Part 28: Occul Riverbed

Update 28: Occul Riverbed



Welcome back! Last time we fought through some caves. This time we’ll be heading underneath a riverbed to plant some explosives and drain the Temple.



We pop in to our party examining the tunnels.



There’s a loud rumbling sound.

I don’t like the sound of that.
These weird tremors are going to make setting the device risky.



Another, louder rumble.

Listen! I think something’s coming.



A giant face appears in one of the side tunnels.



It suddenly lunges out towards Anadine and she’s only barely able to get out of the way.



It pulls back into the tunnel.



And appears near Kyrie!

Unbelievable! We need to eliminate that creature before I can set the explosives!



Another one then appears in the lower tunnel!

Better and better.




Another defeat all foes mission, but this time with a twist.



We can have 6 people this time, so I’m bringing Kyrie, Mongo, Bobby, Sophia, Eustace, and Azure. To do this one you really want a mix of status infliction abilities, status cures, and then good burst damage, which this group should be able to do.






The reason we want status infliction abilities is because these 2 Earthwyrms are bulky as heck. While it is possible to down them normally, statuses like bleed and poison do flat percentages of their max health which means a lot of damage. They do have a passive that cuts any percentage damage by half, and then another that cuts the damage in half of any attack that doesn’t take facing into account. So Heavy Hit is another option, but it will only be doing about 8% per hit instead of the 33% it’d do normally so it falls off pretty quickly.

There are also a few Tangrels around, but they’re definitely secondary threats compared to the wyrms.



Azure opens up the fight by just plinking at one of the wyrms.



The Earthwyrm uses its turn to hit Kyrie with an attack that does some damage and attempts to root her. Luckily for me, the debuff does not proc.




I have Mongo, Sophia, and Bobby start bullying the Tangrel in the corner, making sure to stay out of the line directly in front of the wyrm.



Meanwhile Eustace starts dealing with the other Tangrel.



After some more attacks from the party, Sophia takes down the first Tangrel.



Bobby attempts to make one of the wyrms bleed, but it doesn’t proc.



Eustace comes through and does manage to poison the other wyrm though.



The Earthwyrm uses the rooting attack again, and this time it does root her.



Which showcases the gimmick for the wyrms. Whenever they manage to root a target, they immediately prepare to do this Loco Rush attack. Loco Rush is a 1 turn delayed attack that hits everything in a line in front of the wyrm for a ton of damage. So, you also need a way to cure status effects or just to be immune to rooting entirely.



Azure uses her turn to let Kyrie move to safety.



Going again, Bobby manages to bleed a wyrm and then dualcasts it to bleed the remaining Tangrel.



Azure finishes off the Tangrel.



Even though no one’s there, the wyrm still rushes out, and then uses a new whiplash move.



Rather than do damage, whiplash summons a new Tangrel. They will do this every single time they rush out, so if you’re not careful then you can get overwhelmed by Tangrels. Either from the damage they do, or by being pushed into the path of the wyrms.



You can only target the head of the wyrms, so they can also block you in to small spaces. Mongo goes over and whacks it in the face with his shield.



Kyrie also goes and poisons the other wyrm.



While it’s stuck out, all of my guys keep beating on the wyrm.



When suddenly, the game gives me a message that something is going to happen in those squares. Judging by the name, I’ll bet it won’t be good.

Be careful everyone! Something big is coming.

And to hammer the point in, Kyrie makes sure to warn you as well.



After getting whacked out of the way, Kyrie starts working on the new Tangrel. Bobby and Sophia do the same.



The Earthwyrm, now hurting a bit, pulls back and uses an attack that does no damage but debuffs all defensive stats. It does hit a small AOE, but only Eustace is in the way.



When the round ticks over, a gigantic version of one of the wyrms come flying through the ground. It does a ton of damage to the Tangrel that’d been sitting inside the AOE, killing it.



The new wyrm then takes its place in the remaining tunnel. It’s 2 squares wide and essentially has the same movepool as the basic Earthwyrms but with everything upgraded slightly.



Soon after, the other wyrm shoots out and summons another Tangrel. After a burst of attacks, Mongo takes it out before it can even take a turn.



The Earthwyrm Queen uses its turn to show off its upgraded Quicksand move, which now hits in an AOE and has a higher chance to root. It does root Kyrie again, but because she’s not in front of the queen, the wyrm does not prepare a rush.



The weakened wyrm pulls back and weakens Kyrie.



But soon afterwards, it’s been weakened enough for Bobby to take it out.

With one wyrm down, the fight generally settles into a rhythm. The wyrms pop around, root people, charge, and summon ever more Tangrels, while my units do their best to stay out of harm’s way as the status effects do their work, chipping in as able, and take out any summoned enemies.



Just to show off the big one charging through. This nearly 1 shots that Tangrel sitting in front of it.



And it summons another Tangrel as well.



After a bit more time, Kyrie takes out the other little Earthwyrm.



And eventually Sophia deals the finishing blow to the Earthwyrm Queen as well.



Victory! No MVP this time, but that makes sense since this went on for so long.



Afterwards, we pop in to another cutscene.

We’ll want to make haste once the charge is set. We should have plenty of time, but the farther away we are when this thing goes off, the happier I’ll be!



Reiner sets a large pile of explosives up.

It is done. Now let’s move! On the double!



And we’re popped back out to the world map. Notably, Occul Cavern has turned red again, meaning that there’s another fight. However, we’ll be pausing the action here. Next time we’ll be fleeing the impending massive explosion!