Part 64: Killing giants and mending cables.

Update 10:



It's not like there's another possible entrance to be explored in this particular room, so why not check this door?



See? It even has an incentive.


"Well, this is as far as you go. Surrender or die!"



Obviously, them being nothing but low level Karma Tuners is not threatening at this point.



A lowly Mizuchi and a Pabilsag. Hooray for broken-ass spells and such.



That means that Argilla gets to use two more skills!





Now Serph is not happy, she did not puke it out of her breast. Shame.



Damned Karma assholes. Preventing advancement and adding a LOT of annoyance by means of mandatory backtracking.

"Those soldiers must have done this.
There's nothing we can do. We should return to the repairman."




But first, Argilla gets to use a multi-target spell, and Item Find.
Item Find greatly increases the chances of getting what the enemies drop at the end of the fights. It is invaluable in later parts of the game, since enemies will start dropping Data and plants.


Before backtracking, a quick visit to the health terminal wouldn't be a bad idea.




Image not present because I can't upload to Waffleimages.

Megaten Wikilink






Argilla does not shoot at the enemy gangsta style, but hey, what can be done about it. Maybe I should switch Argilla and Gale next time to see how Gale does it.



Kaiwan is in for a surprise.



That is what the Skull Ring does. Mudo and Curse skills both count as Death skills, the Skull ring reflects them off the target that has it equipped (in this case, Serph) back to the caster, causing them to become afraid, or at the very least, leaving the target unscathed.
Obviously that is invaluable in certain fights, while Hama was nerfed severely, Mudo is as dangerous as always, and equipping the Skull ring frees a valuable skill slot for something more useful than Death Resist.




Omnomnom and such. The Cookie Monster would've been proud.


Now, after that there was (later) another Berserk Fight.





Argilla's whip arm looks weirder still.





Gale also gets two more skill slots.





And this is definitely less amusing than boob vomit.



Atma Bonus is fine, but AP Divide is pretty much a waste, why? Because he has no Hunt skills set. That'll have to wait (and be replaced later, don't know what I was thinking when I set that one up)




Aaaall the way back to this place.




An ambush?








Oh boy! More treats!





A very, very nice thing about the Hunt skills is that they do not count as physical, they are in a class of their own, so if an enemy is resistant to physical skills, or even reflects them, Hunt skills will do full damage to them.
That does not work against bosses, unfortunately.



"Are you the repairman's brother?"



"I take care of this back area. I was making my rounds when those soldiers came barging in.
You go on. I'm takin' off... This is no joke."

"Even if we wanted to, we can't go much further."




"Damnit...
Okay, take me over there. I'll see what I can do."


Back to go to the last area visited, then.




"It won't be easy, but we're counting on you guys, y'know?
I don't wanna cause too much trouble. I'm heading back now.
You guys be careful."

Fast and efficient.





This is an annoying kind of switch, activates one door and deactivates the other. Bah.






This closes the door to the left and opens the one to the right.





Unfortunately, the rings do not get duplicates.




See?



Magic and Luck get the points this time.




Amazing, Argilla does not increase her magic.



Two switches there...




And another one there. Hm.



Activating these two switches does nothing.





So, time to go down again?





Ew, all covered with Gale spit.




Activating the last switch should do something.





And it does.




Poison, as Stone and Paralysis, does not get cured instantly after battle, not even with Auto Soma.
One has to use Posumdi or an Anti-poison to get rid of that effect.







Oh my. A boss fight?





"Your outfits... That... That isn't possible!




That's quite a threathening phrase, I'll say.


Unfortunately, he hasn't a hundred arms. (Youtube)



Ah, Hecatoncheires, the giant of a hundred arms.
Or 50 heads.
Wikilink




Fortunately, the party has just what's needed.
In a regular game, one should at least have Tera by then, making this fight not as hard as it could be. Again, it is all about preparing oneself (or saving in a nearby terminal and try another combination of skills)



Hecatoncheires is weak against Tera. One's duty is to abuse that as much as possible.





Unfortunately, physical attacks often cause a counter. That is bad.






That is Hecatoncheires' strongest attack. But since Divine Light has done such a good job of dropping his stats to nothing...



It is rather ineffective.





Sooner rather than later, the giant falls.






Always nice when they have a level up event.
Better when it is a random stat increase, but hey, not complaining.





Aww.




Another new element!


"In order to equip them, go to the Items menu and select Customize Ring."





Sometimes, the crystal is of high quality, and it provides a bigger stat boost.




WHAT STATS SHOULD BE FOCUSED IN THE NEXT UPDATE?