Part 41: Please Use The Game Mechanics

Update 41: Please Use The Game Mechanics

Well, we’ve got nearly every sidequest checked off the list now. There’s one more that requires some pretty specific circumstances, and the reward is shit, so I may not get it done by the end, but I’ll do my best.

Time to start pushing into the penultimate cave, Danaan.



Our new ally, Tiny, is joining us for this expedition.




Sorry, TINY.

He’s labeled as a Humanoid monster, and to be honest, I don’t know if those classifications mean anything. I haven’t seen any weapons that do 50% more damage to “Plants” or anything, for example.




To reach Danaan, head west from Kasimir and cross the lilypad. Tabatha is here on Holidays, and this is the only place you can propose to her, as she’s hinting here.




Tucked into the corner is a cave. Which...leads to more caves.




There’s a fork inside, and on the left is this sign, and Danaan.










If it’s just another monster summoner I’m leaving.


: So it would seem.


: What could the Sechs possibly be up to?


: I don’t know, but I plan on finding out.


: Right. I’ll try to see what I can learn too.




She just turns around and leaves. Good effort, Mist.

So, welcome to Danann. It’s built into the side of a mountain, so there are a lot of little mini-caves inside. It’s also pretty big and weird shaped and I may have trouble explaining it through screenshots, my bad.




The first little cave leads to a few fields, as well as this hilarious “fuck you” wall of poison in front of the water source.




Outside again, we’ve got a recolor of an old rival. Meet the Arch Demon. They have powerful physical attacks and can paralyze you.




Every one of Tiny’s hits knocks other monsters on their ass, which is hilarious, and gave me time to down the spawner, but they are invincible while on the ground. So it’s not exactly “optimal”.

There’s a branch off to the east here, but I’m going to make things simple and just run all the way north first.




This weird floating set of leaves is the next foe in Danaan, and also not a recolor! This is the amazingly named LEAFBALL. It’s a caster and it spams Swordstorm.




These Swordstorms hurt, too, that was 60 damage.




I hide behind the spawner as it annihilates Tiny, and...here’s the issue with the spear.




Rune Factory’s hitboxes hate you. Greatly. Flicker has caused Donnel to disappear in this shot, but look at the floating spear. That did not count as a hit.




I’m thinking I might just have to stick with the sword.

Time for take 2.




So, forget all that happened, welcome back to Rune Factory. This is Update 41, and we’re off to the penultimate cave with Tiny Snaga.




Oh, the sword is so much nicer. Look at all those damage numbers.




Sure, we both got Paralyzed, but Medicate is a godsend. Danaan is quite a bit tougher than the Kasimir Ruins.




Anyway, past two forks, we finally reach the big cave over here.




It looks like another throwaway farming cave at first, but there’s a nice little passage in the back.




There’s also AAAHHHHHH.

Jesus I hate this model. This is the Blood Panther! He melees you, that’s about it. Sometimes he might get a crit.




Return to the weird abyss you came from, demon.




The cave eventually leads to a fork. You’re probably understanding why I was dreading trying to describe this place now. Well, heading north first, as has been the norm in this cave so far…






...Later.




Okay maybe now, just a little.




Here’s the highest tier Ore in the game, Platinum. It’s good. Not much else to say about it, it’s required for a lot of the best equipment.




Also I’d like to note that Snaga got stuck on that corner. I’d like to mention that this cave really, really loves getting monsters stuck on the geometry.




The southern path leads to actual progression in the cave.




Also, this guy, the Necro. Allegedly he can Seal you and steal your Health.




I say “allegedly” because he aggro’d on Snaga, who was behind a rock, and Snaga couldn’t get around the rock, and thus they stared at eachother for a good several seconds as I smacked down the spawner.

It was a sad fate.




Anyway, we’ve got a locked door here. Probably because I haven’t destroyed all the spawners-




Ahem.

fuck


: (In fact, I’m sure of it! After all, people are supposed to live in harmony with the land! It seems Mist rubbed off on me more than I imagined…)




Well, let’s not worry about that for now. Let’s just put the farming in the back of our minds. Let’s check out some fire.




You can get through here dousing only one of the flames. As you can see, this is a polished speedrun of Rune Factory, on update 41.




Snaga got owned by a laser as soon as I got in here. This is egam’s older brother, the Little Wizard. It uses Water Laser instead of Fireball, but is otherwise the same squishy caster.




Once you’re close enough here, they can’t really do much to you.







This is a pretty handy crafting material.

That’s as far as I can get for now in the main path, so let’s go back and investigate those two forks outside I skipped.




Since this “cave” is outside, you can see the different effects from the times of day, like the sunset here. That’s really cool, and I like it.




Anyway, this fork hides an upgrade to the Silver Wolf, the Hunter Wolf. It’s basically just a stat upgrade of its Toros cousin, but it does hurt. A lot.




As you can see via the complete demolition of Snaga.




Aside from the spawner, though, this is a dead end.




The other fork has another Arch Demon spawner.




This was welcome, given how low I was getting on HP.




But...this is another dead end. I suppose that’s all I can do in here for now, so I’ll have to






...Anyway, fastforward to the next day.




I’m going to need to use a Watering Can a lot soon, so I’m going to grab the third tier. Thankfully, I have all this stuff just on the shelf.












54 squares is a great capacity, but there’s another reason I want this. It has to do with that “Charge 3”.




Jean is out of the loop.




Anyway, I just bought five packs of seeds. Spinach has the shortest growing period of the fall crops, so I grabbed those. And, yes, all five packs will be necessary.




So, you might think “Oh, just need to pick some patches in this cave to open that door!”

You’d be wasting your time. There’s a specific set.




And they’re hidden NORTH of the fire wall!




Up in this room, there’s a pool of water, which helps mitigate the annoyance factor here.




As well as five patches. We’ll have to use them all, unlike the Kasimir ones.




After much clearing, here’s a demonstration of why I wanted this can. A fully charged use of this waters a 3x3 square, making this all go much, much faster.








Since there are no festivals for a long time, I can just sleeping bag away the days, watering on each and then repeating.

Hubris is knocking at the door.




I’m sure I’m not forgetting anything.




The spinach is making some decent progress.




But...wait…

Oh shit the good hut is almost out of food. And I don’t want their FP to drop...I like my large produce…




A very sorrowful orb. I’ll be back, spinach.




So I bought a ton of this from Camus and shoved it in.

Now, to return to my spinach!




...You know, I think this is a good time to break. Next time we’ll do the second half of Danaan.