Part 66: Part SG-2

We stole the Glance Reviver from Lezard, so we'll immediately give it to Lenneth (after thoroughly sanitizing it first. It's one of three swords that allow access to her level 3 Nibelung Valesti.

Sadly, although Lenneth's bow attacks are superior in terms of hit count, multipliers and meter building, the sheer power of swords outclasses them. The Razor Shaft is the most powerful bow, and already the Glance Reviver has 1.5 times its attack power. And it's not even the most powerful sword.

The Glance Reviver does have one very nice trait to it, aside from being instant death to enemies weak to Dark. It has a 8% chance of instantly killing any non-boss enemy and healing Lenneth for that amount. Which is quite respectable considering that some of the normal enemies later on are very tough.

It also turns Lucian into a killing machine. Level 3 Nibelung Valesti, or deadly Shining Bolt? Up to you I suppose.



It should go without saying we immediately slap Lezard into our party. Sorry Mysty.

Unliving Vapors are weak to Holy, so Celestial Star smashes them even more than usual.



There are quite a few Eternal Garbs scattered throughout the dungeon, though some of them are behind Flame Jewel doors.



Necro Centipedes are pretty weak. They're also weak to Poison, so Poison Blow overkills them even more.



And for our third Flame Jewel door, we get...







...Perfect. Mystic Sage is the best wand in the game. As you can tell by the stat screen, it provides a staggering 8500 Magic Power. Oh, and it also allows Great Magic without breaking.

With a Magic Bangle, a Sorcerer hits 5-digit Magic Power. We're really into endgame stuff now.

The Kusanagi is the best katana - it has 2990 Attack Power, and it instantly kills enemies weak to Holy. A decent option for Jun and Suo until you can give them better swords (the Laevaetinn is actually an okay, if inconsistently stronger option), but they can do better eventually.





We have to do a little chain hopping, but nothing too puzzling.



Mummies are weak to Holy. Easily ignored for the most part.



Time to teleport into the third part of the Gate - green. Enemies also really start ramping up now.



Abyss (Abyssi? Abysses?) have a generous amount of health (205,000) and a high STR score, but since they always appear alone, you can blitz them down without too much trouble.



Larvae don't hit very hard, but they're a slog to take down. With 285,000 health each and appearing in groups of three or four, you really want to pump out a powerful Great Magic to whittle down their health as much as possible.



Aaaand door number four.





Aside from another Golden Egg, we get these two. The Ethereal Divide is the strongest spear, with 3300 Attack Power. It hurts Lawfer and Aelia a bit since unlike Jun and Suo, they'll never get anything better to compete with the swordsmen and mages, but they do have some of the best multipliers in the game anyway.

The Holy Wand of Telos is technically the best wand in the game, at 9920 Magic Power. However, it doesn't allow Great Magic. I'd probably stick with Mystic Sage.



Let's open a fifth Gate.



...Well don't you look friendly.



Dragoon Tyrants are re-skinned versions of Bloodbane, with all his attacks. The main advantage here is that his biggest threat, Gravity Blessing, is slightly more survivable now with Eternal Garbs, which cut Lightning damage down heavily. They're still a slog to fight through, but if you have a couple of the new weapons he shouldn't be too bad... hopefully.



He will still spam Gravity Blessing at low health though, so don't dilly-dally with him.



Deeper behind the door, what will we find?













OST: Climax of the Tower

Brahms has a funky soundtrack.

That said, compared to Lezard, this isn't much of a fight. Brahms doesn't have that much more health than Lezard (172,000 compared to Lezard's 100,000), but he fights alone, and can only really kill one character at a time.



Even then, he really needs to pop Bloody Curse to do it, and he doesn't even always do that. So it's really not a fight you should be losing.



This might also be fitting.





Not bad.



Oh, I guess if you're using more than one archer then...?





And now we have an undead guy on our team. Which I guess isn't that different from carting around Einherjar.



Age: Unknown
Class: Pugilist/Lord of the Undead
Race: Undead
Gender: Male
Homeland: Unknown

King of the Vampires and Lord of the Undead, he has fought many battles against Odin. He has taken the spirit of Silmeria, one of the Three Goddesses of Fate, but his sense of honor prevents him from ever harming a hostage.

Statwise, Brahms is similar to a Swordsman. He joins at level 30, which means he has the same problem as Lezard with not being able to abuse Bracelets of Zoe, but he'll be able to cap DME if you so wish it anyway. Brahms is kind of like Jun taken to 11 - his attacks are occasionally tricky to work with, as two out of three of them are uppercuts, which could mean knocking an enemy out of a fighter's low attacks. Still, Brahms is pretty decent, and Bloody Curse is a great PWS, as it inflicts the second most number of hits of any PWS, with 17 (Llewelyn's Layer Storm can hit 20, but only on large enemies), and also ties with Belenus and Aelia's own PWS in terms of multipliers. This makes him a great supporting unit for a PWS chain.



I don't use Brahms just yet, as we don't have any good weapons for him. Soon enough.

Anyway, Zorkeryl don't hit very hard, but like Larvae, they are a pain to take down, since they have close to 300k DME and heal themselves every five turns.



This next bit is slightly annoying, first, we enter this room at the top of a tall hallway.



We'll just take a side stop through the sixth Flame Jewel door.





Perfect. Just what we needed.



Nefarious is not only the strongest greatsword in the game, but also the second strongest weapon based on raw power, boasting an absurd 13,000 Attack Power. Sure, it locks the user into their third attack, but all the Warriors have their third attack as their best anyway. Even Grey isn't so terrible with it equipped.

It also has a touch of death on enemies weak to Ice, not that it really matters in the Gate.



The Bloody-Duster is simple. 7800 Attack Power for Brahms, making him an instant threat. Now we can put him into the party.



Back out of the door, we'll have to crouch-slash all the glass panels in our way, dropping through the holes as we do.



Hold on, yet another door.













OST: Shiver

Freya's slightly more of a threat than Brahms. She's got triple Lezard's health (300,000).



In comparison to Brahms, who mostly just sneezed on you, Freya will happily smite down a foe everytime she touches someone. She'll toss in an Ether Strike if she feels like overkilling someone in style.

But at the end of the day, she can still only kill one character per turn.



How'd you like them 240k+ damage apples?





Freya's kind of mean that way.







It's been a long time since we've used her, huh? Freya's pretty much what we'd expect from her - damage up the wazoo. Her multipliers are only beaten by Bow Lenneth, and cover a large area. Her drawback is her slow combo speed, but aside from that, she's pretty much top tier.

Oh, right, Ether Strike is the most powerful PWS in the game. How powerful? Well, it's double the strength of Aelia's Dreaded Dragon. It's also the only PWS aside from Great Magic to have an element - Poison. So it becomes even more murderous against enemies weak to it. Yeah...



Just like Brahms, we don't have any of Freya's weapons, so we'll hold off on now. I personally don't use Freya because she teleports a lot and that slows down my game greatly, but non-mechanical reasons aside once you get a good weapon for her she cements her place as the damage dealer in your party.

Accused Ones are pretty much what you'd expect from them after their recoloured brethren - Possess and such. The only difference is that they have a lot more health (380,000), so just whittle them down a bit more before dropping a Great Magic on their heads.



Back to what we were doing. After slashing all the glass panels and dropping all the way down, if we head left a little we'll find a teleport that returns us to above. We then need to return to the top of the glass panels, and now drop all the way down through the holes we've created - if done right, we'll land with enough force to press a switch that opens a door.



He might not be a Warrior with a Nefarious Glaive or Freya, but I've got a bit of a spot soft for Brahms. Coolest vampire around.



Okay yeah this is pretty disgusting. The game isn't messing around so much anymore.



Time for the last boss of this section.











OST: Incarnation of the Devil

Time for a semi-competent boss... at eating up our time. A mainstay of tri-Ace games and the Seraphic Gate, Gabriel Celeste has more health than any enemy so far, with a whopping 800,000. He knows Icicle Edge and Frigid Damsel, and specializes in single-target damage. You know what that means? He can still only really kill one unit at a time.



Empress Massacre is hideously strong, and yet... only kills one unit. Freya was doing that just fine, thanks.



Not to say that Gabriel isn't a threat - at low health, he'll start unleashing Meteor Swarms on the party, which might actually kill now, especially considering his gigantic INT score (32,000, third highest in the game). However, you can prepare ahead of time and set up Darkness protection (Sylphan Robes cut the damage down by 90%, and you still have the Nibelungen Ring for Lenneth).



Or, since he only uses it at low health, you can just blitz him when he's hovering around 40% with a full PWS chain and he should end without ever being a real foe.



I have been defeated... well done humans. I am sure we will meet again another time and place.



Nobody joining us this time, just some experience.

Next time: Crowd fools. Death shall teach you to fear me.