Part 7: Master Morax
A Scorched Nation
Alright, so just around the corner from the terminal we can find stairs leading to an alternative entrance to B2F. As an added bonus...
We've now seen the entirety of B1F! If you really wanted to, you could skip through it very quickly but that's boring and not exactly fun.
Anyway, B2F! We've been here ever-so-briefly earlier but now we get to actually explore it properly.
Just through the door, we can pick up a new Forma (we haven't fought what drops this one yet) that will prove very useful and important later.
This area is pretty straightforward but gives us two doors pretty quickly. We'll go through the one to the left first.
It doesn't really lead much of anywhere. Just a single 2-tile width corridor that ends up being a dead end very quickly.
But! In the bottm left corner, directly opposite the door, we can find a single Sandman to talk to.
Only good manners for me to introduce myself, eh?
H-how lewd!
...Say, sonny, can you do me a favor?
Yes. Hmmm... I've heard my share about humans, but you're a friendly one. All righty, let's get right down to business.I'm sure it only bugs me but boy it would be nice for this Sandman to keep a straight characterisation for one conversation.
It's like I told ya before, this here bag is us Sandmen's signature. It's more important than you can prob'ly imagine, sonny. Me, I say you can never be too careful, so I carry a buncha spares. But ya see... A pal o' mine got a hole in his bag... I let him borrow my spare for now. But it doesn't look like that son of a gun plans to return it... I'm not keen on reminding him, and anyway I don't know where he's got to. That's where you come in.
I'm countin' on ya.So that's a 2nd EX Mission. This one we can do very easily, very quickly. The reward is very nice but not super crucial, mind.
I did briefly consider doing it right now. Sandmen are easily found in B1F but first I picked up a Kaso.
And then decided that, eh, it can wait until later. So we'll shelf that one for now. Instead, we'll head through that door to the right and move on.
Not too far in, we get forced into dialogue with this guy.
Also, Master Morax? Now, I'm sure I've seen that name somewhere before...
When the time comes, we'll storm the earth and massacre the humans! An Honor Befitting that Name
Rather unceremoniously, we're thrown into a fight against a single Oni. Now this should be a problem, because this Oni is kind of a mini-miniboss in a way. He's stronger than a normal Oni but has the same skills and resistances. That last part is very important because it's a universal constant.
Because this Oni is weak to Elec, every Oni we run into later will also be weak to Elec. This includes ones we can use. This fact also applies to every single demon in the game. If a usable version ha a weakness, fixed fights/boss versions (as applicable) do as well.
The sole exception to this is Expel (Light) and Curse (Dark) because that'd make things too easy. Ailments are also varied, somewhat.
Oh and Oni doesn't resist Fire but he does resist Physicals. This isn't particularly major, but it's worth keeping in mnd.
Oh and every single ailment is also a weakness and has a 300% modifier to its proc rate.
Oni have a couple nasty tricks but this one only gets to pull off a Fang Breaker. Light tier Phys damage but it also debuffs Attack by 1 stage! Single target Tarunda with added damage can be pretty nice to have sometimes.
The End
Naturally, Oni are what drop the Brute Horns and this one is pretty handy to get now. It gives us a 2nd which leaves an actual decision to make soon.
A Scorched Nation
Argh...> The demon disappeared.
The demons are getting stronger... Plus, it seems like some of them are working together. We can't let our guard down. Oh, yeah... I found some forma lying around. You can have a few.> Hitonari obtained DF Antlite x1.
These are both kind of nice for differing reasons. We can put the DF to use making very important armor, and the Jaki Bolts are new.
Listen, if it gets too much for you, go back to Irving and have him tune up your equipment. That's what the forma are there for... might as well use 'em.Fair, but we'll do that later. We don't have much of a reason to right now. Instead, we'll head on further in.
The Fear of God
But this is a good time to see a couple new things in the area. Itsumade are the 2nd Raptor so they already make Onmoraki completely outdated. Poor onion-chicken death bird. Itsumade isn't very good mind, being weak to bullets and Ice. No resistances either. His source is kind of nice I guess?
Koppa Tengu is also weak to Guns and has no resistances. He's not very good in general but he does have innate Tarukaja. So do better things at this stage, but he's the earliest one to give you it at all and Yoma is Neutral-Law so he CAN be recruited.
That in-built Tarukaja is mostly noteworthy for when it does things like this:
(this is taken from a different playthrough and did not happen here, sorry)
2 Yoma Leaf's not bad, I suppose. Getting all 3 sources here at once though. Aww yeah. (Hua Po's has Resist Fire; it is the best by default.)
A couple Angels and a Gremlin now, huh? Sure. We know Angel really well from having used one for a while but Gremlin's new. Of course, he's where we get the Jaki Bolts and will prove Very Important later! You'll see. He's weak to Fire and Wind but resists Electric. He has Sukukaja which sounds nice but kind of isn't.
Also run into a single Archangel. Second Divine, of course. Weak to Curse and Electric but immune to Expel. Kind of strong, and tied highest level for random things in the area. Not exactly super-dangerous alone, but I wouldn't just take him super-lightly either.
A Scorched Nation
Anyway, moving on. Beyond that fixed Oni, there's a single one-way door which leads us here. This door is the only way to go anywhere from in here. As soon as we approach it...
I can see why it's so hard for you guys to resist. That's it... I'm gonna kill you all and reap the bliss!
This time Oni comes with a Melchom. Who's a level lower than normal Melchoms. Remember what I said before about resistances? Well, we already know Melchom is weak to Elec and Oni is as well....
So this happens a lot this time. Later, shitlords.
And we steal Melchom's money as well. Sure, okay.
So now we can continue beyond this door.
We can see a door around the other side of this obstruction but, if we turn left, we can get to a different door first!
That lets us grab this. It'd be nicer if Hitonari had a decent Magic stat but it's worth getting anyway.
While we're here, I grab an Archangel to make navigation easier and less tedious. I then leave immediately.
Prayer
We've got some new things to make now, after all.
The Andersen is kind of a gun downgrade in terms of raw power. It's basic attack is 2 guaranteed shots at random targets, but that makes it pretty darn good! Its only skill gives Hitonari a Bufu equivalent which is important, indeed. The only "hard" part about making it is that it requires 2 Brute Horns.
Meanwhile for armor, we can grab the Ancient Vest which has a Fire resistance. Resistances here are Really Good and in this case takes Fire damage from ~30 or so to ~5. Yes, really.
We'll grab this immediately, because obviously. The Gun weakness isn't a big deal at all, honestly. Problem is this takes a Brute Horn to make! So now we can't grab the Andersen just yet.
We can also make 2 new accessories. The Body Ring is +10HP and the Mind Ring is +10MP. Both are Shit and Bad and should never be used.
On the way back in, I'm going to take this opportunity to grab a couple easy Sources while I can. We'll start by fusing an Onmoraki out of a Knocker and Tangata Manu. Onmoraki is kind of awful so we won't be sincerely using him.
We'll also take a second Knocker and fuse it with a Pixie to make a Sandman. His Elec null is nice, I guess, but we also won't be using him for very long. The Dormina is also kind of nice but there are better things to use it with.
Now, because I am Psychic and can totally Read Your Mind, you're wondering what the hell I'm wasting my time on these things for. It's simple!
The Fear of God
We're going to stick around on 1F of Antlia. This is an important area for many things and this little technique is one of them. We're going to kill that Dybbuk first because we want a fight against a single enemy with limited offense. Dybbuk's ability to inflict Sleep with its basic makes this more annoying.
Pixie now isolated, we Defend. We do absolutely nothing else.
A couple dozen turns later, Pixie dies and all 3 demons are now fully analyzed!
Wait, what? This is pretty simple but annoying. See, your demons gain analyze points the quickest just through being present for a turn in combat. There is no upper ceiling to how many points they can gain in a single fight. As a result, the fastest way to grind analyze is to just go to 1F of Antlia and Defend. Over and over and over again. For a demon that you've just gotten fresh for the first time, it takes 40 turns to get it to max Analyze.
Note that if you're fighting something that isn't fully analyzed yet, this does not work for grinding enemy analyze. That goes up much quicker by hitting Demon Co-Ops.
Why yes, this can get very tedious but even now there's no risk of anything going wrong so it's mundane but safe. Having something fully analyzed quickly is a godsend later on, because the real benefit is that it halves the Compendium cost!
A Scorched Nation
We'll head back towards B2F to let them actually give their sources in a reasonable timeframe. That done, we're going to get a wee bit more serious again.
It's rather tempting to add a source to Goblin (Hua Po+Sandman) to make him more useful in general but we just want him for his Tarukaja. We also want him for something special later but his own skills do not matter for that.
The Fear of God
The last Unknown for Antlia finally decides to make its appearance, and it's something we've fought before. Twice before, even. It's an Oni!
And this one uses his other skill. Rampage hits random targets 1-4 times for Light damage. It's actually pretty damn good for an earlygame skill. Really, random NoH things are upper-tier for their timeframe in general.
And the random/usable Oni are level 8. All the fixed ones have been level 7. Strange that.
A Scorched Nation
Speaking of, as we return to the main path we run into a 3rd talkative Oni.
But even if you understand each other... in the end, only one can remain. Now, show me what kind of a man you are.
This might very well be one of the hardest fights in Antlia. Not because it's actually hard, but because 3/4s of it resist Fire and the Pixies have no weakness.
Granted without the Oni there, there's no risk of dying either.
As a nice bonus, we got a Bead out of this. Holding onto that for later though!
Now we can get through that door he was blocking at last.
Not much past there at first, but we've got a one-way door in the bottom corner here which lets us back out. Kind of.
...I think the game's mocking me. I'm not going to complain about a free Bead (thanks Archangel) but this would've been nice about 40 minutes earlier!
Only place to make any actual progress is through this door up top. Let's head on through then...
That's... very close. Man, it sure would've been nice to be informed of that sooner. Thanks, Demonica!
Ah well, we'll grab that forma for the free Itsumade drop.
Over to the far left and far right of this room there's a locked door. Just because we haven't seen what that looks like in true form Antlia before, I guess.
The door to the right hands us 1000 Macca. Cool, thanks I guess.
The door to the left
As we approach the signal, this guy stops us. I can see the Heal Spot behind that wall and I saw the terminal door earlier as well.
Alright, let's do this! You ready, Tadano? You can use my demon if you need to. Here, let me give you the password.This gives us a text document about passwords. You can register upto 3 demons via passwords in your compendium. Feel free to post as many passwords in-thread as you want.
Mostly because I won't be using them.
Anyway, that done we can heal right by the door and...
Prayer
Leave to go back to Irving! I really, REALLY want the Andersen okay?
And then we'll spend some time fusing exactly one thing. We'll start by taking the Goblin from earlier and fusing it with Sandman to make an Oni of our own.
Immediately buy the Sandman back to fuse with the Oni to make Poltergeist.
And then fuse the Poltergeist with a Knocker to give us Gremlin. It's not a complicated chain, but it's the easiest way I found to make Gremlin with my available materials. I'll probably end up doing this later on so just for the sake of consistency, here's a diagram:
Anyway, what we're doing with Gremlin isn't important but it's a timesaver. Kind of. Probably takes more time than it saves, really.
First, we need to get him fully analyzed. Fortunately, that's doable on the way back in.
Then we just run through the rest of Antlia, again. This gives time and opportunity for Gremlin to level up and give us his Source.
Gremlin's source has all of one fixed skill.
We'll take an Oni and Tangata Manu to make a Katakirauwa. We'll also give her Gremlin's Source:
The game does not expect you to have this yet. It is not balanced for this. This is ultimately a minor thing compared to what we'll be doing later. Strange Journey gives you sources but does not expect you to actually ever use them. Remember this. This is important!
It also applies to most of its mechanics, really.
Silence
So with our new Katakirauwa, we'll head on in to the danger room. It has a cool meteor in the background that sort of looks like a giant brain. Thankfully, it's not a little rock of horrors...
In The Master's Name
Instead, we have a giant bull man to deal with?
...So that makes both Orias and now this guy two things in succession that are totally-definitely-references. Yup.
We march toward the human world! And we will not be stopped! Sealed in the depths of the netherworld, our revenge has begun!
You see the energy source...? ......! What the hell is that!?
Nothing is more efficient at slaying humans than humans themselves! We need only mimic you to slaughter humans on a grand scale! I smell the odor on you... The odor of a human trained to kill! You humans oft blame us...
Have you no response? Then we will obliterate your bloodthirsty race... So tell me. Aren't demons the real heroes? Both races are wrong.
It's your sort of human I hate most of all!
Tyrant Morax Vehement Rage 
Morax, much like Orias, is a demon from the Ars Goetia:
quote:
The Twenty-first Spirit is Marax. He is a Great Earl and President. He appeareth like a great Bull with a Man's face. His office is to make Men very knowing in Astronomy, and all other Liberal Sciences; also he can give good Familiars, and wise, knowing the virtues of Herbs and Stones which be precious. He governeth 30 Legions of Spirits, and his Seal is this, which must be made and worn as aforesaid, etc.
Also like Orias, he's totally intended to come off as a reference to an earlier game. Unlike Orias, he feels less lazy about it.
You see, the very first boss of Megami Tensei was Minotaur (if this sounds more recently familiar, it's because SMT4 did that as well. Because SMT4 wishes it was even half as good as Strange Journey). Minotaur was a right bastard of a boss all things considered, because he resisted almost everything, was immune to a couple things... and reflected Fire. At a time where your best damage was going to come from Fire spells.
Morax isn't quite as unfair as that, but he still reflects Fire.
As you probably gathered from my little bit of superfluous prep, Morax is weak to Ice. It helps cut through his 700HP very, very quickly.
Especially with Goblin spending the first 3 turns casting Tarukaja. If he had the MP/I had the interest to Chakra Drop him, he could get to +4 without issue or worry. Morax doesn't have an inbuilt counter for it after all.
Gremlin's going to spend his first few turns casting Sukunda. This isn't a great help but it miiiiight make him miss once or twice. Maybe. Probably not.
And, of course, Katakirauwa is going to cast Bufula every turn.
As things stand, Hitonari is going to outdamage her whenever he gets to attack. His Ice Shot deals more raw damage and the Co-Op that he's not in also deals more than the one he IS in.
But what can Morax actually do? A basic attack that deals less damage a Medicine, for starters. Single target Phys, no added traps. Ho hum.
His overall main skill is this, though. Gehenna is an Enemy-Only skill that probably costs no MP. Bosses have infinite MP (because obviously) so it doesn't really matter though. We CAN get an equivalent to Gehenna later on at least.
Gehenna isn't super-dangerous in a vacuum because it doesn't deal damage. Problem is, it's multi-target Fear (base 70% chance).
Now, we haven't seen Fear before so what makes this annoying is all new! Fear does all of 3 things. It does nothing, it makes you do nothing or if a demon is inflicted with Fear it can return itself to the stock. That last one is the most annoying because it wastes 2 turns instead of just one! Thankfully, we have a few Patra Stones already and Fear isn't a super big deal.
Morax also has Lunge which is a very "eh" Phys skill.
It barely outdoes a regular, basic attack. Good job, Morax.
He can also cast Maragi but that's not really a big deal most of the time.
When low on health, he gains access to Horned Rampage - his special skill. It's not a super-unique thing, since it's just Rampage But Stronger (doesn't look like it here but I had to Defend a lot to let him use it).
The End
But, yeah, Morax is the first actual boss and thus not at all a threat. The hardest part I found was not killing him before he can show what he can really do.
He gives decent EXP and some alright Macca I suppose. Guaranteed Bead is nice if we really needed it, and is pretty sweet in general.
End Silence
You... beckoned us...
> A strange energy cluster is sitting where Morax was.
I don't know what would've happened to me if I got there first...
Return to the Red Sprite with the energy cluster.
The energy mass you retrieved must be sent to analysis immediately. Proceed directly to the command room. Malevolence and Benevolence
Mission "Energy Signature Investigation" is confirmed complete. Crewman Hitonari... The energy source you retrieved will likely solve the problem of the quantum tunnel at the zenith.
Despite its size, this Rosetta Manifold is extremely dense with information.
The Schwarzwelt has been full of surprises, but this takes the cake! It's scientific significance aside...
We have discovered information pertaining to the quantum field blocking our escape. ...I don't think I get it. The Blue Jet couldn't break through. What makes you think that's gonna change things? The Red Sprite is a foreign object that the quantum field repels. However, by altering our plasma armor's parameters to synchronize with the quantum field...
So the quantum field is like oil, and the Red Sprite's like water... It won't let us through. But we can pass if we coat the plasma with some "oil" of our own...
What, so we can escape!? We can go back home!? We did it, Tadano! Hahahaha! In your face, Schwarzwelt! ...I cannot confirm at present.
Without comprehensive knowledge of the Schwarzwelt's layout, it is impossible to judge. Haha...? What!? We're not going the right way!? I cannot confirm that we are returning to Earth. We may be headed into further danger. But unless we press forward, our chances of escaping will remain scarce...
Our goal at present... Should be to travel through the quantum tunnel and "plane shift" to the next space-time plane.
So we need to move on to the next layer of the Schwarzwelt, huh? Something tells me it won't be a fun trip, but... Our chances are better than they are sitting here. Well, speaking as a member of the strike team... What's got me spooked are the demons we'll probably run into over there. Right, Tadano?Nah. We'll be fine.
Arthur... I don't want to see a repeat of that stunt you pulled when we got here, okay? My information regarding the Schwarzwelt is much more complete now than it was before our entry.
We will engage the plane shift once all crewmen are prepared. All hands, prepare to plane shift. Silence
This one scene plays a lot, and thankfully it's skippable in the future. It's not worth videoing either.
We finally lift off having prepared...
Activate our modified plasma armor to let us continue on through to a new area.
And then fly through a weird blue-green tunnel. Simple.
Malevolence and Benevolence
The jump to a new sector is complete. The plane shift was successful.
Of course, right now we can only go through the tunnel between here and Antlia... Hopefully we can find the next quantum tunnel before long. So we're stuck on the local line? Eh, figures.
Infierno at first glance appears to be a weird typo, right? Well, if it was anyone else saying it then sure. Maybe. But because this is coming from Jimenez it's intentional. It's gratuitous Spanish, because obviously right?
Probably super obvious but infierno means Hell.
That is unfortunately impossible.
We must determine each sector's properties one by one. Our next task is to investigate this sector as well. Man, you don't waste time... you got your argument for working us to the bone all set. Crewman Jimenez. If you wish to return to Earth, this misson is necessary. ...Ice cold, man. Even the demons are friendlier than that.
The atmosphere's pretty close to Sector Antlia's. We think it'll be possible to explore. We've got the outside environment on visual, but it's proving a little tough to analyze... Well, I'll transmit it to your viewscreen so you can see for yourself. Fear
What is this...? Are there demons in there, too?
I was expecting something... I dunno, fantasic, but this is just like home. What's the deal? You got all the answers, Arthur. Mind explainin' it to us!?
It seems the Schwarzwelt contains structures that bear a resemblance to human society. I believe the aesthetic is related to the fact that it is a region where demons appear... But with our current data, any further analysis would be premature. This "red-light district"... Antlia's battlefield...
But here we are, finding cultures not too far removed from our own... And they're hostile. Humans killing humans... No, demons killing humans... Why does this world exist? I think I'm cracking up... Don't dwell on it too much, Norris. You'll lose all perspective.
We can be certain that by gathering information on the Schwarzwelt, you are on the path back to Earth. Keep that in mind and remain calm while performing your duties. Jesus, Arthur... I need to get the hell outta here before I get as cold as you.
Your first mission in Sector Bootes will begin shortly. It will be hazardous, but we will employ observational instruments in this sector.Boötes, of course, is also a constellation. Its name contains a diaeresis because of course it does. It contains... uh, Arcturus. Y'know, the brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere and the 4th brightest star period. Kind of cool, really.
Boötes is a Greek-derived name that means the herdsman, or maybe the plowman. As a constellation, it was first discovered by.... Ptolemy in the 2nd century.
A certain amount of space is required to launch the beacons. Your task is to find a suitable staging area and launch the reconnaisance beacons.
The intelligence gained from this mission will also help pinpoint the next quantum tunnel. It is vital that we succeed. The more we discover about the Schwarzwelt, the better our chances of escaping it. Furthermore, the intelligence we gather will undoubtedly be key to solving the crisis on Earth. You must continue the mission. To those of you on the strike team who are making use of the Demon Summoning Program... The Rosetta Manifold we obtained in Sector Antlia yielded further insights into the program. We were successful in using it to enhance the Demon Summoning Program's capacity.
Hurray, stock upgrade!
I will distribute the patch now. Please accept it.
Don't worry Arthur, so do I. But it's going to wait a while. Sure, we could head on over to Boötes now but we're not going to! Instead, we've got some unfinished business in Antlia. We have a few Beads now so we can give one to that Pixie; we need to find a Sandman to get that sack back... and there's something else available now. Probably best to do it right away; after all, it would be ever so rude to keep a lady waiting.