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Leraika
Jun 14, 2015

Luckily, I *did* save your old avatar. Fucked around and found out indeed.
Let me help, because I am very excited about the continued adventures of Wildcard the dog and Euchre the human!

e: woops, I helped too well

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Epicmissingno
Jul 1, 2017

Thank gooness we all get along so well!
Part 7: Dungeon Diving

This update, Euchre will be exploring Xeroph Shrine and hopefully finishing whatever it is that Wildcard wants him to do.



Onward, to adventure!

Music: Seeking Treasure



But my ultimate goal is the Nexus Chamber that lies at the heart of this shrine. Much danger lies within, but your word must be kept. Come with me into the shrine.



And with that, Euchre is deposited into the entrance hall of Xeroph Shrine.



Through the immediately obvious door lies this new room. To the left, just off-camera, are some stairs leading upwards. But what about the door straight ahead?



Another hallway, of course! This one contains some new monsters.

Music: Monster Battle



Imps aren't very interesting. They only have one non-standard ability.



Unfortunately for them it's Frizz, which proceeds to do less damage than their normal attack. Frizz dropped off in usefulness back on Infant Isle.



Euchre proceeds to scout one anyway, in the hopes that it will be slightly more interesting than its wild ways suggest. Unfortunately Imps have abysmal base MP and so have no hope of being used ever. Storage!

There's actually a reason for that MP, though! Imps are a joke enemy in pretty much every game they appear in. They have access to top-tier spells, but never have enough MP to use them. It can be pretty funny watching them try, though. Sadly, when they're on Euchre's side, they're just bad.



The next monster of note is the Dessert Demon. These are the near-mandatory monster that's way above the power level of everything else here, and they only appear in this corridor.



It's clear that they're not supposed to be fought when they start attacking. That's more than the Orc could do! Thankfully they don't seem to have any other tricks up their sleeves.



In an attempt to scout it, this is the highest Euchre could get with his current team setup. Yes, this is with a Wildcard at 100 tension. It's not worth the trouble right now.

Music: Seeking Treasure



Let the shining crests / Show you the one true path.

This stone tablet lies by the door at the end of the Dessert Demon hallway. That door that Euchre went through that led him here didn't have a "shining crest" near it, so it probably wasn't the right path. Going through the door leads back to the previous room.



Up the stairs to the left of the entrance is another door, but this one has a symbol on the ground in front of it. There's also a new monster here!

Music: Monster Battle



Hammerhoods, as enemies, are identical to Mischievous Moles in terms of gimmicks.



In other words they randomly Psych Up, making them stronger on their next attack. Immediately targeting ones which use it is a good strategy.

Music: Seeking Treasure



Giving them a taste of their own medicine with high-tension scouting is the name of the game here. Dedede here goes to storage, never to see the light of day.

What happens if Euchre ignores the obviously correct door in front of him and goes upstairs?



There's yet another door waiting for him, guarded by more Hammerhoods. Going through this one yields...



...the exact same corridor as last time. Great.



The door he just came through is sealed, too, so there's no way to go but through the monsters. Going through any "wrong" door results in the exact same room, so there's no reason to choose any more of those.

Going through the middle door, the one with the crest in front of it, leads Euchre to...



The same room again, but with a different crest in a different position - there are two circles now, and two lines in the centre of each instead of just one. They're coloured differently, too.



What isn't immediately obvious, though, is that the encounters have changed too. This one drops down from the ceiling.

Music: Monster Battle



Meet the Bag 'o Laughs. It's actually got something that hasn't come up yet.



Well, sort of. It's yet another multi-target Dazzle-inflicting ability. This one's a spell, though, which makes it totally different!

Music: Seeking Treasure



Into storage it goes, along with everything else.

Incidentally, the only other monsters in this room are Hammerhoods.



Not so much with the next room, accessed through the lowest door, which sports Imps and more Bags 'o Laughs which drop down on Euchre when he's running up the stairs.



This time the crest is on the top floor. The pattern with increasing numbers of circles continues, with three this time, and there are three lines inside each. Presumably the pattern will hold for any more after this.



Or maybe that was the last one, since the room layout has changed.

Music: Monster Battle



The new monsters here are Mummy Boys, by the way. They attack, and that's about it.



Unfortunately Euchre's luck runs out when trying to obtain one and the group gets angry.



In the free turn the Mummy Boys get from this they kill off both Healix and Ducktor Cid, so Euchre decides that running away is the best option. The team might need some work. Incidentally, this sort of situation is what Exodust and Chimaera Wings really come in handy for. Getting at least one of each at the Scoutpost is strongly advised.

So, what's the best way to get better monsters?

Music: Scoutpost



Synthesis, of course!

Oh? You've never synthesised monsters before? Synthesising lets you combine two monsters to create a brand new one.



The best way to learn is to do it yourself! Would you like to have a go?

Absolutely. The game does an okay job of explaining synthesis, but it's better to go more in-depth. Let's start off with the basics: monsters must be at least level 10 if they are to be used as synthesis components. This is why it's impractical to synthesise monsters until around this point; there's just no way to get the levels up high enough.



Here's the synthesis screen. You put two monsters in - one positive, one negative - and get one of three monsters out. Monsters' magnetic characteristic is randomly determined, and it's somewhere around 50/50. The reason why it's not exactly 50/50 is that there's actually a third option that appears rarely - neutral. Wildcard, for example, will always be a neutral monster. He, along with any other neutral monster, can be synthesised with anything else that isn't neutral.



It just so happens that Ducktor Cid and Healix, Euchre's only level 10 or above monsters, have opposite magnetic characteristics. Synthesising them can yield a Hammerhood...



...a She-Slime...



...or a Ghost. Which one is obtained is up to Euchre.

The way the game decides what monsters to offer is simple. First, it checks the ID numbers of the component monsters. These can be found in the Monster Library. Second, it checks the families of the monsters. There are eight families: Slime, Dragon, Nature, Beast, Material, Demon, Undead, and Incarni. Only the first seven matter in generic synthesis, which is what is happening now.

Since Euchre is synthesising a Beast monster and a Slime monster, the first two options will of those two families. The game finds the highest of the two components' ID numbers and checks each family for the next highest ID. In this case, the highest ID is that of Healix, at 23. The next monster that has an ID above 23 in the Beast family is Hammerhood, at 27, and the next monster in the Slime family is She-Slime.

The third monster uses the lower ID of the two in the same way, and the game has a lookup table to decide on the monster family to use.



In this case, with a Beast and a Slime, the result is an Undead. Ghost, with an ID of 7, is the next ID number up from Ducktor Cid's 4.

Oh, and when synthesising two monsters from the same family there's only one result. It takes the higher ID number and always produces a monster of the same family as the components.



A She-Slime will be used for this demonstration. Once a monster is created, it has to be named.



After that, skills have to be picked, like so:



The skills that can be picked from consist of all the skills belonging to the component monsters, plus the signature skill of the resultant monster. There are also any skills that putting points into other skills unlocked - for example, if there was a total of 50 or more points invested into Attack Boost among the parents, Attack Boost II would be among the inheritable skills.

It's worth noting that the total number of skill points that the component monsters put into a skill is halved and passed on to the resultant monster should it take that skill. If one component monster has 50 points in Healer, for example, the result will have 25 points in Healer. If there are any unspent skill points, the total is quartered instead of halved, so it's important to spend skill points if you intend to keep a skill around. Because some skill points are passed on, it's generally worth it to hold off on synthesising until level 11, since that's when monsters get their third batch of skill points.

Speaking of skill points, the number of skill points a monster gets when levelling up depends entirely upon the number of skills it has to spend them on. Scouted monsters almost always have two, but synthesised monsters generally have three outside of special cases. As such, they gain 1.5 times the number of skill points that scouted monsters do.

One more thing: Traits aren't carried over through synthesis. For example, in this synthesis Healix had the Trait Health Professional. Bo does not get Health Professional through synthesis, but instead has her own trait: Frizzmeister.



In any case, that demonstration didn't actually happen. Healix and Ducktor Cid will live to get synthesised another day. What did happen is that Rocket and Slash, two of the Slimes that Euchre scouted on Infant Isle, were synthesised instead.



The result was another Slime. When two of the same monster are fused together, the result is always another of that monster. Here's the thing, though: Gloop actually has higher stats than his predecessors.

Gloop's Stats posted:

19 HP
12 MP
16 Attack
15 Defence
13 Agility
17 Wisdom

Rocket's Stats posted:

17 HP
10 MP
12 Attack
5 Defence
8 Agility
12 Wisdom

The reason for the increase is that some of the component monsters' stats are added on to the result's base stats, meaning that the higher a monster's stats are, the better the result of a synthesis involving it will be. Even better, some of the components' stat growths will be added onto the result. This makes synthesised monsters gain considerably more stats on level-up than scouted monsters.

Essentially, synthesis is good and should be done as much as possible.



Clearly that means getting another Slime fused. Euchre picked up a couple of extra Slimes from Infant Isle earlier, you see, and they level up very quickly.



What happens when putting these two stronger-than-average Slimes together, though? Based on the rules of synthesis established so far, it would be another Slime, right?



Wrong. This is the result of something called Grandparent Synthesis, which are special synthesis recipes consisting of four monsters. In this case, the recipe for a King Slime is four Slimes.



This is the skill that makes King Slimes so good. Cleric gives Zapple, a strong tier 2 spell, and Multiheal, a mid-to-late game multi-target healing spell, in the first ten points. The only things wrong with this King Slime right now are the fact that it's stuck with Slimer, which isn't all that great, and its low MP pool compared to the costs of its spells.



In other news, Wildcard learned Oomph and Lightning Slash during the Slime grind, making him even more useful. I think it's time to try Xeroph Shrine again.

Music: Monster Battle



This is how much damage Monarch's Zapple is doing. It's not as big as the numbers that Wildcard could be doing with a combination of Psych Up and Lightning Slash (which does more damage than a normal attack on top of being Zap-element), but it doesn't take as long to set up. It's not sustainable, though, since Monarch is also the healer of the team right now.

Music: Seeking Treasure



In the face of such overwhelming power, a Mummy Boy is forced into Euchre's storage.



Just past the Mummy Boys are a couple of chests. The blue one, as always, contains a piece of darkonium, bringing Euchre's total up to two. The other one, though?



It contains an Yggdrasil Leaf, an extremely rare item which revives a single monster with all of their HP. It'll be useful if someone dies in an important fight.

Going through the door starts a cutscene.

Music: Sanctuary



Few would have done as I asked and accompanied me to this place. Are you as courageous and compassionate as you seem? Or are you just a fool? Time will tell, perhaps...



Once again, Euchre is deposited into a hallway. This one is a bit more interesting than the last, though.



The first things of note are the four statues along the walls. The two on the left show a salamander-looking thing and a wolf, and on the right...



...is a bird of some sort...



...and what might be a primate of some description. It's difficult to tell.



On the two doors in this hallway there are patterns of a wolf on the left, a dragon on the right, and a bird on the bottom. There's some other animal on the top, but it's impossible to see clearly due to having no vertical camera movement available.

There's nothing to loot here, though. Unfortunate. Maybe there's something in the next room.



Does that count as loot?



I'm sure that Euchre and the sentinel can just talk it out like sensible gentlemen.



Or it could attack first! That works too.

Music: Boss Battle



The boss of Xeroph Shrine, Golem is a brick wall literally, if not figuratively. Much like most things in this game, it's fairly simple if you know what you're doing and have a synthesised monster or two.

For this fight Euchre's packing Wildcard, who will be doing the majority of the damage with Psych Up/Oomph/Lightning Slash, Monarch, who will be on healing duty, and Cat-Ears, who will be lowering Golem's stats. Sadly Cat-Ears only has Slowing Slug for this, but it should be enough.



It hits hard, but strangely not as hard as the Dessert Demons in the very same dungeon. It can Psyche Up, though, to boost its damage. Funnily enough it never tried it in this fight, making it a cakewalk - if it does, it's a good idea to just have the team defend on the next turn.



The strategy remains largely unchanged - raise tension to 100...



...apply Oomph...





...and nuke the boss.

Music: None



Instead of a new weapon, this boss drops a manual. Euchre will be reading this thing as soon as possible.

Music: Sanctuary



Wildcard stares dumbfounded at his raw destructive power.



Then he walks forwards, towards the pedestal.



Give me now the power...





The pedestal starts glowing, making the screen fade to white...

Music: Sanctuary (Variation)



...and when the light clears Wulfspade is replaced with whatever this thing is.



...



The transformation has made me more powerful... ...though not yet powerful enough.



Farewell, Euchre, and may fortune favour you!

There's no way Euchre's giving up his MVP that easily. Oomph AND Psycho? It's a match made in heaven!



...Ah, I think I see. You have witnessed my power, and now you would have me join you?



...And yet, perhaps we can both profit from such an arrangement. You are, after all, competing in the scout challenge.



Then I would lend my growing strength to your cause and help you to victory. I must have the Mark if I am to complete my mission.



The victory alone is reward enough.

So the Scout's Mark is useless to anyone other than the Incarnus? Why is Dr Snap giving it out as a prize, then?



Euchre nods. He seems to think it's a fair deal, at any rate.



From this moment on, you shall be my master. Do not fail me, Euchre.



Now, to victory! The Monster Scout Challenge awaits!

Wow, that's got to be the shortest time between a character leaving the party and rejoining ever. In any case, Euchre's got another reason to compete in the Monster Scout Challenge. CELL seems to be ignoring him, so some more motivation is just what he needs.

Music: Sanctuary



The manual that the Golem dropped is the priority, though.



Reading it teaches Zoom, which is an incredibly useful spell.



It duplicates the effect of a Chimaera Wing, which means less needing to buy them from the Scoutpost shop. Exodust is still necessary, though. It's also easier to access in the menu than Chimaera Wings are, so that's another plus.

Music: Island



As Euchre is leaving the shrine, Hawkhart speaks up.

Here in Green Bays, there are three more shrines like this one. I must visit each of them if I am to attain the power I seek. Hmmm... I sense that the next shrine lies somewhere over yonder.



But of course, where we go next is up to you to decide.

If another shrine was on the next island, why wouldn't Wildcard let Euchre go there? That seems a bit short-sighted. Whatever the case, the team is looking a bit worse for wear after that fight. Why not go to the Scoutpost before heading off to parts unknown?



Euchre's just learned the perfect spell for it, too. With a cast of Zoom, he's enveloped in light...



...and flies off, while standing completely still. Well-animated this ain't, but at least it's consistent with most of the rest of the series.



It takes him straight to the Scoutpost, no questions asked. Handy!

Next time, Euchre will be heading off to the next island, but not before he finishes off some loose ends.

Extra: The Monster Library

Regarding monster synthesis, this section will only go over the monsters that Euchre obtains. That means no She-Slimes yet. Without further ado, let's begin!

King Slime





King Slimes have the Skill Cleric and the Trait Critical Massacre. They're also immune to Whack. They're not obtainable through generic synthesis, and require four Slimes to create through grandparent synthesis.

Cleric is an incredibly good skill. It contains Zapple and Kazap, the tier 2 and 3 Zap spells, Multiheal and Omniheal, the two multi-target healing spells, and Reheal, a spell which causes HP regeneration on a single ally. It also hosts Gigaslash and Gigagash, two very strong Zap-based abilities that target a single enemy and all enemies respectively. Finally it gives Zap Guard, which lowers damage from Zap-elemental attacks. The main problems with Cleric are a lack of single-target healing and the generally high MP cost of its abilities, both of which can be easily solved at end-game - putting another healing Skill on a Cleric monster really helps with the former, and the latter becomes less relevant as monsters get more MP available to them. Highly recommended.

Hammerhood





Hammerhoods get the Skills Huntsman and Attack Boost when scouted, and just Huntsman when synthesised. They have the Trait Psycho and are immune to Dazzle.

Huntsman is advertised as having abilities for hitting enemy weaknesses, but that's not entirely true - only three of its abilities actually do that. There's Dragon Slash, which does more damage to Dragons, Metal Slash, which does more damage to metal monsters, and Uncarnate, which does more damage to Incarni. The other abilities taught by the Skill are Sleep Sock and Assassin's Stab for inflicting status effects, Penny Pincher and Klepto Clobber for stealing money and items respectively, and Double Up, which does more damage than a normal attack but lowers the users defence on the turn that it's used. Overall Huntsman doesn't seem to know what it wants to be - Uncarnate is practically useless in single player, for example, while Penny Pincher and Klepto Clobber are useless in multiplayer. Other than that, its abilities are pretty good, though. It might be worth using if there's no other source for those.

Bag o' Laughs





Bags o' Laughs have the Skills Fear-monger and Defence Boost. They have no Traits or resistances.

Fear-monger specialises in abilities that confuse enemies or make them miss a turn. For the former there's Fuddle, Bemusing Breath, Baffling Bonk and Kafuddle, and for the latter there's Heart Breaker and Tongue Lashing. Spooky Aura is another ability that the Skill teaches, and it can be useful in the right circumstances - it lowers all enemies' resistance to magic. Inaction Guard and Confusion Guard also feature, to lower the chances of being inflicted with their respective ailment. Overall Fear-monger does what it sets out to do, which is to annoy the enemy with its two status effects. It's pretty useful and might be worth getting if you want a monster that can inflict these ailments.

Imp





Imps come with the Skills Frizz & Bang and Wisdom Boost when scouted and just Frizz & Bang when synthesised. They have the Trait Bangmeister, raising the power and lowering the MP cost of their Bang spells, and are immune to Fizzle.

Frizz & Bang is the same as it was for Spitniks in Part 6.

Mummy Boy





Mummy Boys have the Skills Graveheart and Attack Boost and have no Traits. They're immune to Crack and Whack, but vulnerable to Zap.

This is the third time that Graveheart has come up, with the previous times being on Ghosts in Part 4 and Funghouls in Part 5. It's exactly the same as it was both of those times.

Hawkhart





Hawkhart has the Skill Hawkhart, just like Wulfspade had the Skill Wulfspade. Its Trait is Psycho, again like Wulfspade. It's immune to Fizzle, weak to Water (which really doesn't crop up much) and healed by Fire.

The Skill Hawkhart is essentially the Fire equivalent to Wulfspade's Lightning. Frizz, Frizzle and Flame Slash replace Zap, Zapple and Lightning Slash. Singe and Sear replace Spark and Lightning. Fire Guard replaces Lightning Guard. The main difference between the two lies in its other spells, though - Snooze and Dazzle instead of Oomph and Sag. These are a little less useful than their equivalents, but still not actively bad.

Hawkhart II follows the same pattern as Wulfspade II, so everything moves up a tier. Frizz and Frizzle become Frizzle and Kafrizz, Sear and Cremate replace Singe and Sear, Inferno Slash replaces Flame Slash, and Frizz Guard is added on top of everything else. Strangely, Dazzle is still learned, but Snooze is replaced by Kasnooze. This is probably because Dazzle only has one tier. The skill point costs of the two are swapped around, though. Unlike Wulfspade II's sidegrades, Hawkhart II completely obsoletes Hawkhart.

Overall, Hawkhart II is pretty good, just like Wulfspade II. The non-fire abilities are more situational, though, so it's not quite as good.

Epicmissingno fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Aug 18, 2017

POOL IS CLOSED
Jul 14, 2011

I'm just exploding with mackerel. This is the aji wo kutta of my discontent.
Pillbug
I don't care if they're useless, the imps are adorable.

Gotta say I'm not a huge fan of Wildcard's new look, though. Seems a bit... half-baked.

POOL IS CLOSED fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Jul 30, 2017

serefin99
Apr 15, 2016

Mikoooon~
Your lovely shrine maiden fox wife, Tamamo no Mae, is here to help!

I absolutely hate Hawkhart's design. It looks like it's been skinned, it's just gross. I wish there was a way for him to keep this 'new power' while going back to the adorably badass dog form.

POOL IS CLOSED
Jul 14, 2011

I'm just exploding with mackerel. This is the aji wo kutta of my discontent.
Pillbug

serefin99 posted:

I absolutely hate Hawkhart's design. It looks like it's been skinned, it's just gross. I wish there was a way for him to keep this 'new power' while going back to the adorably badass dog form.

Yeah, it's definitely like a newly hatched/unfledged bird. Or a plucked one. Hm.

CptWedgie
Jul 19, 2015
Yeah, the Hawkhart's just weird-looking. Kinda like someone stuck some armor (or armour, however you spell it- Dragon Quest in general seems to prefer the latter) on a vulture or something.

Gotta say, though, that King Slime you synthesized might actually have the potential to be your team's VIP for a few islands (discounting Wildcard, which I don't know enough about to make any calls, and apparently changes its identity too often to be fully reliable). Do you think you could use it to help scout a few of those "out-of-place" monsters that were too strong before? Or would that require another layer of fusion (or two, or three) to bring your third member up to Rank C?

Epicmissingno
Jul 1, 2017

Thank gooness we all get along so well!

CptWedgie posted:

Gotta say, though, that King Slime you synthesized might actually have the potential to be your team's VIP for a few islands (discounting Wildcard, which I don't know enough about to make any calls, and apparently changes its identity too often to be fully reliable). Do you think you could use it to help scout a few of those "out-of-place" monsters that were too strong before? Or would that require another layer of fusion (or two, or three) to bring your third member up to Rank C?

The King Slime is not level-appropriate in the slightest, and it's just the start - I'll probably be trading it in for something even more ridiculous at some point. Unfortunately due to its role as a mage and its lack of Psycho it won't be very helpful for scouting. As for Wildcard it's actually possible to change it back to Wulfspade, as far as I recall, and since (slight spoilers) all Incarni have Psycho he'll always fit the same niche.

Also, there are multiple monsters in each rank, so two or three fusions would maybe get one of the higher-tier monsters that Euchre has at the moment to scrape a rank D. Progress through the ranks is supposed to be gated by the ranks of wild monsters, but special synthesis recipes can blow that wide open. I'm thinking of maybe putting another section at the end of each update detailing which special synthesis recipes are available with Euchre's stock of monsters, to show what's available for anyone playing along.

serefin99
Apr 15, 2016

Mikoooon~
Your lovely shrine maiden fox wife, Tamamo no Mae, is here to help!

Epicmissingno posted:

I'm thinking of maybe putting another section at the end of each update detailing which special synthesis recipes are available with Euchre's stock of monsters, to show what's available for anyone playing along.

That would be really cool! I'd love to see what crazy things you could do at any given point, and it'd help build excitement for the crazy things you are doing.

MightyPretenders
Feb 21, 2014

quote:




...and when the light clears Wulfspade is replaced with whatever this thing is.




Behold, Plato! I have brought you a man!

CptWedgie
Jul 19, 2015

Epicmissingno posted:

Also, there are multiple monsters in each rank, so two or three fusions would maybe get one of the higher-tier monsters that Euchre has at the moment to scrape a rank D.

What if one of the ingredients is a King Slime, though? That would skip you straight to a C-ranker, right? That's what I meant by "another layer of fusion" since you seem to have misunderstood me.

Leraika
Jun 14, 2015

Luckily, I *did* save your old avatar. Fucked around and found out indeed.

Epicmissingno posted:

I'm thinking of maybe putting another section at the end of each update detailing which special synthesis recipes are available with Euchre's stock of monsters, to show what's available for anyone playing along.

Oh poo poo yes, do that. I love watching people show how games can be busted wide open.

Epicmissingno
Jul 1, 2017

Thank gooness we all get along so well!

CptWedgie posted:

What if one of the ingredients is a King Slime, though? That would skip you straight to a C-ranker, right? That's what I meant by "another layer of fusion" since you seem to have misunderstood me.

Oh, sorry, I didn't realise that. It is certainly possible, but grinding up a King Slime takes time right now. It's probably more viable later, but King Slimes aren't the ideal monster for that sort of thing. There's one particular monster that can be obtained using only special synthesis recipes on monsters from Infant Isle which is near the top of its family, but I'll probably be holding off on that one for a little while.

MightyPretenders
Feb 21, 2014

Regarding Hawkheart, one thing my no-fusion run drilled into my head is that the incarnus doesn't switch skills when it changes due to the plot. Only its stat profile changes. To actually get the other Incarnus skill trees, it seems you need to use synthesis in a way that doesn't feel like intentional design.

MightyPretenders fucked around with this message at 22:09 on Jul 30, 2017

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
Grandparent synthesis seems like it's gonna be one crazy bag of worms, unless it's just for, like, King Slimes and similar royalty.

POOL IS CLOSED
Jul 14, 2011

I'm just exploding with mackerel. This is the aji wo kutta of my discontent.
Pillbug

Glazius posted:

Grandparent synthesis seems like it's gonna be one crazy bag of worms, unless it's just for, like, King Slimes and similar royalty.

Or Regal Worms. All writhe before HRM's glistening segments!

Epicmissingno
Jul 1, 2017

Thank gooness we all get along so well!

Glazius posted:

Grandparent synthesis seems like it's gonna be one crazy bag of worms, unless it's just for, like, King Slimes and similar royalty.

Sadly it's mostly for "big" versions of other monsters, a few high-tier Slimes and a couple of final bosses from other games. A lot of those are reserved for the post-game, too, so we probably won't be seeing any more for a while. Normal synthesis will have to tide us over until then, but there are still some stupid things available from that.

Chronische
Aug 7, 2012

Boss fusion poo poo is utterly bonkers long chains to get going. Most of the poo poo you can make before you get there is MORE than strong enough to kick the game's rear end up and down the street, much less the bosses themselves.

Epicmissingno
Jul 1, 2017

Thank gooness we all get along so well!
Part 8: Gardens Galore

After Euchre's experience at Xeroph Shrine last time, he heads off to Infant Isle to hand his Komodo in to Scoutmaster Shuffles.

Music: Appearance of the Town



As it turns out, though, there's some new stuff to do on Domus Isle. Firstly, a good chunk of people have new things to say.



But the Commissioner happened to be passing by and he saved its life.

People already know about Wildcard, then. Hopefully this doesn't make Euchre a celebrity for travelling with him, since he needs to keep a low profile for CELL's mission.



According to what I'VE heard, the dog has since joined up with a scout no one's ever heard of.

There's probably no danger of that, though, since nobody knows who Euchre is even after acquiring Wildcard.



At least, that's what I heard an MSO suit saying. Maybe it's a kind of poison?

It's no surprise that the Monster Scout Organisation has all this obscure information about monsters. Dr Snap is very knowledgeable about them, after all.



...but I was just thinking about the dog-like monster that broke into HQ. I wonder what it wanted.

Based on the description, it was probably Wildcard that tried to break in. We can guess at his motive, too: obtaining the Scout's Mark.



A lot of my success was down to the fact that I wasn't afraid to experiment. You should try it. Have a go at combining a monster of the dragon family with a slime. You might be surprised!

This is the first time the game has given out a special synthesis recipe! Some recipes don't require specific monsters, and instead need anything from a given family. In this case, a Slime and anything from the Dragon family creates a Drake Slime. These things are about the same strength as anything from generic synthesis at this point, being Rank E monsters. It might be a good way to drive up the ID number of some junk monsters if you can spare them, though.



One theory says that these blue chests are the remains of dead mimics.

That's quite interesting, actually. Based on what Euchre heard from that thug earlier, that probably makes darkonium crystallised dark matter.



She owns the WHOLE island! Oh, and she really likes metal monsters, apparently.

Metal monsters are incredibly important and that alone makes Palaish Isle worth visiting. Hopefully they'll be available to fight, because they give absurd amounts of experience points when beaten up.



NEWSFLASH! Scouts stampede to Palaish Isle, the most popular island in Green Bays! But can they solve the puzzle of the shrine? Find out next time!

Next time will probably be after Euchre finishes Palaish Shrine, so the answer to that question will almost certainly be "yes".

In any case, there's something new on Domus Isle that isn't just conversations: the department store! Yes, it's open already, and Euchre's next order of business is to investigate.



This is the first of the counters inside the building. It sells something we haven't seen yet.

Skill scrolls are magical manuscripts that allow you to teach your monsters new skills instantly. I accept monsters in exchange for my scrolls.



If you want a good scroll, you've got to give me something worth my while. So, what d'you say? Feel like trading something?

Skill scrolls teach monsters skills that can't be obtained otherwise.



They're also prohibitively expensive right now, costing two Rank C monsters of a given type. There's basically no way to get anything like that at the moment, other than grinding for inordinate amounts of time. Frankly, it's not worth it.

Warrior's scroll teaches the Skill Warrior and requires Slimes. Mage's scroll requires Demons and teaches Mage, Priest's scroll requires Nature monsters and teaches Priest, and Mart art scroll requires Material monsters and teaches Martial Artist.



The weapon shop, named Lethal Weapons, has a few weapons available that are better than anything seen so far including the Sacred Spear. They're not nearly as costly right now as the skill scrolls, so buying one or two might not go amiss.



Lastly the item shop, Backpackers, has some relatively rare consumables. Strong medicine does double the healing of the medicinal herb, though it's much more than double the price, Panaceas cure all status ailments affecting a single monster. Oomph powder is still strongly recommended, but it's very expensive at 900 gold coins.



Finally Insulade increases a single monster's resistance to fire and ice breath. These attacks' damage can't be mitigated outside of innate resistances or buffs that are currently unavailable, so it might be worth getting one or two of these if you can spare the money.

That's all there is in here for now, but if Euchre goes upstairs...



But we're a little bit behind schedule. I'm so sorry about this. But do come back when we're open!

...there's this clerk, who will be setting up a monster matchmaking service in the future. It might be worth coming back for that at some point.

After checking out the rest of the town, Euchre heads to the scoutpost to find more people to talk to.

Music: Scoutpost



...A park full of savage monsters who wiped out my team and then chased me into the sea... The bad kind of park. I should have played it safe and gone to Palaish Isle first.

It looks like Infern Isle may still be out of Euchre's league. Maybe after the next island it'll be manageable.



Other than some information about the department store being open, the notice board shows that Euchre is moving up in the rankings. There are a couple of new names there, but Rummy is still at the top. Is Madame Rummy participating in the challenge?

Anyway, that's enough of being sidetracked by Domus Isle. It's time to get back to the main purpose of this trip: completing more of the Monster Scout Proficiency Test.

Music: Island



The Komodo scouted from Xeroph Isle is enough to solve Shuffles's fourth question. He receives a Battle Whip as a reward, which is a weapon that can hit the entire enemy party. Unsurprisingly it's a bit weaker than the single-target weapons.



Question number five is another easy one, and costs 100 gold coins to attempt.



Euchre already has Cat-Ears on his team, so he doesn't need to go back to the scoutpost to get anything. This nets him a seed of magic, which he will proceed to hoard and never use it.



This next task costs 180 gold coins to undertake, and once again Euchre already has the relevant monster.



Showing Monarch to the Scoutmaster gets Euchre a martial artist's scroll. If you'll recall, those were ridiculously hard to obtain in the department store, so this is extremely welcome.



Question seven costs 300 gold coins to attempt, and it's a bit too hard right now. Returning when Rank C monsters are more readily available would be a good idea here.

Music: Scoutpost



While Euchre's near a scoutpost, he synthesises Wildcard in an attempt to make him stronger. Incarnus synthesis is a little different to synthesis with any other family, since it always results in an Incarnus. No exceptions. In this case it produces Hawkhart again. The form that the result will take is dependant on the family of monsters that the Incarnus is synthesised with - Wulfspade needs a Nature monster, while Hawkhart needs a Demon monster. If the conditions aren't met to change to another form, Wildcard will remain in its current form.



Synthesis is also the way to change Wildcard's name, if you so desire. For the purposes of this Let's Play, though, Wildcard will keep his name throughout.



Wildcard picks up Hawkhart and Guerrilla from this synthesis. He probably won't use much outside of Wulfspade for a while, though.

Music: Island



Back on Xeroph Isle, the battle arena is open now!

There's a grand total of seven tourneys on offa, rangin' from Rank E to X. Each tourney consists of three matches. Ya have to win all three to clear that rank.



Ev'ry time ya clear a rank, we'll reward ya with a bonzer little prize.



Something that isn't mentioned here is that Euchre's monsters are uncontrollable during the entire thing. The only say the player gets in how they act is through changing their AI. While this is good in some situations (like healing), it's bad in others (like wasting MP or prioritising the wrong target). There's another problem with entering right now, though...



...Wildcard doesn't want to take part.

Wait! Though I agreed to help you in the challenge, I must not draw undue attention to myself. If you would do battle in the public eye, you must do so without me in your team.



But ya can use the Switch Substitutes command to remove him and bring in a diff'rent monster. Talk to me again when you've got ya team all sorted out then, eh.

Wildcard is the powerhouse of Euchre's team and to enter the arena without him at this point would be foolhardy. Euchre should get around to training a monster for when Wildcard can't participate, but not right now. It's definitely worth it to do so, though.



"Madame Rummy's private island. Come and play in the Old Maid's garden."

It's finally time to leave Xeroph Isle via the jetty to the north. It looks like Palaish Isle is Euchre's next destination.

Music: None



Music: Island



Arriving on Palaish Isle, the immediately obvious landmark is the scoutpost straight ahead. Is there anything interesting there?

Music: Scoutpost



Well, the clerk is friendly at least. What's she got to say?

Are you prepared to be captivated by the stately splendour of Palaish Isle? This is a private island owned by Madame Rummy.



If you crave an audience with Her Ladyship... ...clime the grand stairway to your right as you exit the scoutpost. Her Ladyship is blessed with surpassing beauty. Do pay her a visit, if only to admire the view!

Wow, Madame Rummy sounds like a sight for sore eyes. After all, if the scoutpost clerk says so then it must be true.



All scouts should meet her at least once, including you. It's a good opportunity to see a new type of monster.

This guy seems less than thrilled with Madame Rummy. I suppose Euchre will just have to see for himself.



I'd like to find out, but a lot of this island is off-limits... Unless the Old Maid give you permission, that is.

Looks like Euchre will be meeting Madame Rummy whether he likes it or not.



Meanwhile the shop is full of items that are available elsewhere.



The weapons aren't as strong or varied as the ones at the department store, so they're not worth getting in the slightest. There is a whip, though, whereas the department store didn't carry any of those. It's slightly stronger than the whip from the Proficiency Test, too.

Music: Island



Over to the west of the scoutpost is this ladder, which leads up to...



...a weirdly placed area transition and a future shortcut. It's blocked off right now, of course.



The only other feature on the beach is this huge stairway. What's up there?



A spawn point for enemy scouts, of course!

Music: Boss Battle



Wyrma, as her name suggests, has monsters from the Dragon family. Even with Wildcard at level 1, they're not much of a challenge, and they give a nice chunk of experience and gold as a reward.

Music: None



And also a Strong Medicine, which will proceed to be ignored.

Music: Island



But that's not all that's up the stairs! There's also the centrepiece of Palaish Isle, Madame Rummy's palace.

Music: Contest Castle



The place is only one room, though, with an upstairs and a downstairs. Kind of a letdown.

Before you do anything else, please go and pay your respects to Her Ladyship. You will find her on the uppermost level of the palace. You may use the stairs.

Why not go see her? There's nothing to lose from doing so. Well, Euchre heads up the stairs and



WHAT IS THAT



OH GOD IT TALKS

I am Madame Rummy, and this is my domain.



I simply ADORE having the contestants frolic in my gardens. As a good scout, I do hope you won't deny me my little pleasures!

:gonk:



Should your performance satisfy me... I will give you free rein to explore ALL my gardens - at your leisure!



Let's never speak of this experience again, shall we? The restrictions on the garden can't be too bad, right?



On the right of the upper floor is the door to the garden.

Music: Island



It's quite a nice garden if you ignore the monsters roaming around the place.

Music: Monster Battle



Capsichums are a pretty good contender for worst pun in the game.



They get Sap, to decrease one of Euchre's monsters' defence.



They also have Helm Splitter, making Sap pointless. I don't think it applies the defence down effect at a lower rate than Sap, but that's the only explanation I have for a monster having both.

Music: Island



They go to storage, because Euchre's training more Slimes in his substitutes at the moment.



There's a treasure chest in plain view around the corner, as well as even more Capsichums.

Music: Monster Battle



As it turns out they're sometimes confused when entering battle, like the Lips on Infant Isle.

Music: Island



And already there's a gate barring progress. Looks like Euchre will have to do the garden challenge after all.



There's time for another scout battle, though, right?

Music: Boss Battle



Milicia here doesn't have a theme to her monsters as far as I can tell, and they aren't all that great. They go down quickly for easy experience points and gold, and also a Wizard's Penny.

Music: Contest Castle



Anyway, back to the task at hand.

The objective of the challenge is to gain access to all of Her Ladyship's gardens. You must race against the clock to clear each area of a certain number of slimes.



Eventually, you will gain access to all of the palace grounds. As you strive to progress, remember this!



At present, you may attempt to clear Madame Rummy's winkies area. You must defeat 9 slimes in 2 minutes and 10 seconds to gain access to the huggies area.



It's required to progress, so why not? Euchre's got to get it done eventually.

Good luck, young scout.

Luck doesn't make up a large part of this, thankfully, so this statement is largely irrelevant.

Music: None



NOW!

Music: Scout Battle

And so the first Garden Challenge starts. Defeating nine Slimes in 130 seconds might sound irritating because of the time it takes to find each slime and for battle transitions, but it's really not. What's the reason for this?



Well, every encounter here consists of three Slimes, cutting the number of battles required to three. Each Slime has around 30 HP, so anything that can do about that much consistently with their normal attack is great here. After all, the shorter the animation the better in this situation. It helps that the Slimes are only spread over the incredibly small area of the gardens that's open at this point. Also, time doesn't pass in the menu if it's opened between battles, so healing outside of battle isn't penalised. The final advantage that the game gives is that the time it takes to defeat the final battle's worth of Slimes isn't counted against Euchre - the only thing that matters is that time isn't up at the time when the last fight starts.



It's no surprise that Euchre finishes with plenty of time to spare - 40 seconds at the start of the last battle, in fact.

Music: Contest Castle



You exterminated 9 slimes and opened Madame's huggies area. Go upstairs and enter the gardens via the doors to your right. We look forward to seeing you again.

Oh no, Euchre's not falling for that trick. There's sure to be another gate later on, so it's better to do the next level of the challenge now.



At the present time, you may attempt to clear Madame Rummy's huggies area.



Well, scout? Will you attempt Madame Rummy's Garden Challenge?

This time, Euchre has 220 seconds to do some Slime extermination. They're a little more spaced out this time, though, since they span two areas of the gardens now. I won't be going over the second area yet, though, because Euchre's going to be travelling through it to get to the rest of the island anyway. Suffice to say this challenge is definitely manageable if you breezed through the previous one, since it's just more of the same.



This means you have access to all of Palaish Isle's gardens... You can also reach the jetty for sea scooters that will take you to Domus Isle. Go upstairs and enter the gardens via the doors to your right. We look forward to seeing you again.

And with that Euchre has gained access to everything on Palaish Isle.

Wait, what about those metal monsters?



...except for one. The metal menagerie remains closed to you. Only scouts who have advanced to the Monster Scout Challenge finals may enter there. If you do make it to the finals, you are welcome to come back and visit the menagerie.

What a let-down. Oh well, at least Euchre knows to come back once he qualifies for the finals. Better get back to collecting that darkonium, then!

Music: Island



Past the previously-locked gate, there are some stone pillars with chests and what appears to be a new monster on top of them.

Music: Monster Battle



These aren't that monster, though they are new - Spiked Hares like to wander around on the ground in this area. Capsichums have been completely removed from the encounter pool.



They Psyche Up and attack. That's about it.



Can you guess where its destination is?



This, however, is the monster on top of the pillars - Goodybag. These things phase in and out of existence, teleporting between each pillar. It's best to try to ambush them near the top of a ladder leading to the top of each pillar.



They can use Sultry Dance, which hasn't come up on anything else yet.



It causes dancing, which is another form of skipping a turn. One annoying thing about skipping a turn is that it drains tension completely, meaning that if it hits a monster who's using Psych Up all their hard work will be undone.



Goodybags also have Kasap, making them good at supporting their teammates if nothing else. It's a shame that all its friends are dead at this point.

Music: Island



Euchre collects his loot and puts it into storage. It's the safest place, you see. If he'd defeated all the monsters in this encounter instead of scouting the Goodybag, though, he'd have gotten somewhere around 200 gold coins. This amount is not to be sneezed at, and makes Goodybags a relatively good way to grind for money at this point without having to rely on randomly spawning scouts.



Continuing on, there's a gate that would bar the way to the next area of the gardens had Euchre not already unlocked it. As it is, he'll be ignoring it for now.



Instead, Euchre heads past the gate to find, er, more pillars. There's really nothing exceptional about these ones, and it's a dead end, so back to the gate he goes.



Past said gate is a bridge maze. Or rather a bridge path - there's no real maze here. There are a couple of branches, but they all lead to the same place and there's no treasure along them.



This area has the greatest concentration of kicking down bridges in the entire game, though, so enjoy it while it lasts. It's somehow very satisfying.

Music: Monster Battle



There are actually new monsters roaming around on the platforms dotted around the pond: See Urchins.



They attempt to inflict Dazzle and do damage at the same time. It doesn't work out very well for one of them.

Music: Island



The other one gets to join Euchre's glorious storage army, though, so it's probably in a better situation than it was before.



Looping around the outside of the maze and going back in results in the discovery of a piece of darkonium. That makes three now.



Back at the original exit to the maze, though, there's this little path. Refusing to follow the arrow results in...



...nothing! It's just a dead end. It feels like there should be something here because of the sharp drop-off on an otherwise normal path, but there never is.



Following the arrow, though, leads to this nice little pond. As you can see, it contains a new monster. As you probably can't see, it also contains another scout spawn point.

Music: Monster Battle



Khalamari Kids sometimes enter battle while asleep. If they're not asleep, they... er... don't do much. They can either stare into space or assess the situation, missing their turn. They can also attack, but there's no surprise there - so can everything else.



Euchre could send his new Inkling to the Squid Research Lab, but it's much better suited in storage.



King Kelp can appear here, jumping out of the water when Euchre draws near.



They can use Tap Dance to attempt to steal one of Euchre's monsters' MP.



The important word here is "attempt", since it doesn't seem to work all that often.



They also have Poisonous Poke, which is fairly self-explanatory.

Music: Island



Jackson moonwalks into storage after a Thrill(er)ing battle.



Of course, what's more important than the monsters here is what's next to the pool: the shortcut back to the beach! Now Euchre can travel back to this point easily from the scoutpost.

Music: Scoutpost



Back at said scoutpost, Euchre trades in Cat-Ears and Podoboo in return for...



...Litwick the Wax Murderer. Cat-Ears was getting very outdated, so a synthesis was in order in an attempt to bring him back up to date.



He gets Diminisher, Attack Boost and Fire Fighter. The last one will probably be replaced on his next synthesis, but the other two will probably stay on for some time.

And that's it for this lap of the island. Next time, Euchre will be clearing up the rest of the island and maybe heading off to Palaish Shrine.

Extra: The Monster Library

Capsichum





Capsichums have the Skills Saboteur and Defence Boost when scouted, and just Saboteur when synthesised. They don't have any traits, but are weak to Frizz and immune to Sleep.

Saboteur is home to multiple abilities that decrease Defence and Agility or guard against those stat drops. Abilities relating to Defence are Sap, Helm Splitter, Kasap and Sap Guard. Abilities relating to Agility are Decelerate, Slowing Slug, Deceleratle and Decelerate Guard. The lack of Attack debuffs really hurts this Skill, but it's still not too bad because the debuffs it does give are helpful. Hey, at least it doesn't lower Wisdom.

Spiked Hare





Spiked Hares have the Skills Naturalist and Defence Boost when scouted and just Naturalist when synthesised. They have the Trait Psycho and are immune to Drain Magic.

Naturalist is the same as it was on Platypunks way back in Part 2. It's just as eclectic but still somehow pretty okay as it was back then.

Khalamari Kid





Khalamari Kids have the Skills Aquapothecary and Defence Boost when scouted, and just Aquapothecary when synthesised. They have no Trait and are healed by Water as well as being immune to Fizzle.

Aquapothecary is a combination of Crack spells and healing. It gives access to Crack and Crackle, but nothing better, so it stops being a viable source of Crack damage eventually. As for healing abilities, there's Heal, Midheal and Amor Seco Rain (delayed multi-target healing), as well as Song of Salvation (delayed multi-target revival). Again, this drops off eventually. Finally there's Sultry Dance, which attempts to make a single enemy monster miss their turn, Mist Me, which blocks the next attack directed at the user (with a few exceptions) and Water Guard. Overall Aquapothecary is thoroughly uninteresting, with abilities that will be outclassed relatively soon. Give this one a miss, though Mist Me could be fairly useful.

Goodybag





Goodybags have the Skills Enfeebler and Defence Boost when scouted, and just Enfeebler when synthesised. They have no Trait and are immune to Fizzle.

Enfeebler is essentially Saboteur for Attack and Wisdom. This makes it half very good and half awful, since Wisdom doesn't affect all that much - the power of every spell has a lower bound, unlike physical attacks, so lowering Wisdom will just bring spell damage down slightly. It gives Sag, Dim, Weakening Wallop, Stupefying Strike, Kasag, Kadim, Sag Guard and Dim Guard.

King Kelp





King Kelps have the Skills All-Rounder and Defence Boost when scouted and just All-Rounder when synthesised. They have no Traits, are healed by Water and are immune to Sleep.

Despite its name, All-Rounder seems to specialise in disabling monsters. There's Weird Dance for draining MP, Weakening Wallop for lowering Attack, Fuddle Dance and Bemusing Breath for inflicting Confusion, Break-Dance Beat for disabling dances, and Critical Miss for disabling critical hits. Then there are Song of Salvation and Amor Seco Rain for delayed healing, for some reason, and finally there's Follow Suit, which is essentially like Mimic from Pokemon - the last ability used is copied for the rest of the battle. All-Rounder is fairly good early on - Weakening Wallop for 12 Skill Points is absurd - and then becomes bad later. The healing skills require a turn of charging up, so they'll likely come out too late to be useful, and Follow Suit is incredibly situational.

Wax Murderer





Wax Murderers have the Skill Fire Fighter when synthesised, and add some stat boost when they're scouted (though I don't know what). They have no Trait and are immune to Sag.

Fire Fighter is the same as it was on Dancing Flames back in Part 5.

See Urchin





See Urchins have the Skills Aquapothecary and Wisdom Boost, dropping Wisdom Boost on synthesis, and the Trait Health Professional. They're healed by Water and immune to Fizzle.

Aquapothecary is the same as it is on Khalamari Kids earlier in this very update.


Extra 2: Synthesis Recipes

This will be an occasional extra part to each update detailing any new synthesis recipes that Euchre has available to him. Only monsters that Euchre has in his party, synthesis or storage will be considered as components.


Winky + Winky + Winky + Winky = Diemon (Rank C, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis)

Diemon is basically the same sort of thing as King Slime, but harder to obtain - Winkies don't level up nearly as fast as Slimes do.


Komodo + Material Family = Nardragon (Rank E, scoutable, available through generic synthesis)

Nardragons, being Rank E, are around the power that's supposed to be available at this point. As such, they're not very interesting. They're even found in the wild later on!


Crabid + Chimaera = Scorpion (Rank F, scoutable, available through generic synthesis)

This one actually lowers the ID number of the result compared to what it should be. Don't bother unless you're trying to make a bad monster.


Hammerhood + Nature Family = Brownie (Rank D, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis)

Brownies are basically a straight upgrade to Hammerhoods, and Rank D is nothing to sneeze at for such an easy recipe. Recommended.


Bag o' Laughs + Bag o' Laughs = Goodybag (Rank E, scoutable, available through generic synthesis)

This might have been a good synthesis to do back on Xeroph Isle, but now Goodybags are just available to scout.


Slime + Dragon Family = Drake Slime (Rank E, not scoutable, available through generic synthesis)

Again, it's around the same strength of monster that's available at this point anyway.


Slime + Slime + Slime + Slime = King Slime (Rank C, scoutable, not available through generic synthesis)

You've already heard my opinions on King Slimes. They're great.


Goodybag + Goodybag = Cannibox (Rank D, scoutable, not available through generic synthesis)

Canniboxes will become available very soon, but until then this is a good recipe to use if you want one. It's Rank D, too, so it's slightly ahead of the curve right now.


Incarnus Family + Demon Family = Hawkhart (Rank ???, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis)

Incarnus Family + Nature Family = Wulfspade (Rank ???, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis)

These two basically amount to the same thing: if the Incarnus is in a form you don't want, it can be changed. It's also good for relearning the unique skills of each one, if they've been forgotten.


There's one more recipe available right now, but it's something I plan to utilise and it's better to see it first hand. It's not quite as good a jump in power as King Slime or Diemon, but it's pretty ridiculous nonetheless.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
Let's leave that palatial manor and never look back.

Epicmissingno
Jul 1, 2017

Thank gooness we all get along so well!
Part 9: Palatial Progression (But Not Too Much)

Last update, Euchre finished his lap around Palaish Isle.

Music: Island



This time, he'll be backtracking for treasure and monsters. The first order of business is to return to the bridge maze.



Going all the way around the edge results in finding a path around to the western side of the island. At the end of that...



...is Palaish Isle's other jetty, just waiting to be used.





Listen, Euchre. We can leave this island if you wish...



It is on the north side of this island. So, what shall we do? Leave this island, or go to the shrine?

It looks like this time Wildcard won't be stopping Euchre from leaving the island, which is very fortunate. Let's see where this jetty leads, shall we?



It goes, er, back to Domus Isle. Euchre's amassed a good chunk of money since he was last there, so why not take the opportunity to spend it at the department store?

Music: None



On the way there, though, Euchre notices something.



It appears to be an island far from the usual sailing routes... Euchre has discovered an uncharted island!

Music: Island



Indeed he has! Uncharted islands appear randomly when moving between islands. Which layout is found is also random, and each has a set of monsters associated with it. This one has Slimes, Drackies and Stump Chumps. Meh. They're all more powerful than they were on Infant Isle, though, so that's something.

The real worthwhile uncharted islands are the ones which contain only Slimes or only Drackies - these spawn Behemoth Slimes and Great Drackies, larger versions of the two monsters which can only be found through this method. They're not even available through synthesis, which is annoying if you want one of them.

Music: Ambiance of the Night



Also featured on each uncharted island is a brown chest, which tend to contain some really rare items. Sometimes there's more than one chest, but only one contains the good stuff.



There's nothing left of Euchre on that island, so he hops back on his jetski and heads over to Domus Isle. It turns out that the jetty leading to Palaish Isle is the same one that he arrived on from CELL Headquarters, and it's now unblocked.



Unfortunately, the department store is only open during the day, so Euchre will have to rest at the scoutpost. This is annoying, since I was planning for him to Zoom back to Palaish Isle once he was done shopping. Oh well.

Music: Appearance of the Town



After having a good night's sleep, Euchre buys two Steel Broadswords. They're the strongest weapon available right now, but there are no monsters that they deal extra damage to.

Music: Island



After going all the way back to Palaish Isle, Euchre finds himself heading back into the bulk of the island via the shortcut. The way the arrow leads was the way he originally got to the shortcut, so straight on it is.



As it turns out, the vines on the side of the path house a monster. Of course they do.

Music: Monster Battle



Shell Slimes aren't relevant right now, but Dragonthorns are your standard dragon monsters.



That's because they breathe fire and not much else. It's still the lowest tier, too. Maybe the monsters around here should consider getting an upgrade.

Music: Island



Just like the last monster round-up, I'm outsourcing naming duties for this update. Also like the last monster round-up, Euchre will be sending everything to storage.



Moving on along the straight path, Euchre comes to a beach with some Khalamari Kids. There's nothing new about these compared to the ones in that pool near the shortcut.



Just past those is the door to Palaish Shrine. That was easy. Too bad Euchre's ignoring it for now, then! He's still got the night-time monsters to track down.

Music: Ambiance of the Night



These things are patrolling all over Palaish Isle. They don't seem to notice Euchre at all, and they're actually not a bad source of grinding at this point. After all, if Euchre is positioned right in their path they'll just run right into him and then respawn back where they started after the battle, ready to run into him again.

Music: Monster Battle



It helps that they're not very good, too. Being asleep on the job doesn't seem very good for a patrol monster.



The only thing they can do besides attacking is to stare deeply into the player's soul. It doesn't do anything.

Music: Ambiance of the Night



Euchre's new pet will be safe back at the scoutpost, right?



Remember how the Goodybags were on top of pillars during the daytime? Well, they've been replaced with another monster at night.

Music: Monster Battle



Angel Slimes have something that we haven't seen before. They can attack, sure, but they have another role.



They're healers! Midheal heals for about 75 HP on Euchre's monsters, but considerably less when used by a wild monster.

Music: Ambiance of the Night



It might not be obvious, but these guys are really, really good. See that Rank D? That's actually a high Rank D. It's outclassed by only a few monsters in its rank, making it really good for getting monsters up a couple of ranks.

Oh, and it doesn't have a stat-boosting skill either. Instead it has Zap Ward, which is a bit different. I'll be giving it a write-up at the end of the update.



The next monster to be found sometimes appears in the pool near the shortcut.

Music: Monster Battle



Seasaurs are the monsters that isn't supposed to be fought yet on Palaish Isle.



You can tell because their normal attacks do more than half the maximum HP of Wildcard. Ouch.



They also have Flame Slash, which does even more damage if it's not resisted.



Frost Slash, too. It's more of the same, but Crack-elemental instead of Frizz-elemental.



And of course there's its Flame Breath, which is very worrying right now. 30-35 damage on everyone is tough to heal off if you don't have multi-target healing. Thankfully Euchre has access to Multiheal, so it's less of a problem.

Suffice to say it's not getting scouted right now.

Music: Ambiance of the Night



Heading back to the beach that contained Khalamari Kids during the daytime, there's something here that's more important than monsters. If Euchre doubles back on himself, there's actually a hidden fork in the path.



At the end of it is his fourth piece of darkonium. He's nearly halfway now.



The beach that Euchre ignored just now actually contains Shell Slimes at night, by the way.

Music: Monster Battle



They like to cast Buff on themselves to raise their defence...



...and then they defend to make themselves nigh-invulnerable to physical attacks. They have low HP and can't do much damage, though. The main problem with fighting them is that they can stall you hard. This also applies to scouting attempts, so it can take a few tries to get one if it keeps defending.

Music: Ambiance of the Night



Isopod is also put into storage, unsurprisingly. Those Slimes in Euchre's substitutes don't train themselves, after all.

And that's all for Palaish Isle's outside. The number of night-only monsters is surprisingly small. But what about inside the shrine?

Music: Seeking Treasure



Well, first off there's a cutscene.



And Solitaire's here too. Just fantastic.

Music: Solitaire



Hey, what kind of monster is that? Seems a bit of a strange choice, even for YOUR team. Well, I guess it suits you. Being so weak and small and all...





Oh, I REMEMBER! You're that rare monster that gave me the slip before! But you look so different now. You sure are unusual...



Didn't Solitaire already say that she tried and failed to scout Wildcard without Euchre's intervention? She must just really hate Euchre.

Hey, wanna trade? I'll give you a jailcat, and I'll even throw in a lips! Come on, whaddya say? Let's trade! I want that monster!





So, ANYWAY... Is it a deal, Euchre?
...
...



We'll fight for it! Whoever wins the challenge gets to keep your birdie, 'kay?

I have to wonder what the dialogue here would have been if Euchre had reverted Wildcard back to his Wulfspade form through synthesis.

... No objections? Good, it's settled then!



Yeah, Wildcard follows who he wants. He's not about to get scouted by some idiot.



Okay, ciao for now!



And so Solitaire leaves, completely ignoring everything Wildcard says. At least she's consistent about being awful.



So, Euchre, are you confident you can defeat her?



Euchre nods. What's she going to have, that Jailcat she offered? Maybe the Lips? I'm not expecting anything particularly strong given what she was offering for Wildcard.

You grow braver by the day...

So, Solitaire is also aiming for the Championship. It's a little strange that her name hasn't been on the scoutpost notice boards, though. You'd think that someone so confident would be doing really well.

But you know what? That doesn't matter right now. What matters is Palaish Shrine.

Music: Seeking Treasure



Frankly, the place is a bit garish. Just look at all that colour compared to the browns of Xeroph Shrine.



"Level 1: Entrance / Level 2: Anteroom
"Level 3: Giant Water Tank / Level 4: Nexus Chamber"

From this sign it's clear that the shrine has multiple floors - four, in fact. At the moment Euchre's clearly in the entrance, so this must be Level 1.



There's a red jewel up ahead that would transport Euchre back to the entrance if needs be. It's useless right now, though, because he's already there.



This one's much more useful right now, though, since it causes the entire floor to lift up to Level 2. That must be a pretty impressive mechanism.



A new floor means new rooms have appeared off the lift room. This one is to the southwest, and has a treasure chest in as well as green goo dripping from the ceiling.



On closer inspection, though, the goo turns out to be a monster!

Music: Monster Battle



Bubble Slimes tend to be pretty standard monsters in the series, and they tend to have one big thing that defines them:



Poison. Lots of poison. These ones come with Poisonous Poke. As usual, though, poison is pretty much just a mild irritation and clears up after battle, as does every status ailment. I believe they can also poison with their normal attack, too.

Music: Seeking Treasure



Hopefully it won't poison everything else in storage.



Going through the coridoor to the northwest results in finding this fork in the path, as well as another Bubble Slime.



Going straight on yields treasure, as well as a new monster that hops out of those holes in the ground.

Music: Monster Battle



Skippers, like Shell Slimes, are an exercise in annoyance more than anything else.



They can do a Sultry Dance to make one of Euchre's monsters miss a turn - always annoying when it hits Wildcard - and...



...they can also do a Dodgy Dance to make their evasion skyrocket. It's ridiculous how much they dodge attacks with this up. It also makes them a pain to scout, since a missed attack doesn't contribute to the scout chance.

Music: Seeking Treasure



Nevertheless, it gets added to Euchre's assets after a few tries.



The chest in the room contains a Special Medicine, which heals a monster for 120 HP! It might be useful at some point, but I'm not counting on it.



Going back and taking the right fork in the road instead leads to another switch, this one letting Euchre access Level 3.



The place has an aquarium along the wall, filled with See Urchins. Sometimes they pop out and ambush Euchre.

Music: Monster Battle



The encounter that this one triggers has not one but two new wild monsters, though Euchre's obtained or heard about both before.



The Jailcat can cast Crack and not much else. It's better than Frizz, at least.



The Wax Murderer can use Fire Breath...



...or cast Frizz. It's still terrible.

In any case, which one should Euchre go for in this battle? Hmm...

Music: Seeking Treasure



Obviously it was going to be the Jailcat. He's already got Litwick on his team, after all! Doppler isn't so lucky and goes to storage. Maybe it'll get synthesised into something to go onto the team eventually.



After the aquarium are some pillars with Wax Murderers and Jailcats running around...



...and then the path leads back to the main hall. Something's different about the place, though. What could it be?

Music: Monster Battle



Oh yeah, the big dragon in the corner. Green Dragon is an optional miniboss, and is roughly equal in power to the Seasaur outside. Unlike the Seasaur, though, it doesn't respawn once it's beaten.



The reason why it's easy to equate the two is because they both have Flame Breath. It hurts just as much as before.



Green Dragon seems to hit slightly harder than Seasaur, but it doesn't have any elemental slashes to increase its damage output.



Of course, its physical damage output is severely curtailed by Litwick's Weakening Wallop. Attack buffs and debuffs are disgustingly good.

So, what's the best thing to do with a one-off enemy?



Try to scout it, of course! This may sound like an awful idea, but it's surprisingly easy to do.



With everyone buffed up to their maximum attack power, the scout chance is decently high. Litwick missed, too; if he'd hit then it would probably be over 50%.



Thankfully it joins on the first try. It's so much better to get through problems by making friends with your foes.

Music: Seeking Treasure



It may be a Rank D monster, but it's not as high up as Angel Slime. It's very high level for right now, though, and its stats aren't bad. It might end up getting used for synthesis sometime soon.



The reward for beating the Green Dragon isn't just the experience or gold, or even the monster itself. It's actually guarding something incredibly good.



Meet the Phoenix Sceptre. Its attack stat may be awful, but that's not important. It's got a very important use that is absolutely invaluable for getting powerful monsters.



A Snakeskin Whip, too. It saves some money if one of Euchre's monsters needs a strong-ish whip, I guess.

So, what does the Phoenix Sceptre actually do?

Music: Scoutpost



Well, it does exactly as the description says. If a monster holds it and is synthesised with another monster, the only possible result will be the species of monster that's holding the Phoenix Scepter. This even overrides special recipes.

The upshot of this is that, if you're set on using a specific monster, you can keep it the same species while powering it up through extra stats, stat growth and Skills. It also helps keep hold of monsters that are only available through special synthesis recipes, which includes pretty much all the best monsters in the game.



I want to keep Euchre's King Slime intact, for example, because I have some very special plans for it. If it was synthesised with anything without the Phoenix Sceptre, though, it would become impossible to get it back to being a King Slime without going all the way back to Grandparent Synthesis with Slimes. With the Phoenix Sceptre, I can power it up without being worried about it changing species.



And here's the big reason for synthesising it with an Angel Slime: Angel Slimes have Healer. Now Monarch has effective single-target and multi-target healing Skills, making him a much more efficient healbot than before. And soon enough, he'll be even better! I'm going to hold off on that one for a little longer, though. You'll see.

Anyway, that's all for this update. Next time Euchre will be going through the rest of Palaish Shrine and collecting as much as he can along the way.

Extra: The Monster Library

Bubble Slime





Bubble Slimes have the Skills Slimer and Agility Boost. They have the Trait Poisoner, which gives them a chance to poison with their regular attack, and are themselves immune to poison.

Remember Slimer? It's the same Skill that was on Slimes all the way back in Part 2.

Shell Slime





Shell Slimes have the Skills Bolsterer and Agility Boost. They don't have any Traits or resistances.

Bolsterer teaches abilities that can decrease the damage that a team takes, and nothing else. There's Buff and Kabuff for physical damage, Insulate and Insulatle for breath damage and Magic Barrier for magic damage. There's also Sandstorm, which helps by Dazzling all enemies, and Mist Me, which protects the user from a single attack. The final two abilities are both passives - Defence + 10 and Sap Guard. The former does exactly what it says on the tin and increases Defence by 10 points. It's not very good. The latter lowers the chance of being hit by any Defence decreases. Overall this seems to be a pretty good Skill if your team is lacking in defensive options.

Angel Slime





Angel Slimes have the Skills Healer and Zap Ward, and drop Zap Ward when synthesised. They have the Traits Artful Dodger and Zapmeister, which increase evasion slightly and improve Zap spells respectively. They're healed by Zap, immune to Whack, and weak to Zam.

We've already seen Healer on Healslimes back in Part 5, but Zap Ward is a Skill that's unique to Angel Slimes. Only scouted Angel Slimes have this Skill. First off, Zap Ward gives some stat boosts - in total, +15 Wisdom, +20 MP and +10 HP. Not all that great. Otherwise it teaches two Zap Guard abilities as well as Magic Miser and Magic Scrooge. These last two lower MP costs by 25% and 50% respectively, but don't stack. They're more than a little bit good, and the other Skills that they're available on are much, much harder to obtain. It might be worth it to pick up Zap Ward, or one of the other Ward Skills (yes, there's one for every spell element), just for Magic Scrooge. They're not all that bad for shoring up elemental weaknesses either.

Dragonthorn





Dragonthorns have the Skills Toxifier and Attack Boost. They have the Trait Artful Dodger, and are weak to Frizz and immune to Fizzle.

Toxifier is a Skill which teaches abilities which poison or paralyse enemies. For poison, there's Poisonous Poke, Poison Breath, Venom Breath and Venomous Volley, as well as Poison Guard for decreasing the chance of the user being poisoned themselves. Incidentally, Venom Breath and Venomous Volley inflict Envenomate instead of Poison, which is essentially just an improved version of the effect. I think. For paralysis, meanwhile, there's Paralysing Punch and Burning Breath, as well as the obligatory Paralysis Guard. Overall this Skill is okay, and Envenomate can be a boss-killer. If you like status ailments, this Skill might be for you.

Green Dragon





Green Dragons have the Skills Dragon Lore and Attack Boost, and if they're being synthesised they only have Dragon Lore. They don't have any Traits, and are immune to both Fire Breath and Ice Breath.

Dragon Lore is advertised as teaching common dragon abilities, and it certainly does that - both fire and ice breath feature in their first and second tier variants (Fire Breath, Flame Breath, Cool Breath and Chilly Breath). There are also some elemental slashes - Flame Slash for Frizz, Gust Slash for Woosh, and Lightning Slash for Zap. Finally, Sandstorm and War Cry feature. Frankly, this isn't a very good Skill. The lack of higher tier abilities hurts it badly, and its status effects are lacklustre.

Jailcat





Jailcats have the Skills Woosh & Crack and Defence Boost. They have the Trait Crackmeister, which improves Crack spells, and are themselves immune to Crack.

Woosh & Crack is along the same lines as Frizz & Bang - a 50-point Skill that can eventually be upgraded to a third tier with improved abilities. As the name suggests, though, the abilities it teaches are Woosh- and Crack-elemental instead of Frizz- and Bang-elemental. Unfortunately it's not quite as good as Frizz and Bang because both the Woosh line of spells (Woosh, Swoosh, Kaswoosh, Kaswooshle) and the Crack line of spells (Crack, Crackle, Kacrack, Kacrackle) share a target type - they both hit all enemies. It's still not bad, though.

Chainine





Chainines have the Skills Mime and Attack Boost, and just Mime when synthesised. They have no Traits and are immune to Dazzle.

Mime gives a selection of support abilities, most of which are dance-related. There's Tap Dance for draining MP, Sultry Dance for making enemies skip turns, Ban Dance for stopping enemy dances and Hustle Dance for cheap multi-target healing. Then there's Spooky Aura for lowering defence against magic, Gobstopper for removing enemy breath attacks, and Tongue Lashing for, again, skipping enemy turns. This one lowers defence too, of course. The final ability that Mime teaches is Follow Suit, which copies the last ability used for the rest of the battle. Overall Mime has some nice versatility for a support Skill, and such an early Tap Dance (only 3 Skill Points!) might make it worthwhile for mages just for getting MP back if they run low.

Skipper





Skippers get the Skills Saboteur and Attack Boost. They don't have any Traits and are immune to Inaction i.e. skipping turns due to dancing, being shocked et cetera.

Saboteur was also on Capsichums in Part 8.


Extra 2: Synthesis Recipes

Dragonthorn + Undead Family = Snapdragon (Rank E, not scoutable, available through generic synthesis)

Snapdragons aren't even a very good Rank E monster. Besides, Rank E is getting outclassed now that Angel Slimes are available to bump monsters up to high Rank D/low Rank C. This is at least an easy way to fill out Snapdragon's entry in the monster library, although there's no way to finish the library due to an oversight.


Green Dragon + Beast Family = Red Dragon (Rank D, not scoutable, available through generic synthesis)

What's with all these palette-swapped monsters found from synthesis with a given monster family? Anyway, Red Dragons are around the same ID as Angel Slimes. That makes them pretty good at this point, and there are recipes to make even better monsters from them.


Green Dragon + Undead Family = Skelegon (Rank D, scoutable, not available through generic synthesis)

There's competition with Skelegons, though. Remember these guys? They were a difficult encounter around Xeroph Isle at night. They're not as high up Rank D as Red Dragons, unfortunately, and they're involved in worse special synthesis recipes. Not particularly worth it given the alternative.

Epicmissingno fucked around with this message at 23:58 on Sep 22, 2017

MightyPretenders
Feb 21, 2014

I really like the design of the Pailesh shrine. Making the entrance area a huge elevator was an inspired touch. Though the relatively modern style makes one wonder who built it...

It took me dozens of attempts to scout that dragon - since I wasn't fusing, my team's attack power was a bit lower. Fortunately, running away from a one-time encounter doesn't despawn it. If you aren't fusing, the Green Dragon has the raw stats to stay useful for a while with a good weapon.

A few guides I've seen claim that the Angelslime has very good stat growths, better than King Slime's. They recommended fusing the King Slime away into something else quickly. Obviously, they weren't taking into account King Slime's uses in Special Fusions...

Epicmissingno
Jul 1, 2017

Thank gooness we all get along so well!

MightyPretenders posted:

A few guides I've seen claim that the Angelslime has very good stat growths, better than King Slime's. They recommended fusing the King Slime away into something else quickly. Obviously, they weren't taking into account King Slime's uses in Special Fusions...

Here's the thing: synthesising together an Angel Slime and a King Slime results in a Cureslime, which is an excellent healer. It's just not quite as good as the healer you get from that one recipe that I keep hinting at.

Oh yes, and I got another Angel Slime off-camera. It's named "02" and I have a synthesis planned for it.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
I imagine green dragons are a little more common later on, given the fusions? But that was some nice work, getting it early.

What are the chances you'll discover an uncharted island? Can you just keep bopping around the archipelago looking or is there a timer running here?

serefin99
Apr 15, 2016

Mikoooon~
Your lovely shrine maiden fox wife, Tamamo no Mae, is here to help!

Glazius posted:

What are the chances you'll discover an uncharted island? Can you just keep bopping around the archipelago looking or is there a timer running here?

You can definitely just keep traveling between islands to find the uncharted ones. I know because when I was playing through the game, I eventually said "gently caress it" and just tried to grind uncharted islands for... some reason lost to me.

Epicmissingno
Jul 1, 2017

Thank gooness we all get along so well!
Part 10: Polishing Off Palaish

Lat time, Euchre started exploring Palaish Shrine and scouted a miniboss.

Music: Seeking Treasure



This time, he'll be starting where he recruited said miniboss and finishing Palaish Shrine.



To begin with heading to the southwest corner of the hub room yields progress in the form of a staircase.



On the right there's a brown chest which generates a rare seed that might get used eventually. It's a shame that synthesis eventually makes hitting stat caps trivial, otherwise this would be much more helpful.



There's also this device which is used to raise the central area up to Level 4. According to the Dungeon Directory back on Level 1, this is the highest floor in the shrine. Looks like Euchre's almost done here.



Before that, though, he still has to make his way through the gauntlet of monsters on the way to the Nexus Chamber. This one just stands there, menacingly.

Music: Monster Battle



We'll be going over Lump Wizards when Euchre finds one roaming around on the field, but the other monster, Fencing Fox, is primarily a support enemy in terms of abilities.



Sag is just as good in the hands of wild monsters as it is in the hands of Euchre's party. If you'll remember, it lowers the Attack stat of one monster drastically. Anyone it hits will be doing much less damage than normal.



They can also cast Heal, which is really awful at this point. Remember, the enemy version heals for around 13 HP instead of the 30-ish that Euchre's version gives.

Music: Seeking Treasure



It goes to the same place that all of Euchre's new monsters go.



Continuing on the only path, Euchre runs into some Lump Wizards. Let's see what they can do, shall we?

Music: Monster Battle



They're also support, unsurprisingly - after all, that's what usually happens to mages in Dragon Quest games. Kadim is the multi-target Wisdom-reducing spell. It's bad.



Kaping, meanwhile, is the opposite of Kadim, being the multi-target Wisdom-increasing spell. It's also bad.



The only thing that Lump Wizards can use Kaping to help with is Woosh, which is a tier 1 spell. It hits everyone, which is basically all it has going for it. It also seems to have more damage variance than normal.



Of course, all those other spells pale in comparison to this spell, Zing. Zing is extremely annoying in the hands of wild monsters.



Here's why. Zing has a chance (around 50%, I believe) of reviving a single monster with half their maximum HP. This makes targeting Lump Wizards first a very good idea.

Music: Seeking Treasure



All this doesn't really matter with Euchre's current capabilities, though. All his monsters have decent enough stats that they can one-shot a Lump Wizard from half HP. This one doesn't get one-shot and instead gets added to Euchre's growing collection.



Past the hall with the Lump Wizards is the central area again. This should be the last time Euchre has to pass through it if the Dungeon Directory is to be believed.



The only way out this time is through the southeast corner. Ignoring the stairs for now, there's a new monster around here. It's not very well disguised.



In fact, there are two of them. This one is guarding some real treasure chests, so it's the one that's going to be taken out.

Music: Monster Battle



Canniboxes are a pain to fight, plain and simple.



The first thing they have is a pretty strong normal attack for their status as non-miniboss encounters. It shouldn't be too bad to work around.



This, though? Not so much. Remember how Poison was terrible? This doesn't inflict Poison. Instead it inflicts Envenomate, which might actually be kind of dangerous. 12%-ish of your maximum HP in damage per turn is fairly nasty, especially in combination with relatively strong attacks.



That's not the worst of it, though. They also get Whack.



Thankfully this casting of it failed, but if it hadn't Wildcard would have been in major trouble. You see, Whack inflicts instant death. Due to the scarcity of revival items and lack of revival spells at this point having a monster die to Whack means having to back out of the shrine and heal up at the nearest scoutpost.

Music: Seeking Treasure



Thankfully this Cannibox doesn't cast it again and gets put into storage posthaste.



The first chest that the Cannibox was guarding contains a Strong Medicine, which will continue not to be used.



The second contains a Seed of Strength. Again, these are pretty rare, so it's appreciated just in case.



Up the stairs that Euchre ignored earlier is a landing of little consequence. What it leads to is not, however.



The end is in sight! You might think that the Fencing Fox is a mandatory fight, but it's really not. You see, its hitbox isn't actually wide enough to block the whole bridge. By hugging the wall it's possible to stroll right past it. The same goes for the one from earlier.



And that's it for navigating Palaish Shrine. There should be just these treasure chests and the inevitable boss fight left. Speaking of treasure chests...



...this one contains a much-appreciated Yggdrasil Leaf. Again, these are pretty rare.



The one on the right, being blue, contains a darkonium crystal. That's half of them collected already.

Music: Sanctuary



The only thing left to do is to go through the door and see what the shrine's sentinel will be this time.





Expect no mercy and show none in turn!!



And so the game's third boss fight begins.

Music: Boss Battle



Moosifer here is considerably more threatening than Golem, mostly due to having more options than just psyching up and attacking.

The tactics Euchre will be employing here will be the same as usual. Wildcard will be Psyching Up to 100 Tension, then using Oomph and Lightning Slash. Litwick will be attempting to stop Moosifer's damage output, lower his defence and make him go last with Weakening Wallop, Helm Splitter and Slowing Slug respectively. Monarch will be on healing duty, preferably on auto-battle mode.



The first ability of note is Frost Slash. It's probably best not to bring anything weak to Crack, since they'll probably get wrecked by this.



It does pretty good damage even without hitting a weakness. That's over half of Litwick's HP gone.



What's more worrying is this. A single Psych Up will raise Moosifer's damage enough to potentially one-shot a monster with a low maximum HP.



Specifically, it increases damage to 170% of normal. Thankfully all of Euchre's monsters are at high enough HP to survive a hit of this magnitude. Healing off this damage, though, is much harder without access to Midheal. Keeping Strong Medicines handy might be useful if that spell hasn't been learned yet.



Moosifer's next ability is Boom, the second tier Bang spell.



It's mostly used to soften up monsters for a physical attack. Again, this can be difficult to heal off because of the single-target nature of most healing spells right now. Fortunately Multiheal eliminates this problem.



And that's basically it for Moosifer. An Oomphed Lightning Slash at maximum tension obliterates it.



Like so.



Just like Golem before him, Moosifer drops a spell manual. We'll see what that one does later.

Music: Sanctuary



Hey, remember when the same exact thing happened to Golem? Good times.



Give me now the power...





Just like back at Xeroph Shrine, the floor starts shining...

Music: Sanctuary (Variation)



...and when the light clears, Wildcard's form has changed once again.



Now I am the holy cluboon - and more powerful than ever! Perhaps you think it strange... ...that I am able to transform myself in this way?



There is something I must tell you. I think you have long suspected that I am no normal monster.



At least Wildcard is finally acknowledging it. To be fair, the in-universe monster library wouldn't be able to tell Euchre that Wildcard is definitively the Incarnus, but it's still entirely possible to pick up on the obvious clues.

Memories of the Incarnus and its actions survive only in ancient legends... ...but should my true identity be discovered, panic would sweep over these islands. You must vow to keep my identity a secret. Tell no one!



But enough talk... We must go to the next shrine!

Music: Sanctuary



Well then, that's Palaish Shrine done with. Now what?



How about having a look at that spell manual that Moosifer dropped? It teaches Evac, which allows Euchre to escape from any dungeon, returning to the entrance. It's pretty useful! Since this duplicates the effect of Exodust, that's another item that's obsoleted by one of Euchre's spells.

Now that's done with, how about some synthesis?

Music: Scoutpost



Cluboon gets synthesised with Euchre's new Angel Slime, 02, since it turns out that 02 is the wrong polarity for what I want to use it for and so it needs using up.



Now Wildcard has the Skills of all three of his forms so far. Cluboon is the earth-elemental version of the Skill, and it also gives Bang for some reason.

Incidentally, this gives us a look at the names of all of Wildcard's forms so far. There's Wulfspade, Hawkhart and Cluboon. Whatever his next form is, it's most likely going to have something to do with diamonds.



The next synthesis I want to do is to fuse Litwick with an Angel Slime.



I decide that a Mud Mannequin is the best option in this synthesis, so that's what gets made. Geno here is going to help in more ways that just battling.



Since Wildcard doesn't want to fight in the arena on Xeroph Isle, Euchre's going to be making a competent mage to help instead. The Spitnik, Viroid, is a Material monster just like Litwick was, so the first two results are the same. We're going with the other one.



It just so happens that this results in a Dragon Slime. It's going into the active party for levelling purposes, replacing Wildcard for now.



The main attraction here is Frizz & Bang. The other two are mostly just there to fill slots, but Zap Ward could be useful later for Magic Miser and Magic Scrooge.

Those are the only bits of synthesis I want to do for now. How about heading over to Xeroph Isle to get some of that battle tournament done?

Music: Appearance of the Town



First off, though, Euchre's stopping off on Domus Isle to see what new things people have to say.

Department store reopens for business! All scouts welcome! Make sure you check it out!

As it turns out, though, there isn't all that much to see. It seems that most people are saying the same thing as they were last time Euchre came here.



Euchre hasn't seen this guy before, though. You might actually recognise the name, though - Tryger was third on the Monster Scout Challenge rankings the last time Euchre checked on them.

Maybe a bit TOO realistic for the little girl's liking... She still hasn't calmed down.

Tryger is dressed up as a Weartiger, although he does seem a little too big for a human. Maybe he actually is a Weartiger, contrary to his claims. In any case, Weartigers are Rank D Beast monsters and sadly aren't found in the wild.

That's basically it for Domus Isle. As I said, there isn't much here that hasn't been seen before. You know what is new, though?



An uncharted island! This one only had one new monster:

Music: Monster Battle



She-Slimes! I have no idea what these do because Euchre didn't have Wildcard out at the time and just scouted one on the first turn. It's probably something Frizz-related based on their Trait.



Now that Euchre has an actual She-Slime it's getting the same name as the one from the synthesis demo. Yes, I'm uncreative.

Anyway, that's all for this island. I couldn't find any treasure chests, so Bo is the only reward for finding this one.



So, the Xeroph Isle battle tournament. This is the first battle in Rank E, which is the only Rank that's available to start with. It costs 10 gold coins to attempt.

Unfortunately there's no way to have Euchre's monsters hold back in order to see what these guys can do due to the forced AI control, so they get promptly destroyed. My guess is that they would do roughly the same things as their wild counterparts.



This is the next battle in Rank E. Again, there's no option to hold back, so they're all defeated too. At a guess I'd say they would use Psyche Up a lot.



This is the final Rank E battle, and it's just as simple for this team as the others. It's notable, though, that with each battle in a given rank the monsters get stronger, at least in terms of stats. Unlike the other fights in Rank E I have no idea what these guys can do.

The reward for completing Rank E is a Seed of Life and the ability to attempt Rank D.



Rank D costs 50 gold coins to attempt. In this fight, the Chimaera uses Dazzle in order to capitalise on its team's already high evasion. It's kind of annoying if it manages to hit.



The Firespirits here love to waste your MP by defending, while the Dancing Flame likes to cast Bang. They're a mild annoyance.



The King Kelp in this fight is the most annoying monster, since it's able to use Fuddle Dance to potentially confuse all of Euchre's monsters. Other than that, they're fairly simple.

The reward for completing Rank D is the ability to challenge Rank C and some Metal Claws, a weapon which increases damage done to metal monsters. That'll probably be useful in the future.



Rank C is a bit too much for Euchre's team at this point, but it's available now so I might as well show it off. This first fight is really easy, though. The Muddy Hand has Body Slam, making it effectively kill itself, while the Goodybag has Hustle Dance to heal its party. The Bag O' Laughs probably has some ability too, but I didn't see it.



This is where the fights get annoying. These Slime monsters are surprisingly bulky, and the Healslime has Kabuff to make them even bulkier. The only hope that Euchre's monsters have is spells. Oh, and the Slime can use Helm Splitter which gives it the potential to beat Euchre's team more quickly. Hatchet Man too, for that matter, which is an ability which either misses or inflicts a critical hit. Finally, the Angel Slime is the magical talent of the group with its Swoosh spell, which is the second tier of Woosh.

Somehow Euchre beats them through copious use of Bang from Dragoon, but his monsters have very little MP remaining for the final round.



The final battle of Rank C is, in contrast to the battle of attrition that was the second round, over very quickly.



Three monsters that can do 50-ish damage per turn each tends to do that. It would probably be best to try again later, when Euchre has better monsters and higher levels.

Is there anything else to do, then, before moving on? Of course! How about going back to Scoutmaster Shuffles and completing his next Proficiency Test question?

Music: Island



This was the last task that Euchre was assigned, if you'll recall.



Geno is an excellent candidate for this. The reward for this question is really nice:



A darkonium crystal! There are only four more to go now until Euchre can enter the Monster Scout Challenge finals.

Oh, right, the next question. This one is pretty pricey at 500 gold coins, but the reward is probably going to be worth it.



That's probably not going to happen for a while because of the grinding involved. Jumping Jackals are Beast family monsters high up in Rank D. The "easiest" way to get a Jumping Jackal, that is the method with the fewest syntheses, is to combine a Skelegon with a Beast family monster which has a lower ID.

That seems like a good stopping point for this time. Next time, Euchre will be heading off to Infern Isle in search of more darkonium and more shrines.

Extra: The Monster Library

She-Slime





She-Slimes have the Skills Frizz & Zap and Agility Boost when scouted and just Frizz & Zap when synthesised. They have the Trait Frizzmeister and are immune to Frizz.

Frizz & Zap is another one of the two-element Skills. Like the others, there are three tiers of it. Unfortunately it runs into the opposite problem that Crack & Woosh did - both of its elements are strictly single-target. Of course, it's still by no means a bad Skill.

Dragon Slime





Dragon Slimes have the Skill Dragon Lore and can't be scouted. Being flying monsters, they have the Trait Artful Dodger. They're also immune to both fire and ice breath.

Dragon Lore is the same as it was on Green Dragons back in Part 9.

Fencing Fox





Fencing Foxes have the Skills Guerrilla and Attack Boost when scouted and just Guerrilla when synthesised. They have the Trait Early Bird, which makes sure they always go first unless another monster has the same Trait. They're also immune to Confusion.

Guerrilla was first found of Mischievous Moles all the way back in Part 2.

Cannibox





Canniboxes have the Skills Fear-monger and Defence Boost when scouted and just Fear-monger when synthesised. They have the Trait Desperado, doubling their critical hit chance when they have less than 1/4 of their HP left, and are immune to Whack.

Fear-monger was on Bags O' Laughs back in Part 7.

Mud Mannequin





Mud Mannequins have the Skill Dancer and can't be scouted. They have no Trait and are weak to Frizz and immune to Dazzle.

Dancer is a skill that unsurprisingly teaches exclusively dance Skills. There's Dodgy Dance to increase evasion, weird Dance to remove MP from an enemy, Fuddle Dance to confuse all enemies, and Tap Dance to steal MP from an enemy. Then there's Sultry Dance to attempt to make a single enemy miss their turn, Ban Dance to stop enemy dances, Hustle Dance for multi-target healing, Death Dance to inflict instant death on all enemies, and Kerplunk Dance which kills the user and fully heals and revives their allies. Overall Dancer is a pretty helpful support moveset. There's status effects, decent healing, and MP drain, the last of which is especially helpful when playing through the story. The main problem is that it can be shut down easily by Ban Dance or Break-Dance Beat, but those don't tend to get thrown around much.

Lump Wizard





Lump Wizards have the Skills Bang & Woosh and Woosh Ward when scouted and just Bang & Woosh when synthesised. They have no traits and are immune to all attack magic. Yes, really.

Bang & Woosh is yet another two-element magic Skill. Yet again both of its elements are purely multi-target, but it can still work.

Woosh Ward is another Ward Skill like Zap Ward was on Angel Slimes. Instead of two Zap Guards it gives two Woosh Guards, and the stat boosts it gives are also different - 15 Wisdom, 5 Agility, 10 MP and 10 HP. It still gives Magic Scrooge and Magic Miser, though.

Cluboon





Cluboon has the Skill Cluboon and the Trait Psycho. Being the Incarnus form attuned to Earth it's weak to fire and healed by earth. It's also immune to Sap and other defence-lowering effects.

The Skill Cluboon, like Wulfspade and Hawkhart, only goes up to 75 points before capping. It teaches Bang and Boom for its attack spells, Bomb Slash for its physical attack, Stone's Throw and Boulder Bash for its Earth attacks, and Earth Guard for its passive ability. Finally, Buff and Sap appear as the support spells. Overall Cluboon is just as viable as any other tier 1 Incarnus Skill, and Buff and Sap are pretty good spells to have.

Cluboon II, meanwhile, has Boom and Kaboom for its attack spells, Blast Slash for its physical attack, Boulder Bash and Boulder Toss for its Earth attacks and Earth Guard and Bang Guard for its passive abilities. Unsurprisingly Kabuff and Kasap are the support spells this time. This time, Kabuff is almost entirely better than Buff because it's desirable to have increased defence on all monsters instead of just one or two. Kasap is not so lucky; the situations where it tends to get used are against a single target. It's still a good Skill for attacking, though.


Extra 2: Synthesis Recipes

Incarnus Family + Material Family = Cluboon (Rank ???, not scoutable, not available through generic synthesis)

It's another Incarnus form! That's really all there is to say. It's mostly irrelevant right now, but if you need the Cluboon Skill back you can switch over to it.

Epicmissingno fucked around with this message at 13:31 on Sep 20, 2017

Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011
I think it's funny you mention it being too easy to hit the stat cap, because I feel that's a lot better than those games where you have to grind for ages to do it (lookin' at you FFVII) or where it just plain ain't possible.

Petiso
Apr 30, 2012



Cluboon is my favorite Incarnus form by far.

Yeah, whacking monsters are nasty and I recall feeling quite proud of myself when I discovered you could bypass those fencing foxes.

I remember carrying that Dragon Slime for quite a long time when I played the game.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
"Cluboon II"? How do you get that? Just enough points in cluboon?

Epicmissingno
Jul 1, 2017

Thank gooness we all get along so well!

Glazius posted:

"Cluboon II"? How do you get that? Just enough points in cluboon?

Yeah, you need 75 points in Cluboon. It's the same situation as Wulfspade II and Hawkhart II.

CptWedgie
Jul 19, 2015

Glazius posted:

"Cluboon II"? How do you get that? Just enough points in cluboon?

Pretty sure the answer to any "how do I get X numbered skill" question is always "max points in a lower-level version of that skill."

Alloran
Dec 30, 2014

I think this line is mostly filler.
Glad to see an update. I've not played this game but I'm greatly enjoying the LP. Also, God-Monkey looks so much better than God-Bird-Thing.

Epicmissingno
Jul 1, 2017

Thank gooness we all get along so well!
I have a bit of a request for the thread: for future updates, would you guys mind pointing out any major mistakes or typos that I've missed? I mention this because I was going back over a previous update and discovered a double-posted image (it's fixed now, by the way) and I'd like this to be as error-free as possible for posterity's sake.

Deceitful Penguin
Feb 16, 2011
Yeah, fo sho

RareAcumen
Dec 28, 2012




Epicmissingno posted:

I have a bit of a request for the thread: for future updates, would you guys mind pointing out any major mistakes or typos that I've missed? I mention this because I was going back over a previous update and discovered a double-posted image (it's fixed now, by the way) and I'd like this to be as error-free as possible for posterity's sake.

That's pretty standard procedure for people here to do.

Epicmissingno
Jul 1, 2017

Thank gooness we all get along so well!
I've got an update ready and we're almost on a new page. How about bumping up the post count a bit before tomorrow morning?

savixeon
Oct 22, 2016
Sure. So what are we going to be doing with our new Cluboon?

Moonshine Rhyme
Mar 26, 2010

Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate
Great to see an LP of this game. The first dragon warrior monster game was my favorite gameboy game back in the day, though I never did manage to get to the end of it.

Leraika
Jun 14, 2015

Luckily, I *did* save your old avatar. Fucked around and found out indeed.
I'm pretty sure I just stalled out messing around with synthesis and actually didn't finish anything of note.

Mysticblade
Oct 22, 2012

If threads are still 40 posts per page, we're 2 posts off being on to a new page. After this post, it'll be 1 more post to reach the new page. You may as well double post at this point, OP.

I started up a run of DQM:J again. I'm gonna try using some of the monsters I didn't use last time. I'd try out the newer Joker games but I don't know what to play.

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POOL IS CLOSED
Jul 14, 2011

I'm just exploding with mackerel. This is the aji wo kutta of my discontent.
Pillbug
A :justpost: is a just post. Cluboon is a better design than naked chicken Hawkheart.

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