Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume Part #75 - Lap 1: Floor 1

Part 75: Lap 1: Floor 1 - 1.5

Welcome to your doom, fool mortal.

Who speaks?

...? Who are you?

---

So a brief bit on the SG shop. As mentioned before, it has a lot of powerful equipment in here, some of it at very imbalanced prices. For instance, the Elemental Edge costs a measly 3000 OTH. While you can't buy Sacred Javelin, you can also pick up Frigid Damsel if you're using Lockswell or Lieselotte.

Since you don't start with any money, a quick way to get some cash early on is to strip any characters you're not using of their equipment and sell them - Warriors start with Gauntlets, which sell for 350 each; Archers, Natalia and Auguste start with Suede Boots, which sell for 500 each, and the three Lancers' initial weapons sell for 1000 each. I'd recommend getting a strong weapon with a SC to start with.

For my part, there's a new weapon for Auguste - Finger Spikes cost a measly 150, and give him 20 ATK, two attacks and allow him to use a Soul Crush, which is better than his initial weapon. Auguste has pretty crappy equipment even in the SG, but giving as many characters a SC is helpful. Warriors and Lancers all start with a SC weapon, but you'll probably want to get them an Elemental Edge/Partisan soon anyway.

(Also note how in the screenshot the Deluge Scepter costs less than the Alchemy Wand despite having about 70 more MAG. SG prices.)

I decide to get an Azoth Knife. Aside from the Elemental Edge, some strong beginner weapons are the Arbalest for Archers (costs 4000), the Wodao for Ushio (also 4000), or a Estoc for Swordsmen.

Auguste, Reinhilde and Lieselotte won the top three places. Phiona was in fourth place, and I was pretty tempted to stick with her, since she's honestly a pretty good character. But I decided to go another way, and as alluring as it would be to go with Gwendal, I'm going to go with Natalia.

The first map is very straightforward. There are two Dire Wolves, which have 200 health and are there just to give you easy experience.

Sadly Liese doesn't really have any useful spells to start off with. I could buy Frigid Damsel for her, but I'll pick up something better before too long.

Early item drops are very helpful since you don't have any money; Union Plume drops in particular are gold since they cost a hefty 1500 each.

Even with beginner weapons, you should have no trouble dispatching the Wolves.

The first two wolves are enough to get everyone a level up.

Gabriel Celeste is a recurring boss in the Seraphic Gate in the series; this is the first game where he isn't blond. He's a Sorcerer with Dark Savior and Enlightenment. He also has resistances to Ice, Earth and Dark.

Gabriel Silences Liese with Dark Savior. I don't have any Bragi's Songs, so she's useless for the time being.

Not that it matters too much - the Azoth Blade giving Natalia about 100+ more ATK finishes the fight fairly quickly.

Dash isn't available in the shops, so certain fights are the only way to get them. A quick shortcut is to re-do the lap three more times to fight Gabriel Celeste again immediately, so you'll get four copies of Dash (or even more if you so wish.) I didn't bother doing this, however.

---

There's an 'intermittent' floor in between each actual new floor - these are basically just filler battles. In this case, there are two Dire Wolves and two Kobolds. Absolute cakewalk again, and you can take the time to try out new character combinations if you so wish.

The only thing I'll point out is that there are hidden items occasionally on certain floors, which are important for nabbing certain weapons or items. In this case it's just a Provoke skill, but even if you don't use it it sells for 500 OTH, so one might as well pick it up since this fight is so easy.