Part 55: Tower of Valni 8: The Bravest Little Phantom

Did I say morning? I clearly meant to say this afternoon.

Tower of Valni 8: The Bravest Little Phantom



Here we are at the last floor of the Tower, and if you recognized Floor 7, this configuration might also seem familiar.



Yes sir, it's a redesigned Chapter 16x from FE6. If you recall, that stage had a very special gimmick to it, which also translates into this level as well. More on that in a little bit.



The boss of this stage is a little special, since he's a cyclops with a unique set of random drops. Rather than conventional cyclops, which tend to just drop axes (though they have some more valuable drops too), this guy has a number of rare items, including stat boosters and promotion items, and he's always guaranteed to have something, whereas normal cyclops might have nothing at all. In this case, he's got a Wind Sword, which he had a 2.75% chance of having. More commonly, he'd have something like an Angelic Robe or a Dragonshield, since they've got a 15% chance of appearing, but I'm glad that the game decided to throw me a bone here.



And speaking of that, we've also got a couple of rare goodies in the enemy lineup. A Brave Lance is especially nice, since it only has a 0.15% chance of appearing.




For this final stage of the Tower, we've brought our terrifying masters of the arcane and Artur. Not a bad selection, since we've got a gorgon with Shadowshot and a bunch of low-resistance targets.

And who will be accompanying this team of magicians through the final stretch? After the immense success we've had with our guests thus far, this ought to be good.






...You're kidding me, right? Saleh's several levels behind Selena Fluorspar, and his stats are almost identical. We had to go through the Tower three times for this? That Bolting tome of hers, her trademark weapon, would tank her speed down to almost nothing if she tried to use it. This is such a disappointment.



Whatever. Let's get this party started.



This cyclops here is the one with the Tomahawk. I've an idea for how to grab it without him switching, but we'll need to nudge his health down a bit.



Like so.



This isn't exactly conducive to Knoll getting experience from summoning...



But it's just so amusing to watch.



At this point though, I make a bit of a serious mistake, wasting Bolting shots when I should have been saving it.



I mean honestly, I don't need to kill these guys in one shot. Two blasts of fire would have done it just fine.



And heck, considering that Lute popped a crit, I probably could have done it in one.



Saleh's not as good as Lute or Knoll, I'll admit it, but when you've got four units all fielding staves in addition to their magic, who really cares?



You did good, little guy. Real good.



And letting the Phantom live frees up Knoll to run wild on the enemies.



To think that at one time, I was going to just leave him out to dry.



And here's the level's gimmick. After Turn 3, a bolt of light strikes down in the right-most stairway, and then switches to the left stairway next turn, alternating between the two of them. This pattern will repeat itself turn after turn, which is unfortunate, since we actually have to go up those stairs.

Oh well, could be worse. FE6's version would also shoot down through the middle area. Besides, all that happens is that you lose 10 HP if it hits you.



Most of the enemies on this level will be content to wait for you to get close, but a few will be daring enough to come at us.



Their mistake, although to be honest, I was hoping for Artur to claim that.



Alas, all lucky streaks must come to an end. Still, he seems to be surviving a lot longer lately.



And another wasteful use of Excalibur. Legendary weapons don't exactly grow on trees (unless I want them to do so ).



You might notice that I'm using a lot of Shine. That's because I'm trying to get an Ivaldi user besides Riev.



That is, if Saleh wants to improve.



I love the Phantom. I never realized before how indispensable a disposable minion would be.





Especially when he refuses to be disposed of.



No surprise that he's doing better though. Guy's gotten a lot faster and luckier.



Look at those hit chances. Just look at them. Our Phantom buddy has come so far.



So here's why wasting a Bolting tome is problematic.



I was banking on being able to double the thing to death, but now I'm going to have to keep Artur back, or risk having him get blown to bits.



In the meantime, let's clear out the monsters so everyone but the Phantom can get out of range.



If Selena's not-so-impressive stats weren't enough of an issue, being on a horse also makes her vulnerable to these guys.

But speaking of effective damage, wasn't I supposed to be showing something off? Something about wind magic...



Yeah, if it wasn't abundantly clear, I'd completely forgotten to hack in this weapon here, so let's try it out on a hapless random monster instead.



Alacalibur, or Aircalibur, is a B rank anima tome with a weight of 2 and the might of a Thunder tome. As wind magic is traditionally wont to do, it's effective against fliers. Why was it cut? Who can say, but I'd posit that it's because the animation looks...kinda bad, really. Also, when you cast it, it does a similar thing to a Silence tome, cutting all noise off entirely, and for whatever reason, it's got a ballista as its icon, rather than the wind tome icon that was already in FE6, so I'm going to say that it was removed fairly early in development.



And that's why, even without the Phantom, getting past the gorgon isn't too bad.



Especially with Selena as the designated healer.



Like master...



Like minion.



And with that, the Shadowshot threat is neutralized.



Now then...did the bolt strike on the left or the right side last time?



Heh, I am such an idiot sometimes.



I'll be sending everyone up the left side, since the wight with the Brave Lance is waiting right at the top of the right stairs, but I still need to clear out everyone on the lower area.



Well, it's defense, right?



Selena and Lute are almost ready to put the finishing touches on this chapter.



Though in this case, our master magician can take the lead.



Nasty thing about these side corridors is that, even if you start right from the bottom, you won't make it in time to avoid a bolt of light to the face if you're not promoted. But that's what Rescuing is for.



I will say one thing for the Bolting tome: it made it so I didn't have to risk getting stoned.



Taking an almost guaranteed crit from that would not be a picnic. No sir.



Not that she'd have to worry about being hit too much, especially now that she's capped her speed.



Had to open my mouth.



Speaking of speed, how's our favorite underling coming along?



Ooh, Void can now use Devil Axes. That's nice.



Much like the cash awards from before, this Blue Gem is guaranteed. Why don't they just give you the money? I don't know, maybe for the same reason that they didn't give you a Chest Key on this level.



Regardless, the Brave Lance is ours too. That, plus the Tomahawk, will come in handy when we rise to tougher challenges.



If you've got the Devil Axe, you might as well take advantage of it. Brute power like that doesn't come every time.



And with a little encouragement from Selena...



I can finally get Artur a level.



Hey, with you and Marisa finally getting attack power, there might be hope for you folks yet.



And that's it! We've done the entire Tower.



At the end, we can see our stats for this run and our best overall record. Most of these are self-explanatory except for the units used. That's just a sum total of how many units we deployed in every floor. Since I went through the Tower the first three times by using Myrrh with infinite Dragonstones, 8 is the lowest we're going to get.

Next Time: We take a break from dungeon crawling to explore a map not seen in the story campaign.

Extras:



Selena
Class: Mage Knight
Weapon Ranks: A in anima, B in staff
Affinity: Thunder

HP: 38 (85%) Lck: 10 (25%)
Mag: 13 (40%) Def: 11 (20%)
Skl: 13 (55%) Res: 17 (30%)
Spd: 16 (40%) Con: 6

I don't know what they were thinking with Selena here. Sure, Riev had pretty low magic too, but he's a Bishop, and all the rest of his stats were just fine. She's an okay unit, I'll admit, but as far as rewards for going through a dungeon three times go, she's not that great.