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Welcome back!  Kwehry presses on alone, in search of treasure. It's (probably) what Riposte would have wanted.  Critical hits do up to twice as much damage as a normal one. They're a helpful bonus, but probably won't pull you out of a tough spot on their own.  Of course, enemies can get them too. The RNG seems to be sticky, in that you'll often get strings of sequential misses or crits.  Switches are a bit of a gamble. Early on, they're more likely to spawn treasure chests, but they can also drop you down a floor, spawn some enemies, or just do nothing, in addition to a few other, rarer effects. It's still worth it to hit them all, but try to keep close to the room's exit and be prepared for an ambush.  Our haul from the treasure was two saddles and a claw. I'll hold off on equipping them until I can get some ID going. In menus like this, un-ID'd items have a glowy font, while ID'd ones use white text. Note the ID'd saddle that I haven't yet equipped.  Haste. That's good!  Silence. That's bad. Silence prevents you from using spellbooks, so it's best to avoid it if possible.  This seems to be the status effect floor. Confusion essentially randomizes your facing whenever you do something. If there's enemies nearby, spells are your best bet for getting rid of them until you recover. Thankfully it's a short-lived status ailment. Status ailments overwrite each other instead of stacking, so you don't have to worry about being a poisoned, sleeping, confused, silenced, slowed, tiny frog.  A nearby goblin was kind enough to help us out with our identification issues.  And good thing, too. Our claws are cursed! Cursed equipment has a penalty to attack/defense compared to uncursed versions, and can't be removed once equipped. In this case, the claws would only provide +2 attack instead of the normal base of +3 for wooden claws. Yep, our -1 wooden claws still do more damage than our digging claws. Curses aren't so bad this early in the game, and even later on, IIRC, the game will never generate cursed equipment with a bonus (or malus, if you prefer) lower than -1. Plus, there's a tonic that'll fix a curse up right quick. It won't flip the enchantment, but it'll let you unequip the item.  It's around now that I remember that I have a saddle I can equip to reduce some of the damage I've been taking. Also, those chests have yet another wooden claw and saddle. The bookshelf next to the chests will always give you a spellbook when examined.  One of the game's more memorable early-game sidequests involves gathering up seven Thunder books. Another very important sidequest that opens up at the same time requires another. Having all eight by then makes things go a whole lot more smoothly, so Kwehry'll be on the lookout for bookshelves.  Despite our equipment bonanza, Status Effect Central continues on unabated with the introduction of sleep. Sleep is pretty nasty, as Kwehry will snooze on the ground for a few turns, giving enemies free reign to attack. The duration is short, but it's a nasty one.  Sleep traps also don't disappear once they've been triggered. If you're not careful, you can hit the trap every time you enter or leave the room.  Kwehry will also need some essence for the upcoming sidequests. Essences are a little unique, ID-wise. Normally, any items that aren't in your inventory are un-ID'd whenever you leave the dungeon. But once Kwehry finds out what a particular type of essence does, it'll remain identified forever. Goblin Essence, here, restores a bunch of HP when drunk.  Critter Essence restores energy. A sufficiently-resourceful Kwehry can meet all of his dietary needs without needing to rely on lucky potion or nut drops. With that, we're done with the third floor, and are ready to hit those st-    On the fifth floor, we reunite with our pal Riposte! If Kwehry's partner is needed for a cutscene, they'll be revived. Other than that, though, the only way to get them back is to leave the dungeon.   : What? You say we're stuck in here!?  : Hey, you can get through no problem. It looks too narrow, but you can go through diagonally. Come on, move it.Diagonal movement isn't quite as critical here as it is in other Roguelikes, but it can save you a turn here and there.  Meanwhile, Kwehry stumbles across a mini trap. Mini makes your physical attacks laughably weak. You can get around this by using magic. Anyway, let't take a closer look at that pointy-looking new guy.  They can curl up to reduce damage taken, and spend a few turns charging to shoot needles in random directions. They're a bit tougher than goblins and such, but still very much an early-game monster.  And finally, after covering the entire rest of the floor with nothing else happening, we run into the other 4F newcomer.  They can drop nuts. They can throw nuts. But, most vile of all, they can eat nuts.  But Kwehry doesn't mind sharing. After all, he can just drink the life energy of the nut eater's friends for sustenance.  Peanuts are the basic nut-type item. They restore about 30 energy. If a Nut Eater gets ahold of a nut, they'll spend a few turns chowing down on it. This gives you free reign to finish them off.  But do make sure you finish them off, or they'll go after your skull next.  Skull Eaters are beefy mofos. They hit almost as hard as the tier-3 goblin, and have more health, despite only being a tier-2 monster themselves. Their nut-thow attack can cause poison.   Poor Riposte doesn't stand a chance.  You'd think that Item Eaters would be the tier-2, and Skull Eaters the tier-3, but I guess not. They can cause confusion with their nut-throw attack, and hit like a truck, but oddly have less HP than Skull Eaters.  Kwehry, forgetting that this isn't Angband, attempts to use the hockey-stick technique to whittle down the dangerous foe. While Chocobo's Dungeon 2 doesn't have the same asymmetrical line of sight trickery that Angband does, it's still possible to confuse the pathfinding algorithm.  It's a little hard to see, but that line of rocks to Kwehry's northwest is just what we need.  We do one lap around, with the Item Eater in close pursuit...  And success! Now he's trapped on the other side of the barrier from us. He can't hit us with any of his attacks, but he's still close enough to blast with spells.  I should probably stress that this sort of "leveling up monsters then killing them with magic" cheese is entirely unnecessary. Arguably, it's even counterproductive, due to the loss of those spellbooks and all. Still, it's a fun gimmick and has a slight chance of getting a good item. Anyway, down the stairs!  Kwehry's starting to feel a little hungry. Maybe he should have eaten that nut himself.  Oh, hold that thought, new enemy time.  Sometimes they spawn with only 4 HP, meaning they die instantly to a single bottle. They'll charge up to cast a level 1 spell, so try to take them down before then. They'll often drop spellbooks on death.  Currently, for Kwehry, stones do 5 damage. Black mages will never have more than 5 HP.  In a treasure room, we finally have it happen. Something I've been dreading since the game began. Kwehry runs out of inventory space.  That "18/18" up in the corner shows our current carrying capacity. If we find a Carry Tag, a fairly rare item, we can expand it.  If you can't pick up an item, you can still use it from the floor by standing on top of it.  The faded card is used on another item. This means it's almost-certainly something we don't want to lose. Thankfully, Kwehry has an un-ID'd bleached card that might be helpful.   Oh. Well, once hte confusion wears off, we can pick up the faded card, anyway.  Oh, dammit. That blue smudge there is the first type of teleport trap. It'll send the victim off to a random spot on the current dungeon floor. In this case, it just warped Kwehry one room to the north.  And then Kwehry steps on an Invis trap. Enemies won't notice Kwehry when he's invisible. This is great for avoiding fights, but slightly annoying when you're trying to kill things. The card on the floor there is just a map card.  Map Cards not only reveal the floor's layout, but also the location of all enemies, items, and staircases. Since there's nothing in that room to the north, let's just go down the stairs.  6F has a unique tileset, and revives Riposte.   : It'll stink if it's a trap though... : But... it just might give me some treasure. Alrighty... Off-screen, Kwehry kwehs. Or was this back when Chocobos still warked? I forget. Anyway, Kwehry makes a Chocobo noise. : Hey, Kwehry?  The camera pans around a bit, before...  Kwehry is launched!  Doesn't stick the landing, though. That'll cost him a few points.  Thankfully, though, there just so happens to be a white mage in the vicinity. Next time:  Anime. So much anime. Speaking of, our new friend needs a name! As usual, we get seven characters, and please bold suggestions.
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May 1, 2016 21:53
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| # ? May 29, 2024 18:50 |
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