Part 22: A Layman’s Guide To Cave Botany

Update 22: A Layman’s Guide To Cave Botany

You know, I’m done with the Fire Cave. The Fire Cave sucks. It’s full of bees and trolls and I hate it. So, this update’s going to be all about putting an end to it.



Donnel stands prepared.



egam is also prepared.



I started off clearing the opening area, little trouble there since this is about the 10th time I’ve done it. The Troll is laughably easy, but I usually take a hit or two from the two ants.



Here’s another great example of “i fucked up and forgot about Elemental Resistance”, egam’s Fireball is doing a whopping 1 damage to this Ignis. Thankfully, I was wrong, Ignis can’t cure themselves like the Shindra.



So, I found a pretty good strategy for dealing with annoying enemies like these Queen Bees. Rush the spawner…



Screen transition.



Oh look, they’re gone. Admittedly it’s a little cheap, but I reserve the right to cheat in case of Beemergencies.



Defeating the Titan near where we found Cecilia comes with a welcome Level Up. That’s a full HP refill.



So, a new fun fact about Medication and how it rules, it’s apparently an AOE. So egam also got cleansed of poison, and healed for 80!



I used the screen transition trick on this Ignis as well. Remember that just the spawner has to go down to count towards opening the final door.



Since it occurs to me I haven’t showed off what’s up here yet, it’s more farm space. Surprise.



There’s also a Beetle spawner. These guys are still pretty nonthreatening, most melee creatures will be for the rest of the game.



To the East, another fire wall. Out comes the Watering Can.



Another trapped room!




And a new foe. Meet the Minotaur. This guy is weird, this is his only appearance in the whole game, no recolors or anything. He’s got a hard hitting physical blow, but that’s...about it.



He took out egam, though.



Still, no match for some careful positioning.



He was guarding some more rocks, and fields. This is a dead end.



Since I’m out of RP, I thought this might be a good time to Sleeping Bag it back.



This is still kind of a weird place for the Save Point.



Next up I cleared the eastern half of the cave, same stuff I did in Update 19. Trolls, Ants, and a Beetle. Nothing too exciting.

Also took the opportunity to refill my can, not that I ended up needing it here.



Then I got lost for way too long.



The spot I missed was north of the Save Point. There’s a northern exit to that room I forgot about. Yeah, the cave design in Rune Factory can get a little mazey.



EMPLOY THE BEE STRAT



Oh, just another Titan. Not much to worry about.



There was a gate here. But it just melted away when I got close. Guess that means we’re done?



But I want to do some prep work before this next boss. So it’s back to town for now.



Escape kinda rules.



First off, getting the keys from the villagers we don’t have yet.



After a brief stop at Leo’s to pick up some new hardware. This is the Flame Saber, a Claymore type weapon. The next boss is weak to Fire.



It’s got a slightly different moveset from the Wind Sword. Pressing B once slams it down.



Two rapid presses makes Donnel give an uppercut afterwards. It’s slow, so I don’t like it as much as the Wind Sword, but having two weapons on hand never hurt anyone in this game. Plus, it shreds this next boss.



First up, Jean. It has to be Jean, Rosetta has nothing for you.

: You can grow up to Level 10 crops in your field. But rumor has it some people have seen level 100 crops! Don’t ask me how that’s accomplished, though.

Huh. Well, that sounds tedious. Just a guess.









Neumann changes inventory with each season. Now he’s selling Pineapples.

Oddly enough, Camus didn’t give me a key. I guess since he doesn’t live at his farm, there’s no point going there at night.



Emmett’s at the church on Mondays, since the pub doesn’t open.



Wesley I’ve been here like twice.





Here’s the real treasure.



So, Tabatha has something special here, a new conversation. I’m not sure how many villagers do this, but once you get her FP high enough, this triggers.





This doesn’t even make sense after this conversation.

: Tabatha, even though you are human, you always refer to people as “humans”. Isn’t that a little strange?


: Oh, didn’t I tell you? I’m an elf.


: What?

Elves exist?


: It’s not the norm, but I’m working in the human world.

: I never would’ve guessed!


: That’s because I usually keep my ears covered!

Oh. The hat is practical.


: I’m surprised…


: I’m sorry I surprised you. Even now you know I’m an elf, I hope we can still get along.


: Yes, of course we can.



How did that sneak in here? Rune Factory!



I don’t think the “Tabatha is an elf” thing ever really gets brought up or matters again. But, I mean, it’s there. Maybe elves are a bigger thing in future RF games.



So this is what I really want, this is required to advance Neumann’s sidequest, which is one of the longer and more involved ones.



I got Edward to make me a potion as well, just in case of emergencies.



Also, this next boss can inflict Seal, so a couple of these might just save my ass.



One good night’s rest later, I’m headed back to Clemens.



The nice thing here is that once the gate has unlocked, it is forever unlocked. Meaning I could just rush to the boss room here and ignore the spawners and monsters entirely.



...Huh.





Oh, Mist is here too.



Hey, only one person is allowed to do a surprise walk on at a time!





: I doubt that anyone would want to come to this place.


: You don’t have to be so blunt, Mist.

Melody kinda rules.

: I’m just being honest!


: That’s okay. Say, I wonder what kind of flower this is?




Uh. It woke up. (surprising none of you)




: Stand back you two! I don’t like the look of this!


: Okay!




Meet Mandragora, boss number 3. It’s got 780 HP, and a pretty wide variety of attacks to make up for not being able to move.

You can see one already, if you look closely. It’s summoned a Queen Bee!



It can spit these wind razors around the room, they spiral out in kind of a bullet hell-esque pattern. Not easy to dodge, but they don’t do much damage.



The yellow head can do a sweeping breath attack. It’s like Chimera’s, but it can inflict Paralysis.

So that’s Paralysis from that and Poison from the Queen Bee. Medication makes this fight a thousand times easier, and I’d make sure you have it for this.



Yikes. See my status afflictions? I’m just thankful that, for some reason, it never used its fourth attack, which summons a Killer Ant. I think it can only have one monster up at a time. I’d honestly rather put up with the Bee than risk Sealing and losing access to Medication here.



Medication takes care of defense, but what about offense? Mandragora’s wind spell and breath can make approaching difficult, but it has to pause inbetween attacks. I try to stay close and go in for 2 or 3 combos before backing off and healing/waiting for the next attack.



The Flame Saber deals 30~ damage per hit, way higher than our Wind Sword would manage on this boss. And due to its lack of movement, the slower speed doesn’t hamper me all that much.



Seriously, Medication carried me here.



It’s best to not even kill the Bee, Mandragora spawns a new one almost immediately.



Just like the other bosses, it turns red. However, unlike Daemon and Chimera, Mandragora has no new attacks. It just gets faster. Just lower the amount of combos and heal more, and this is still a cakewalk with the proper setup.



Why thank you.



Oh, yeah, the Saber is big enough to catch the Bee and Mandragora in its swing. Sadly, although the different stalks of Mandragora move separately, they are not separate hitboxes.



Soon enough, it goes down. Honestly, easiest boss so far. Thanks, Medication.



: No, I’m okay.





: I doubt anyone would want to come with flowers like that around.





: Hmm…

: Anyway, monsters that big shouldn’t be appearing in this world.

: What’s going on?

You two keep having this conversation, and it goes nowhere.

: I don’t know, but I bet someone is behind all this.

: Right. Besides, someone did put all those devices inside the caves.



...The what?

: So you think the Sechs are behind this?


: I’m not sure. Kardia is near the Sechs border, but it’s still part of the Norad Kingdom. Even the Sechs Empire wouldn’t dare cross the border without sufficient reason. Besides, a huge empire like that has no reason to invade a little town like ours.

I’m sure the giant shady Empire in an RPG is definitely not going to march on the innocent town. That would be unheard of. Also Mist is suddenly an expert on geopolitics.

: So it would seem…

: I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if we can find out more information.

: Right.

: Well, I’m going to head back to town. Please watch yourself, Donnel.

: I will.

: I’d better get back too. You should drop by my bathhouse for a dip sometime!




And with one final victory pose atop a dead flower, Clemens Cave is conquered. We’ll have a new destination next time.

Monster Names (Though I’m probably not recruiting these, they’re not very good. Next cave has two I DEFINITELY want, though.)

Ignis
Beetle
Minotaur