The Let's Play Archive

Etrian Odyssey

by Crosspeice

Part 33: Smackdown ft. whatshisface (Guild Edda VS Etreant)

Part 32: Smackdown ft. whatshisface (Guild Edda VS Etreant)



...we, uh, ready to go?

Someone's acting like a fifth wheel~

Well... we did say everyone should get a chance to fight him.

THERE WERE ONLY NINE STRAWS, how did he draw the tenth one? That also happened to be the shortest one?

At least Gerson isn't that upset, but yeah, I have noooooo idea how that happened.

Do you not have a weapon? Or armour?

...you guys sold it months ago. Haven't needed it anyway.

Riveting, well stay out of our way or you'll doom us all.

I can't wait to see how quickly you'll die.

This is the party we'll be using to take down the final boss. And yes, we are using someone from the gathering party. Firstly, this is what the thread voted, so it's not my fault, but secondly, he'll be instrumental to beating the final boss. I'm being 100% serious, this boss is very dangerous without the right strategy.

wwe joke

This is sure gonna be a sight, I'll tell you that!




We could've unlocked this earlier, you don't have to go in just yet, but remember the Card Key we got 5 floors ago? It's been in our inventory this entire time and it'll stay there. So, of course, with the Warp Wire being a mainstay, we're up to 6 items in our inventory we cannot remove.

Ah, the joys of not having a dedicated backpack for key items. At least this was one of the first mistakes they corrected for EO2.



Oh... this is...

Remarkable, simply remarkable!~

I can only wonder how this all works.

So this is the Labyrinth's secret...

Neat.

Red and Black



This power was called science. Mankind gained dominion over nature and life itself. But humanity's technology also cast a dark shadow over its future. Their forecasts and projections increasingly showed their own imminent demise. In destroying the environment, humans were making their own habitat unlivable. The danger was realized too late, and billions died in the resulting climate change. Mankind faced extinction, but there were those who refused to give up, and kept fighting. The Yggdrasil Project was formed to augment and restore nature with human technology. Named for the mythological tree of life, the project hoped to purify the contaminated earth.

Its lead researcher worked tirelessly, collecting data to contribute to the project. But all the while, the deaths continued. The researcher lost his teammates, and soon after that, his wife and child... but he never gave up. He continued his research. At long last, he was able to synthesize a compound that would heal the land. But his experiments showed that a full recovery would still take thousands of years. To see the Yggdrasil Project through would take more time than mankind had left. The despairing researcher considered his options. As the last researcher alive, he felt an obligation to see the culmination of their work. In order to finish the job, the researcher took Yggdrasil's power into himself... he relinquished his humanity to be forever fused with the great World Tree.




I am Yggdrasil's guardian; the only survivor of my era. I led the project to revive the earth, and I now serve as the gods' executor. Adventurers, you know now the mysteries of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth. Alas, these secrets are too delicate to be let out of their cage down here. I bear you no malice, but I cannot allow you to leave the Labyrinth alive. In dying, let your blood fertilize the land! Live forever within Yggdrasil!

betcha didn't expect EO1 to realize that our world is completely fucked, did ya

Throne of Creation VS Etreant



Well he doesn't half run his mouth. But that doesn't excuse what you've done since saving the world!

What a wealth of knowledge you must be, it is such a waste to squander it making puppets out of adventurers and forest folk alike!~

Gonna bash your skull in. Real hard.

My masters would love to do nothing but live our their days in your branches!

I am completely lost.

me too, gathering guy


Etreant

Level: 56
HP: 18000
STR: 470
VIT: 160
AGI: 115
LUC: 65
TEC: 130

EXP: 30000

Skills
Thorns: Uses the Arms. Stab attack that deals 100% base damage to 2-4 random targets. Has a 90% accuracy modifier and a 50% speed modifier.
Cyclone: Uses the Legs. Bash attack that deals 125% damage to the entire party. Has a 90% accuracy modifier and a 50% speed modifier.
Inferno: Uses the Head. Fire attack that deals 110% damage to a single target, recovers HP equal to damage dealt and attempts to inflict Instant Death. Has a 50% infliction chance, a 100% accuracy modifier and a 100% speed modifier.
Twigs: Uses the Arms. Nullifies all physical damage for 1 turn. Has a 300% speed modifier.
Growth: Uses the Head. Recovers 900HP at the end of each turn for 3 turns. Has a 100% speed modifier.
Resolve: Uses the Head. Removes all buffs from the entire party. Has a 10% speed modifier.
Bearing: Doesn't use a body part. Removes all binds from itself. Has a 10% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities
90% 90% 90%
100% 100% 100%

Disable Vulnerabilities
3% 10% 0%
50% 50% 50%

Drops
Normal: Shroud. 100% chance. Sells for 6666en.
1 required for Moss Coat (Clothing, DEF+35, Elemental Resist Up 20%)

Rare: None

Conditional: None

The final boss sure is something. You can probably see the two biggest attacks to worry about, but firstly, before we delve into every aspect of this boss, let's see how a regular player would approach this guy on first go.

Etreant in EOU is almost exactly the same except he lost Twigs because it sucked

10% physical resistances, because fuck you.



Firstly, there is no way in hell I'm going through that monologue again, sheesh.



Obviously, we're gonna need Immunize, this guy is fast and hits hard, so having 1st Turn back is just wonderful.



No question, he oneshots everyone on the team with a regular attack, aside from back row Gerson.



We'll go more into this in a moment. Notice how it doesn't actually reflect back damage, that would make things REAL tricky otherwise.



What is this light? It's... purifying the injections and removing them from our bloodstream?!

Branches, incoming!

Told ya we'd be doomed.



Ain't this fantastic.

The hell is this place?

Wha- you're here too?! I'm not crazy after all.

This is the gateway to the Reaverse for Canon Pairings! Go look at the new hotness. The Araxxoverse is also here, but it's smaller and used to be called the Fetu--

Whoa! Coooooool, new friends! What's up, everyone? My name's-

Faye! Wh-what did you just- I-! Gaaahhh!

Keep your universes out of ours, thank you very much!

Alright, cool, we're leaving now, have fun with whatever you're doing.

Aww...

None of this is canon anyway, I guess.

What's a cannon?

...Wait. None of this makes sense. Why does that site have a really moe version of me on it?!

Nyurm.

Eeeeeeeeeeee a fat cat!

I wanna pet it I wanna pet it I wanna pet it!

W-Wait your turn, Mio, lemme pet it!

ranger originally said mio's first line but i decided her saying that would fit better, despite all the space-time anomalies that'd have to happen for her to know about rhematic

Wasn't gonna bother with any of this nonsense myself at first, but I just couldn't resist after seeing "Fetusverse." (FYI, there is no such thing.)

Hell yeah crossovers.



Alright, let's try this again, from the top. The biggest issue with this fight is Resolve, which occurs when you have 5 or more buffs active and leads directly into Cyclone. If you can't get your defensive buffs back up before then, you're dead, or taking ridiculous amounts of damage that's very difficult to recover from.



This helps a lot, since with defensive measures, Etreant's attacks are perfectly survivable. Binding the head is the best way to get past Etreant, but there's also a few more methods.



Finally, wake me up when the story ends.

Uh, like that. Either having a 4 person party or just not reviving someone is enough to avoid Resolve, since you can reach 4 buffs and be perfectly fine. With Immunize, or a combination of Sapping, Defender, Shelter and F.Guard will let you take down the final boss with little trouble, he's not exactly a powerhouse otherwise.

I beat Etreant with a four person party on the one and only playthrough of EO1 I did.




But what if you don't want to bother with less party members and want to use your team regardless? Well, you can't without defensive measures put up before Etreant wipes you, but it is possible.



Quick aside, binding his head makes Etreant use Twigs or Inferno... the latter uses the head also. Thanks game!

Use a level 5 Antifire, and you're basically set for as long as that head bind lasts. And for a final boss, he sure isn't that resistant to binds.



BURNING JUSTICE~

Don't quit your day job.

Definitely need to keep everyone topped up, we're 2HKOed even through Immunize.



Oh I've missed this!

Honestly, all we need is a Survivalist and we deal enough damage, so being down a damage dealer is nothing.



Eventually Etreant will stop getting clowned on.



Uh, mostly. You guys voted for a really good team.



Honestly, this is just embarrassing. And I thought Gerson clowned on bosses!



Yeah, I guess I clown harder now, ehehe.



Alright, the head bind is gone, so Etreant starts being threatening again. Though when you have 5+ buffs up, it's a 50/50 chance he'll go for Resolve, otherwise he'll use Twigs and waste your time. Though hey, Apollon still goes before it.

This shit sucks and I'm glad games after EO2/EO3 stopped having bosses go completely apeshit when you have all of one Troubadour song in effect, Storm Emperor's stupid nonsense aside.

Eh, only 1 boss in EO2 went apeshit with a single Troubadour song. I don't really view buff dispels as bad, so long as the penalties aren't problematic. Of course, several penalties in the series are problematic, most likely due to a certain exploit in EO1 that they really did not want a repeat of. But that's a tale for a later time.



I mean, okay, whatever.

It's basically a free turn to keep topped up, or to lay down more buffs just for the hell of it.



Ugh, it's such a cold, slimy feeling having this all go awa- hm? That was fast.

When my masterpiece can be mass produced, that is when it becomes PERFECT!



Ah, 1st Turn Immunize, this is the easiest way of surviving Cyclone, who cares if your buffs are gone, just put them right back up. This also puts Etreant in a fun loop of constantly removing your buffs and then failing to kill you.

Ah, AI locks. They're really easy to pull off in the earlier games, where the later games started taking measures to snub those out.



They always forget about me, TO THEIR PERIL!

Having Sapping and 1st Turn Salve II is just icing on the cake. It's a shame that the final boss gets you like this, it makes Ronins really tricky and makes Axe Landys a bit mediocre, since they both have to keep refreshing their buffs. And Troubs can only really be used with Shelter, unless you can kill it with 4 member Bravery before it kills you. At least 1st Turn nets you some options, but I wish there was a better way to tackle this relatively tame final boss.

Axe Landys can at least still do things without buffs. Ronin on the other hand... yeah, they're basically screwed in this fight.

He's basically the same, but without the enrage behavior and Twigs, in EOU, and therefore a lot less frustrating to fight since you're not having to constantly work around his stupid easily-tripped enrage.



He can't really move while fused to the tree, but he's definitely dodging those squirrels.

Yeah, claw his eyes out!



We just need to push through all that HP. What a great team that deals damage, lays down debuffs and perfectly shows off both strategies to taking down this final boss. Honestly, HOW THE HELL DID YOU GUYS KNOW?!?!?! I was planning on taking whatever peeps you voted in and going, well they have no way of winning, and here's why, so here's the proper team you need to take, but you got it perfectly right first time, INCLUDING joke voting for gathering guy! It boggles the mind.



Oh whyyyyyy are we waaaaaaaitiiiiing~



And that's our buffs safe for the rest of the battle. So let's go over the rest of his attacks. Bearing is only used if he has two or more binds, which is very nice for us, stick with the head, or the arms if you're using a 4 party. When you're doing the fight properly and not triggering Resolve all the time, then Growth is used to recover a good chunk of health, leading into the various attacking skills the less HP he has, including Cyclone. Overall, a pretty simple boss, the main problem is getting around Resolve, due to how buff heavy boss fights usually are.




Maybe exploring the entire labyrinth wasn't the best idea, but despite all you've thrown at us, it seems we had to, so we could deal with a false god!

Frankly, the way you manipulated Etria and profiting off the labyrinth, including pitting us against the forest folk when we got too good, is just deplorable~

Despite what you've done before, I think the world is much better now. You're not needed anymore.

What is a god to a non-believer?



Yeah you tell him, uh, whatever your name is.



Blue and White










The Story of the Hero's Birth Continues




And that is a wrap. What a way to end the game. Thank you so much for reading this really fun LP from a series dear to my heart. I first played this game around 7 years ago, and while I used the guide pretty much all the way, I still had an absolute blast and moved onto each new game in the series. Of course, I'm acting like it's over, but it's not, oh no, this is all far from over.

For most players, this would be the stopping point. The amount of players that actually bother to tackle post-game is actually quite small.




Firstly, big massive thanks to my co-commentators, Ragnar Homsar (Rea) and Dr. Fetus (Araxxor) for being super swell peeps during these past few months while I've poked them endlessly with new pastebins and helping with all sorts of stuff. Their LPs are rad and you should read them, or again, if you already have.

Read my gay nonsense. Please.

i think mine got lost to time, so don't bother trying to read those.





More big thanks to those that submitted characters, as well as those who posted in the thread, voted and poked me about stuff on the Discord. This was my first time doing something like this and it was amazingly fun, I love all the characters in this LP, even if I didn't exactly know what to do with them to begin with and maybe boiled them down to their one or two traits. Still, I hope you had as much fun reading about these idiots stumbling through a labyrinth as I had writing about them.




Finally, I hope those waiting patiently for me to start my next Pokemon game also enjoyed this new series I'll definitely do more of in the future. This is the perfect game to LP, I feel, since some of it is batshit, most of it is bullshit and all of it is fantastic fun. What a dumb, wonderful game.



But next time... next time... the real Etrian Odyssey starts here. And this time, I mean it.

AHAHAHAHAAA! Oh stick around, it'll be a hoot!



Festival of Worship



Truthfully, it's such an outrageous story that I'm not sure I fully grasp it yet. Nevertheless, the Chieftain is gone... I'll have to think long and hard about Etria's future. It's long relied on people coming to solve the mysteries of the Labyrinth... what to do, now that there are no such mysteries left...? We'll have to account for that when planning for the future. But don't let me hold you back from discovering what still lies within the Labyrinth. I believe it's something that must be done... Anyway. I present you this, to show my gratitude for finding the truth about the Chieftain.



It proves that the Edda guild is home to the best adventurers in Etria. Hold your heads high, and continue your excellent work.

Ugh, it's not as stuffy in there, but at least they're off our backs.

I need a damn drink!



Gahaha, I knew you guys would do it!

Ah, that is... quite the crushing...

Only one person can hug me. It is not you.

You guys scared me to death when HE was picked to go, but at least there was no problem.

Of course there wasn't, I was there.

And I was especially there, though of course, he helped.

When we're all done teasing Lavin, easy that it is, it seems we're not done yet.

Of course, to leave with unfinished business is... well, you know.

I wasn't planning on going anywhere! We conquered the labyrinth, but there's still more to do, areas to explore, enemies to fight...



We're not leaving until we rake in all this cash. Should be nice and easy, right? But first, to celebrate our conquering of the labyrinth and our victory over Visil, a drink!

YEAH!

And how about some dinner later?

Ohohoho, w-well, if you're paying! I think we could enjoy some dessert after, if you know what I mean.

Ooh, let's also have dinner, ehehehe.

U-Uh, well, I mean... if you want... I'm not used to-

I think she means let's all have dinner, I'm starving!

How can you be hungry, you haven't done anything!

Well I'm sure labyrinth conquerors could get some service easily enough.

Wait, are we getting dinner, or dinner, cause I'm getting mixed messages from everyone.

I think I deserve a little more than that considering what I've been through!~

You'll get a nice meal and you'll like it.

Cheers, to guild Edda!

cheers

a toast to upcoming suffering.