boring enemies, it's a pretty low point we haven't seen in a while, since the postgame stratum is always low no matter what.
DOORS
You'll see the entire layout when we're done, so I'll just skip around, especially since I'm ignoring encounters.
I think we've been spoiled previously~
Aside from dead ends, it is cool when you snake back round to a previous room, but this is mostly padding for the boss fight. B15F just isn't a real floor no matter how you try to spin it.
Hmm, I thought something would come out, but I guess I was mistaken. Let's carry on then, these weak enemies are spoiling my mood. The only indication this is a postgame area is that, in the final two rooms, if you spend more than 2 turns in a battle, a Teralich will spawn. Yeah, bit of a jump, but since I have the cheat on, the game isn't tracking where I'm physically walking! Oh well, I wasn't going to fight them anyway.
That's all there is, so onto the main show!
The Drake, master of blizzards towers before you! Have you the courage to challenge this fiend? If so, then step forth!
Now this is what I've been waiting for! It's definitely i-intimidating. But my burning passion is too bright for this fiend! Oh right, that's just my spells charging. No, no, don't turn pale, you're doing great! Wagner, dragon slayer, fits doesn't it?~ We shall all be dragon slayers when this creature lays at our feet! Charge!!!
Hey, wait, I'm not-
-ready... at least let me get a shield up next time! But-but my honour! THIS is why you get the anti-skills. The only way to avoid this otherwise is Immunize and then Ice Mist or the Troubadour's elemental buffs, not to be confused with the imbues. But you'll want Anticold for this fight for a very important reason. Well, two, since this attack can also Head Bind, but when using Anticold, that won't be a factor. You can survive overkill elemental attacks with similar strategies in EOU and EO2U, but, well... Let's just say you can't expect to live very long after that if you don't bring a Protector anyway. Say hi to a series tradition. BRING THE TANK CLASS TO THE POSTGAME OR DIE HORRIBLY! They pretty much have the anti-elemental skills, which are pretty much required for fights like these. Scatter About
Oh mama that seems dangerous! Ever get the feeling we're in way over our heads? All the time, Ryu. Say bye to Scatter About, because this is one of the last times you get to hear this song. It's an oddly underused song in EO1. I didn't even notice that only Drake gets this track out of the dragons and I play with the sound on!
Drake
Level: 70
HP: 35000
STR: 540
VIT: 164
AGI: 142
LUC: 68
TEC: 136
EXP: 0
Skills
Frigid: Uses the Head. An Ice attack that deals 900% damage to the entire party and attempts to inflict Head Bind. Has a 50% infliction chance, a 90% accuracy modifier and an 80% speed modifier.
Icelance: Uses the Arms. A Stab and Ice attack that deals 165% Stab damage and 100% Ice damage to a single target. Has a 95% accuracy modifier and a 250% speed modifier.
0 Point: Uses the Arms. An Ice attack that deals 130% damage to the entire party and attempts to inflict Instant Death. Has a 50% infliction chance, a 90% accuracy modifier and a 50% speed modifier.
Iceblock: Uses the Legs. Reduces all damage resistances to 1% for 5 turns. Has a 200% speed modifier.
Regen: Uses the Head. Recovers 1750HP for 5 turns. Has a 100% speed modifier.
Damage Vulnerabilities
75% 
75% 
75%
150% 
0% 
75%Disable Vulnerabilities
1% 
10% 
0%
10% 
10% 
10%Drops
Normal: Frost Bone. 65% chance. Sells for 8000en.
1 required for Hisamemaru (Katana, ATK+229, Elem: Ice, must be restocked)
Rare: Ice Scale. 5% chance. Sells for 13,000en.
1 required for Shinryuu (Ultimate Sword, ATK+250, All Stats +20, must be restocked)
Conditional: None
Welcome to the postgame, here's a terrifying enemy. The dragons are not to be trifled with, they are, or at least two of them are, very dangerous to fight and will easily pick you apart without any trouble. The first and biggest hurdle are their breath attacks, it's the strongest attack in the game and it should be completely blocked, since only reducing its damage makes you susceptible to Head Bind. The next in the bullshit arsenal is 0-Point. It's basically Frigid, but comes with a nasty ID side effect. Remember when I said the anti skills were bugged to nullify all aspects of an attack? This is the most useful aspect of that bug, since you were supposed to level them up all the way, free healing after all, and then have someone unexpectedly die from this skill. Thankfully we can ignore all that, or we'd be in a lot of trouble, especially from the chance of a Head Bind from Frigid, since that'll stop Ryu and Wagner. We still have the other awful attacks, though, Icelance is a composite attack, woah! But only the Ice aspect of it is blocked, so someone will die when they get tagged by it, since Gerson has to spam Anticold every turn, since while Frigid is used every 4 turns, 0-Point has no such restriction and we cannot survive that attack either. Finally, Iceblock means you have to bring an Erasure Troubadour, or you'll be having a miserable time, while Regen is also annoying, but we do more damage than it recovers. Still, it's a lot of health regen that you need to stop, it's a quarter of its fucking health bar after 5 turns and we cannot let it get that back or we'll be here for a long time. So overall, bit of a bitch, but if we get lucky, we can pull through no problem. The dragons keep a lot of their core gimmicks from game to game, though tertiary gimmicks like Iceblock get shifted around every now and then. In EOU, Iceblock is a one-turn damage reflector in addition to being a damage nullifier. So that's fun. So you're pretty much forced to 4 man the dragon fights, because your Protector should be doing nothing but spamming the respective Anti skill. Also say hi to bullshit that we were saved from thanks to mistakes. 0 Point has no counters! Or at least, wasn't intended to have any. It was supposed to be able to pierce Anticold, but due to the attack nullification glitch at level 5 the Anti skills have, this fight goes from completely fucking bullshit to manageable. How were supposed to deal with 0 Point otherwise? You weren't. EO1's post-game fucking hates you. Also it resists all physical damage because fuck you. Also if you have a Hexer, they can shut down some of Drake's buffs. Frailty will nullify Iceblock, while Relapse will nullify Regen. So there's something to keep in mind in the extremely unlikely event that you brought a Hexer along. How are you supposed to know about those interactions? Iceblock reduces resistance percentages, which I guess is technically a DEF boost, and it does use green light for an animation, but Relapse reduces an enemy's AILMENT RECOVERY, why is it affecting regen skills??? Oh whatever, I guess that's programming limitations, or a quick way to code them.
Obviously everyone has their part to play, though Lavin will get screaming in a minute. Since this is far from my first attempt at the fight, I have a nice little RNG path at the beginning, you just kinda fall into them.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I've never been more in love.
Hey, if you want some physical defense, then get singing! Ugh, don't remind me about Shelter, it was a smash hit, but man it was safe dreck~ Yeah, uh, forget about surviving Icelance, that's just a regular attack, fucking hell. Drake has a whopping 540 STR, so his attacks hurt! Also the back row in this game barely reduces damage, so if he decides to target a backliner, they're done.
Ooh, what a tune... I feel so peaceful... my mind is clear... to MURDER MORE!!! Well, I tried~ Honestly, I haven't bothered with Relaxing this LP, but it is a super important skill if you want to save money on Amritas, or just feel like taking a break and grinding against some weak enemies. We'll be needing it this battle.
Don't think I'm just a pretty face! With Gerson doing his defending and everyone's ATK all buffed up, we're doing about 2000 damage per turn, which is pretty legit.
I'm only able to do this because I know it's coming, but since Wagner isn't doing much, spamming Erasure isn't a bad idea.
Important to note is Frigid is used every 4 turns... unless Iceblock is used beforehand, then it'll always use Regen... until it goes below half health, then it has a chance of doing Icelance or 0-Point. So right now, Gerson is fine to attack, but later, he'll be spamming Anticold like usual. The Protector tax is something all parties have to pay for these fights. It's a thankless job, and the Protector can't do much aside from preventing their party from dying to bullshit, but it's an important job.
And this! Is to go! Even further beyond!!! I'm refreshing War Cry early since you need to put buffs up every 4 turns and doing so during the safe turn of Frigid is a real way to keep track of both counters. Forgetting about either is NOT AN OPTION!
Well this is awkward. I don't like ice. Things were going a bit too smoothly, eh? Only thing we can do is revive Wagner and pray to heck that Drake doesn't kill him again before he gets Erasure off.
You need a stronger tune, its ice is still knitting it back together! It's a work in progress! Thankfully we've got a Frigid turn to recover from, but here's my biggest mistake, Erasure is level 1, not level 3, so it only removes 1 buff at a time. This is pretty annoying, but since it removes the oldest buff, I'm happy so long as it removes Iceblock. Kinda. This is the most important fight I would consider using 2 buff Erasure for, there's not many reasons for it otherwise.
Gotta make sure my gloves don't overheat... at least it's FUCKING FREEZING! See, despite the jostling and the weird shit you shove down here, at least I'm warm. Not that I feel the cold anyway, but, well, I'm just here to boost your spirits! You can win, uh, whatever your names are!
Alright we're getting there, but, uh... *squints* I think it's still above half health, so I'll let Gerson attack.
It's an Ice attack, why didn't you block that one! I thought you had it. Nawwwwwwwww~ Well... at least we got rid of Iceblock.
And hey, we've got a Frigid turn, so let's get rid of Rege-
FOR FUCK'S SAKE Ahhh, gotta love turns where a party member dies after they get resurrected.
Ugh, digging myself out of this avalanche each time is really wearing me out! Alright, it's time to stop.
At least we have a Frigid turn to refresh buffs and get ready for the final push. See, everything's peach-
ALL OF MY HATE!!!
Since Regen was still up, I still attacked with everyone so we're still doing something, so now we're buff desynced. It's what happens when a battle starts approaching 30 turns.
Alright, have had quite enough of this! Watch this drive~ Going Iceblock into Icelance is pretty fucking mean, but since it did Iceblock again, we can wipe it no problem.
Oh hey, wasn't Gerson the only reason we're still alive? Why yes, he was, actually. Oh dear. If this had happened a turn before Frigid, we would've wiped, no question. Also could've used 0-Point then, but I'll happily take Wagner dying! Uh, sorry Wagner. He's fine with it, I'm sure.
Hm? Wha? Oh right, the thing I was doing.
See, just go for Regen or 0-Point after Iceblock, there's no need for Icelance... you fuck!
Win, you fools. Oh no, I never told you how I felt! Oh wait, I did like a couple of weeks ago, I'm just so used to the will they, won't they aspect of our relationship. We only have 1 Nectar left, surprisingly I've used a lot, so we'll save it for Gerson or Wagner.
Alright, we all know what's coming next! Be inspired towards victory! Hyah! Alright, Aryll, it's on you!
I shall henceforth be known as Dragon Slayer Aryll!!! One down... two to go. The other fights thankfully don't suck as much as Drake. Though if the game engine worked properly, one of those fights probably would have been far worse. Thank goodness for those bugs, huh?
Unbelievable, you did it! Gaha... ha... no doubt... about it... okay even that hug is crushing! I'm so glad you're okay! Uh... because... the less you need to be healed, the less I have to do! Y-Yeah... R-Right... I knew that... I just thought... that you, uh, well... n-never mind...
Riveting. At least those stupid floors are done with. What a waste.
We get this sweet cash and I didn't have to dress for the cold. Perfect!
I'm surprised by all these dreadful monsters, but also by how strong you've become. I'll report your victory to Radha Hall. I bet you're exhausted... here, have some tea and relax a while. Ah f-f-f-f-finally, I'm f-f-f-f-freezing! I wonder why! Oh, not that I mind~
1 Frost Bone is required for Hisamemaru (Katana, ATK+229, Elem: Ice, must be restocked), sells for 76,000en
Unfortunately the elemental weapons we get for beating the dragons ain't great since they only output in that specific element with a regular attack. Using a skill, or even using an imbue, replaces the element with the other one, so there's no funny stuff you can try with these. They can be nice little damage boosts, but otherwise don't have other stats, so it's whatever. However, this is effectively the best Katana the Ronin can get, so if you're using one, you'll want to snag this for them. With that small diversion out of the way, next time, we go half-mad from self doubt!