Part 20: Carina Clean Up
Prayer
As always, a new sector means we get new dialogue from the crew!
What's so important that we were keeping in sickbay?
think you'd better get over there and take stock of the situation.I agree, but we'll skip over it for now and go right to the lab instead.
Mostly because, hey, we got a new Rare Forma from a boss which means new sub-apps. A lot of them, even!
HP Recover II is nice but only affects Hitonari so we're probably not gonna use it much.
Edit: Whoops, turns out no I'm a moron and I remembered this wrong entirely. You can use 1 Recover and 1 Regen SubApp simultaneously if you have the space. In my defense, for everything else with this kind of overlap you cannot do that!
MP Recover I is a downgrade to a thing we've had since entering Bootes. You're really not expected to fight Lorelei until later despite how easy she is.
Nurse would've been nice earli-- wait, "odds of status ailment?" Suddenly I'm feeling all sorts of trepidation about this Delphinus place.
Zealots are an annoying race of mostly "eh" demons that I've only ever used one of. The only way to get them is via a Fusion Accident and this description is confusing and misleading. It guarantees you get a Zealot if the fusion formula for calculating result is within 3 of the Zealot's level. If not, it's still completely random what you get from the valid list at that level. Fusion Accidents are stupid as hell.
...Oh, right. Fusion formula if you care is:
code:
((BaseLevelA + BaseLevelB)/2)+1The lowest level Zealot is level 24, for reference, so for this to work you need a Fusion Accident to happen on a result anywhere between 21 and 27. Accidents are rare inherently - 1/16 is the best chance given if it's a New/Full Moon AND you use a Source, and by default it's 1/64. Fishing for Accidents is misery so be glad you'll never have to do it. I know I am.
Anyway, the last set of 3 given by the Stomach Acid (yes it gives a lot) are interesting and useful in their own way. Friend Item/Macca are really useful for getting Forma and achievement grinding respectively, whereas Friend Heal is nice for obvious reasons. Normally when you have a demon and talk to that same demon in a random battle, what happens is randomised but this limits it to just the one you have equipped. Friend Item + Extra Item is probably how I'm going to Forma grind for Irving in the future because it's so efficient and prevents getting overlevelled.
They're all in a lather over in sickbay. You gotta go see what's got 'em so riled.
What would they be safekeeping over in sickbay? Silence
And then this guy immediately interrupts us if we try to go to to the deck. Jerk.
Strike team, make sure you take care of the situation there before heading out.We don't exactly have a choice, so...
Crisis
I--but I swear--I kept it in the stasis capsule--but...!
...You're awfully flustered. Take it easy.
What!? Commander Gore's body is... gone!? OUR Commander...!? It's impossible... there was no reason for anyone to touch it, but then suddenly it was gone...
Are... are you sure no one moved it without your knowledge? No, nothing like that could be done without me signing off on it!Just because a bureaucratic process should be followed, doesn't mean it WILL be followed.
...Yes, okay, in this situation this probably is an actual requirement because only Zoe can open the stasis capsules or something but hey.
Oh, shit... Have there been any signs of demons invading the ship?
If that's what happened, we have a serious security breach! Whoa, let's not jump the gun there. You know how unlikely it is that a demon's wandering around, right?
And there are't any demons who could escape from the summoning program, either. Sure, I summon Bugaboo sometimes for training, but he never leaves my sight the whole time.
...No, that's impossible. It was already too late to resuscitate him when we got him in here. Hmm... this is very weird. But we are in the Schwarzwelt. I guess nothing's that weird in this place...
The disappearance of Commander Gore's body cannot be ignored. Investigation of this matter will be a high priority.
However, it is likely that human error is the cause here.
The Commander can't be at peace like this. He may just be a corpse, but I'd like to bury him on Earth. We have to find him. But... how...?I'm sure we'll think of something later. For now, we'll just do what we do best.
Prayer
Talk to Zoe now that we can!
I think we should assume somebody took him. ...What? You think he might have disappeared on his own? ...I think you've seen too many horror movies. From a medical standpoint, this is just strange.
And y'know... Yeah, I actually did feel a little uncomfortable, like there was a mysterious presence. ...Wait, I'm making it sound like the Commander came back to life. Wow, have I gotten so desperate to start hoping he'd come back to life in the middle of battle...?
Oh, and of course this was kind of a big deal. So everyone else's dialogue has already updated again!
Did someone steal it? Did it somehow get up and start walking around? Either way, there must be some explanation. We have to find out what it is...
Arthur said it was due to human error, but how do you misplace a corpse? You should probably look into it when you have any spare time.
...What'm I supposed to think, that somethin' in the Schwarzwelt did it? Hmm... Mighty peculiar. This one's outta my league...
But if the Commander getting up and walking out is in keeping with the natural law of this world... Maybe it's worth considering. Science is the explanation of superstition, after all.
As per usual, this is as much of Delphinus as we're seeing right now. It kind of looks like an awful and miserable place anyway, so I don't think this is going to be a big loss.
"Rest In Peace." I even inscribed it on the Commander's stasis tank. And now someone's gone and disturbed his rest. Ridiculous...
And for the first time in a while, we can actually get something out of Dent. He doesn't care about the plot as per usual, but his Talk option finally gives us something new.
Want to help liven things up a bit again? I won't go easy on you this time!
Well? Wanna?
Yes. Good! Then let's go. Should I explain the rules? Yes. Okay, here's how to play 10 Rocks. You'll need these to play. You get 3 cards and 5 rocks. I get the same. Each of the cards has something written on it:
Each of us chooses one card without the other seeing and puts it down. If you play "Add a rock," you add one rock to your total. If you play "Take two rocks," you take two of your opponent's rocks and add them to your total. However, if I had played the "Counter" card... You wouldn't get my rocks, and I'd get two of YOUR rocks.
So there you go, the rules. Need me to go over them again? No. The Fear of God Then let's go!
I'm sure there's some kind of top-tier optimal strat for "real" play but Dent does not require that kind of effort or care. He does the same stuff in the same order every time.
So we add 1 rock.
He decides to try and Counter so we already have an edge.
This happens twice in a row, even.
He tries to flip that here, but we're a step ahead so...
We're at 9 and he's at 3.
Literally doesn't matter what he does here, because Adding 1 can't be stopped and gives us a win.
Uugghhhh! You got me... You win. You're pretty good at this stuff, Hitonari...
That was probably the most long-winded and difficult way to earn 2500 Macca in a while. You can instant kill Tam Lin for more than that consistently and effortlessly.
That was a great way to kill time. Thanks a lot! Prayer
We can talk to Dent normally again after beating him.
I've been pretty busy lately. Still, every now and then I miss the games we used to play. Wanna play again? I think it's important to take five here and there.
No. What? This is no time for games? Sheesh, when'd you get so strict? Alright, fine... I'll concentrate more on my duties.You can play again if you really, really want. There is absolutely no reason to do so and you get nothing more from it. This is all his Talk option will give for... a very, very long time, I'm pretty sure.
But sidequests? Like, real ones? Nah, those are fine.
He's been preoccupied lately... Could you find out what it is and help him with it? Will you grant Anthony's request? Yes.
...You can tell this guy is going to be really important even within his own sidequest because has the Generic Srike Team Man sprite.
I'm Anthony, with the strike team. Nice to finally meet you. You know, I'm actually a pretty famous guy within the strike team.
When I ask why, they just laugh... What's the deal with that? But thats beside the point right now, I guess...
I also hear you're a pro when it comes to demon negotiation. Hell, you talk more to those demons than you do to your crewmates. C'mon, man, we're your buddies! Demons are fine and all, but you gotta pay attention to us every now and then too.Well, I DO pay attention to the people that are both worth it and that I can so...
You get me, man? I get you. Heh, glad you're quick on the uptake. Not that I would have expected anything less. I'm talking about listening to my problems... See, I got a favor to ask. Okay. Hey, thanks! All right, I'm not gonna beat around the bush here...
Silence
Fuck it, give me the trash pit. It'll be better than this.
Prayer
O-Oh... I get it... You think I'm joking, huh? No way, man. I'm deadly serious.
Isn't it natural to fall for one? No. No, it isn't. Alright, alright... I understand. There's no accounting for taste... But anyways, let's get back to my problems.
But here's the problem. Because of my current assignment, I can't move from this spot. So I can't even look for her, let alone talk to her. So here's the favor I need... If you run into that demon chick, tell her I'm looking for her. That's right. All I need you to do is talk with her. Easy, right?
....Well then. This might actually be funny.
But I can describe her for you!
Oh, I know who that is.
I'm counting on you, bro!
Before we get to see just how badly this blows up in that guy's face, let's make a few new demons. Baphomet's pretty okay but without adding a Source I've already given him more utility. Mamudo is good for randoms at least; Fog Breath is double Sukunda and thus doesn't count for anything.
Nothing special resistance wise that you can't already see.
Also Dis. Her inheritance is only geared towards Wind and Ailments. This is... weird, for sure, but we can use that to make her really good at Wind at least.
In hindsight, I should've kept Makakaja over either Recarm or Mediarama (healing skills do not matter at all on demons) but it's really not that big a deal.
So, let's just... ignore our current sidequest for a minute. There's one we want to start first that we'll finish last. It's gonna take a long while...
A Squandered Nation
In the room where we found Mastema, we can find this Dwarf now. He's been hanging out here since Horkos attacked the Red Sprite.
I'm Dwarf. I work as a blacksmith here. You came at just the right time, boy. I got a favor to ask you. This place has nearly all the materials I need. It's the perfect spot to make weapons. But it seems I'm missing some things here and there. I want you to go get 'em for me. Willya do it for me? Yes. Glad to hear it!
You bring me all that and I'll forge you my best weapon. I'm countin' on you, boy.
Well, that was so easy it tells us we're already done when we leave the room.
...We've been able to buy a Cursed Lance for a long, long while in case you forgot. It's that thing what's a Pixie Knife but way shitter.
Not bad, not bad! I'll make you the best weapon these hands know how! It'll take me some time. Mind waiting 'til I'm done?"Some time" is a giant understatement. It takes 10 full moon cycles before he finishes.
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah, gonna let that cycle in the background while we do everything else and still have to waste some time before he finishes.
So, Anthony's terrible, terrible life choices lead us to go into Bootes.
A Frivolous Nation
We're going to continue ignoring Anthony's thing for a moment longer. Melchom's still here and now that we've beaten Horkos has something new!
Care to take it on?
Yes. I'm glad you know how to follow orders. All I ask is that you get results.
As fortune would have it, we have exactly enough to complete this now. I think you can get a max of 3 by now somehow but I don't remember entirely - 1 from the Sandman sidequest in Antlia, 1 as a guaranteed drop from Mitra and 1 from another sidequest maybe?
I can't say I was planning on using them anytime soon anyway, and this gives us more than we'd get from selling them to Irving. How fortuitous.
I look forward to working with you again....Well, now we need to kill time and we're in Bootes. Let's find that totally mysterious demon that Anthony wants us to talk to.
Encounter
Uhhh... refresh my memory? I mean, yeah, sometimes I charm men, but...
Hmm... Oh well. I wasn't that interested anyway. Tell that An-whatever guy, won't you? Tell him I don't remember him in the slightest. Besides, you look way more fun to talk to, handsome. If you want to chat sometime, I'm game. See you!...Let's just tell Anthony that, no, Leanan Sidhe is not interested in him unsurprisingly.
Prayer
> You reported to Anthony...
O-Oh... okay... Alright. That's cool. I'm okay with that.
Maybe I struck out this time but you did good, man. Thanks.
Mechanically, sure this was simple and an easy way to get 2 Incenses.
Honestly, I'm possibly more surprised Anthony is the only one to go this kind of weird.
...And he's got another sidequest already. Hopefully it'll be different sort of thing now.
He's been spacing out again, though I don't know why. Help the guy out. Will you grant Anthony's request? Y-Yes.
Hey, we're both still alive, huh? ...Actually, there's something else I need from you. Are you up for it?Oh, it IS something else. Okay, cool.
Yes. You're the man! I'll just cut right to the chase...
Silence Prayer Aww... not more of this silent treatment, man. We've been through this once already, man. Don't act like this now. ...Anyways, back to business.
Cute demon chick, wanna talk to her, can't move from here, yadda yadda. I need you to tell her that I gotta talk to her, man.
Oh, good. Anthony is one of Those People.
This is going to end Super Badly, and we all know that so let's just get this over with.
Encounter
I honestly don't remember if I mentioned Moh Shuvuu's are around as randoms in Carina or not. I don't think I did because there's nothing remotely relevant about it until now. So yeah, she's here on the 2nd floor and higher.
Also, thankfully, this quest is not all that weird and mostly just exists to take the piss out of people who really do that whole "she looks 8 but she's a 1000 year old demon so it's totally okay" thing.
> Moh Shuvuu has a complicated expression on her face...
...Actually, I like sucking on humans' brains... But I don't think I want any of this Anthony guy's. I bet they taste disgusting, and they'll make me dumb! Hyahahaha! Failure as a human! Failure as a human!Let's just get this one completely over now. We've got something else special in Carina but it can wait a few minutes longer. It'll probably take an hour to do knowing my luck anyway.
Prayer
> You reported to Anthony...
Wh-What...? That makes me sound like some kinda...! Dammit! She's hundreds of years old, right?
Not at all how that works.
Argh... forget it, okay!? This is grief I don't need! You too! Forget any of this ever happened! DOn't tell ANYONE, got it!?
Okay!?
If there's anything worthwhile to take from this, it's that the game does not play nicely with Anthony despite this being a fairly lengthy quest chain, all things considered.
We can at least make a bit of a dent now.
...No pun intended.
He's been spacing out again, though I don't know why. Help the guy out. Will you grant Anthony's request? N-Yes...
I guess I'm still sucking down air too somehow. ...Actually, I have another favor for you. You up for it? ....Yes. You're the man! I'll just cut right to the case...
Silence Prayer Aaaaand... more silence. Well, get used to it, buddy!
That REALLY would've been nice, yes.
Well, too bad! This time, she's a real cool girl!
But once I saw her, my freezing heart was on fire! I tried making a pass at her, but all that howling wind sorta drowned out my voice. And once the blizzard was over, I couldn't find her again... So there you have it. Think you can find her for me?
Not a big gaudy one like a geisha would have, something simpler.Well, that's... um... er... we haven't actually ran into anything matching that description, huh? Guess we're gonna have to leave this one for later or something. Oh how tragic.
So, let's head to Antlia instead for a minute. There's something here we can do now.
A Scorched Nation
She's good with household chores, so she'd keep the place clean. Could you bring Silky here? Pretty please? Yes. I knew you'd do it! I'm counting on you.I grabbed one off-screen earlier. They're not exactly rare in Carina and pretty easy to fuse as well, so...
Take this as thanks.
Thanks to you, I'm one step closer to building a village of faeries. Wait 'til you see it when it's all finished!
Goblin has nothing new to say right now.
This is a fairly large town... Which makes it all the more delightful!'Nother new rare forma, so let's go take this to Irving.
Enemy Challenge is... very specific in its use. It raises the encounter rate. It does it a lot. A lot. It varies somewhat by sector, but in some places this thing can give you a fight every 4 steps.
I kinda like it. It makes it so much easier to grind Forma and just grind in general, if you're into that; I am but I'm not doing it here.
Oh and now we're done with sidequests we can finish at the moment. Except that Dwarf, but he's working on that still.
The Fear of God
So, let's go to Carina to get that Forma we need. Yamawaro is in the dark rooms and in the Sanctums but he just... never turned up during the normal run through. I don't know, he's not even rare so I just got RNG trolled I guess.
He's terrible. He's weak to Expel and Curse, and has a 300% weakness to Mute. He has no resistances. His default skills are Bobasma, Rampage and Garu. His source gives his normal moveset except it sensibly replaces Garu.
It drops it for Magaru.
Also he's a Strength demon but his inheritances are the same as Dis: Wind and Ailments. Fuck Yamawaro.
But now that he's turned up, we can get every Forma in Carina.
Except one. There's one special little guy that has yet to appear. I mentioned this before, but the Enemy Search here has a fight that has a 2% spawn rate.
This guy never appears as an Unknown. But, don't worry; I swear, by my sword and capote, that I will once again prove victorious!
Fiend Matador An Honor Befitting That Name
Okay, so Matador. Having had plenty of time to prepare for this guy, he's kind of defanged a lot at this point. But that's fine, he's still a Fiend and notably does have an Analyse gauge here. Which means that, yes, in this fight he is treated internally as a (mini)boss.
He's also Matador. So, of course he's all about dealing a lot of Phys damage in as little a time as possible.
He's weak to Elec, and nothing else, but uh... Hitonari has a Bufudyne gun and just got buffed by the enemy. Thanks, Matador.
He resists Phys and Gun and all Matadors are immune to Curse. Enemy Search Matador is immune to Expel as well, but usable ones only resist it.
No Andalucia here, instead he just uses Deathbound. This is standard Moderate Phys damage on all foes. It could be better.
His only other skill is a passive that doesn't do anything for an enemy Matador.
The End
He also doesn't have a lot of health here - 500 which is less than half of what David had. So he drops fairly quickly, yes.
Incidentally, he's immune to all ailments in this fight, but when we get one he'll very heavily resist all of them except one, which we haven't seen yet. And by "heavily" I mean heavily. He has a 25% modifier.
Fiends are the only Enemy Search demons that give EXP. There is one Fiend in every Sector from Carina onwards and they all have a 2% chance of appearing.
I could be wrong here, but I think they all guarantee all of their drops as well. The Forma and middle one are definitely guaranteed across the board at least, so if he wasn't so rare we could get infinite Soma Drops from Matador.
End A Squandered Nation
We'll get a Matador of our own as soon as we reach level 30, yes. For now, we'll just make a Doppelganger. Not for wacky Shenanigans (that comes later, and is more specialised than this).
No, just because he's an ingredient in making Horkos along with Momunofu and Macabre. Usable Horkos is... kind of okay, I guess. He can inherit a lot of things, Mana Drain is good for a Phys demon and good in general (until later when we get a better version) and his default skills are fairly solid.
Really his Source and that he can beinstakilled are the biggest disappointments here. His Source is Life Surge (+30% max HP) and nothing else. This is kind of a mixed blessing in a way. On the one hand, yes, Life Surge is terrible and a waste of a slot on anything ever. On the other hand, it is REALLY good if a demon ever wants to skill change that thing.
But we'll get to that another day. For now, while I was midway through grinding Forma, this finally happened.
Here y'go.
One of my best works, if I do say so myself. I might ask you to fetch some materials for me if I run out again, so don't fail me, boy.Translation: he'll have a new quest for us later.
The Hawthorn Spear is pretty okay. It's a decently strong weapon that can inflict Mute. It's good for shutting down some demons for sure, but I prefer the Chainsaw overall because Mute resistance is more ubiquitous.
For now, we're done with everything except filling out the remainder of the Lab's stock so let's go see what Irving has for us.
Prayer
The Nihil is an... interesting weapon. It's a single, adequately strong attack on a target chosen entirely at random that has a decent chance of Paralyzing them. It's mostly okay for that Paralyze but not as useful for randoms because of the inability to target being a liability.
It is super time-consuming to make, though: it takes AT Carite II x2, Genma Spear x6 (Tam Lin) and Enigma Clay x5 (Kanbari).
The Phozon Knife is super-boring and straight forward. It's not even that strong, but you're most likely expected to luck into getting this much, much earlier.
Except it's worse than the Plasma Knife fundamentally (it's a whole 5 points of attack stronger), and you realistically get it later. It takes AT Carite II x2, Wilder Volt x3 (Raiju) and Divine Shield x2 (Power) to make.
I... know basically nothing about the Cat's Punch gun, to be honest. I've never used it because you probably won't get it in any reasonable timeframe. It hits 1 random target or it hits random targets for more damage.
So what makes it hard to make? It takes AT Carite II x2, Beast Hairball x4 (Nekomata) and Red Capote x1.
In terms of armor, the Recycle Vest is inexplicably the "best" we can get. It's got the 2nd highest Defense out of the lot we can pick up and it resists Phys (and Gun)!
...Except it makes you weak to Fire, Ice, Elec AND Wind. Ouch. Yeah, I'll pass on that one thanks.
Takes DF Carite II x2, Vermin Abdomen x2 (Myrmecolion) and Raptor Dress x2 (Moh Shuvuu).
The Gustible Vest is honestly even worse. It gives less downsides, but it's also really not that great. A Gun resistance isn't super-great, it's probably the least useful on average, and it's less defense than the Recycle Vest.
Fortunately, it's a quick and easy thing to get. DF Carite x1, Wood Gourd x2 (Shan Xiao) and Spirit Blaze x1 (Inferno).
Think I'll just go with the Ice Vest. Nullifies Ice and has the highest Defense stat to date? Don't mind if I do.
And lastly, the accessories. Oh god the accessories...
The Stoic Ring is... actually not that good. It makes Hitonari immune to Charm, but if he gets Charmed that less of a big deal than it sounds. It just means he attacks dudes, with his sword. Most of his swords are kind of terrible so this doesn't matter too much.
If you care about that for one reason or another - it IS the best alternative to the Yggdrasil Ring right now - then its AC Carite x2, Spirit Scythe x2 (Macabre) and Fairy Kerchief x2 (Silky) to make.
Stamina Ring is +15 HP and nothing else. Save your AC Carite x1, Jirae Tools x2 (Dwarf) and Brute Pelt x1 (Yamawaro) for literally anything else.
Might Ring is +4 Strength. That's kind of okay, I guess? Except, eh, not really. 4 stat points really do not make that big of a difference in practice.
AC Carite x1, Wood Gourd x2, Drake Stripes x2 (Zhu Tun She) if you want it. We don't get any other +4 stat boost accessories here though.
Counter Ring is very niche and kind of maybe sometimes useful, but I'm not gonna bother with this one either. It's a 30% chance to counter any Phys/Gun attacks, just like the Counter skill if you care.
AC Carite x3, Foul Clay x2 (Doppelganger) and Red Capote x1 to make it. That's sure why I wouldn't make it at least.
Anyway, we've done everything we CAN do right now. Into what looks like a cesspit of misery and trash we go...