Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume Part #15

Part 15: Chapter 3C (4)

Duwain's joined our party as a Guest, so let's see what we have to work with.

Duwain's a Lancer, and his weapon (the Partisan) is decently strong, has two attacks, and is SC enabled. The two attacks we can access right now are a standard two-hit swipe (Blustering Wind) and a jumping knockdown slam (Sundering Strike). Duwain is notable in that he is one of only two non-Sorcerer characters with a knockdown without also having a launcher, which means he synergies well with Wylfred or Gwendal.

Duwain also has a unique siege technique - Caution lowers Lancers' ATK, but raises the blocking rate of everyone in the siege. This is a pretty bad trade-off, so it's not really worth using it and it's usually worthless against Sorcerers.

Before we do any battling, Market Marleigh is back for our usage, meaning shops and checking in on the tavern.

There's nothing useful under the weapons section - Wylfred, Darius, Rosea and Gwendal all have better stuff than is available right now, and Duwain already has the Partisan that's sold here. Armour-wise, I pick up Chainmails for Darius and Gwendal (Wylfred can keep the Icicle Plate).

Poison and Curse Checks are also now available - Curse is similar to Stone/Freeze/Paralysis/Stun but the afflicted character can still move. The Others section has a new technique, Resist Magic, which randomly raises RST in battle. Not of much use really.

There are a few new spells, though we can't teach Rosea any of them while she's a Guest. Lightning Bolt is just as strong as Sacred Javelin and its Soul Crush is stronger, but only does three hits and has the lowest Attack Gauge boosts of spells. It also knockbacks instead of knockdowns. Might and Spell Reinforce are extremely useful - they raise the ATK/MAG of the target character by 50% for 30 AP. The Might Spell/Potions only boost it by 20%, and they stack with the spell additionally for a possible 70% raise. However Vali's Awakening is multiplicative, so a fully buffed Wylfred will have 340% ATK. Sweet stuff.

Pearl Grasses and Holy Water are also available now to cure Paralysis and Curse, along with the earlier Cockatrice Eggs for Stone, Honeysuckle Dew for Poison and Thaw Water for Freeze. Stun is the only status that can only be cured with Normalize or Elixirs.

Next stop, the tavern!

There are those among kobolds able to bewilder men with a single blow. I pray you do not fall to their charms, sire.

Oft is odor an omen of poison... And preparedness a mark of wisdom...

Two free battles in the tavern today. We'll get right on those.

We'll do the easier one first.

We'll bring in Duwain and letting Darius sit this one out.

Right, this... is not a hard fight.

There are loads of tiny weak Kobolds from the very first map of the game. Any character at this point can slay them without breaking a sweat.

In the mix of all that, there are three upgraded Kobold Knights. These are moderately more dangerous but only for a single attack, and they are pretty easy to kill with coordinated effort.

Rosea has really been pulling her weight in numbers lately, even with spells' lower damage multipliers.

This is the only real threat from the Kobold Knights - they have a throwing hammer strike that always inflicts Stone unless you have a Stone Check or block/avoid the attack. It's annoying but isn't really worth getting Stone Checks just for this battle - Cockatrice Eggs cost 150 OTH while Checks cost 2000, so you'd have to end up using 16 Cockatrice Eggs just to break even.

Kobolds are terrible for experience.

The Knights are substantially better.

Actually, you know what? I might not be using Gleipnir's Bonds to cheese plot fights but I have no qualms about it in free battles.

Well now, this is like shooting fish in a barrel.

Imagine this, repeated six times for all the Kobolds.

Duwain's Soul Crush

Duwain's Soul Crush is very powerful, but has the drawback of only dealing three hits - for that reason it's usually best used at the end of a Soul Crush chain to maximize damaage.

The last Kobold Knight also drops this. I'm not sure I'll ever use it but at least it saves me a bit of OTH should I ever want it.

And for the second free battle.

I swap Duwain back for Darius for this fight.

The map is the same as the first one in Chapter I (when we were introduced to Cheripha), and we're up against an Ocypete, two Lizard Men, and three new enemies - a Toxic Flower and two Will-o'-the-Wisp.

I should really stop using this but it's a free battle and it's not like I'm going to be able to use it in any other routes...

Oh crumbs, the Ocypete is the one that's the leader.

Well, Rosea's...

...toast?

I have no idea how she survived that, but... she did? I guess that 10% resistance from the Leather Boots really paid off.

Let's fix that paralysis right up.

This is also where enemy HP starts being a bother - Darius doesn't even kill the Ocypete with his Soul Crush and I have to use Wylfred's to finish the job.

The Lightning Edge has 90 ATK, two attacks and 20% Lightning elemental, but has no Soul Crush so it's automatically shop fodder.

There's also a Supreme Crown as a hidden item on the map - 10 MAG, 40 RDM and 20 RST that I forget to pick up. Not a huge loss since we don't have any male units that can make use of crowns right now.

I also approve when level ups undo all the hard work enemies do.

You won't need treasure where you're going.

Rosea can't Dash right now, so she'll just Guard Reinforce when she has nothing to do.

Will-o'-the-Wisps are the next tier of Ghosts. Their attacks are Fire in nature and they resist Darkness. Otherwise they aren't too notable.

They also have a handy weakness to Holy, as Rosea and Gwendal will be delighted to discover.

The Azoth Blade would actually be a decent weapon, but it's a dagger and we don't have any Rogues. So shop fodder.

Toxic Flowers have good HP, ATK and resist Earth, but have low defenses and aren't really a threat. They retain the poison breath attack characteristic of Flowers, and have a surprisingly high MAG stat but can't make use of it in any way. Oddity.

Darius' third attack is Resonator, a four-hit stab that knocks the enemy back slightly. Its main use is to allow Darius to reap gems for himself, which can be very useful - because Faze doesn't last forever, after a while enemies recover and can counterattack if you haven't finished attacking and you can't collect gems from them again. Resonator allows Darius to get gems from his own combo and knock them up and down again to reset the loop.

I live only to make amends.

Dark Savior is the strongest spell. It also has a decent chance of Silencing targets, which is troubling for Sorcerers but everybody else can mostly ignore it unless you really need to Dash.