#dip plays eov

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I don't think I could count on fourteen hands the amount of times I have heard this mysterious voice that is DEFINITELY not Arken say "This is the story of Yggdrasil, in the land of Arcania."

Every time you boot up the game, the intro gives you that little refresher and a bunch of other stuff that you won't even hear because you've already pressed A to skip the rest of the intro, and probably that sentence, which she likely didn't even get to finish.

Over the years, that sentence has ingrained itself into my memory. I remember "This is the story of Yggdrasil, in the land of Arcania" more clearly than my own name

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It about time I address one of EO5's most fatal flaws.

No, it's actually nothing to do with the worldbuilding.

How come the floor selection screen and map list each floor in different orders?! You either list them ascending order, or you list them in descending order! None of this wishy-washy shit! To hell with this!

That's all. I just had to get that out of my system. Regular EO5 liveblogging will resume soon. Stay tuned.

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FINALLY!!!!!! GOOD HEAVENS, FINALLY!!!!!!

I could go more into detail regarding my sheer dislike for gathering in EO, but I'll spare you that rant and leave it at this: It's really not that fun at all.

That besides, six Crooked Trees chopped from 3F means I can finally get Eleanor a Sequoian Bow, and fully forge it to make use of Aegis Prayer, its weapon skill. Being that it's the very same Aegis Prayer as Shaman's, and can be levelled up to Lv5 via forging, it'll provide a 17% defense buff for 4 turns (technically 5 turns because of how EO handles state durations, but that's a tangent for another day).

It's nothing game-breaking, and was most definitely not REALLY worth the several in-game days it took to gather up its materials (not to mention the even greater several real-time days it took to do that, and finally write this update), but hey—this team's only ever gonna have innate access to two buffs (Dragon Roar on Berry, and Chain Plus on Aurora), so we've got an abundance of free buff slots to use up. Plus, three out of the five people on this team are very much required to use bows if they want to be of any use during all of the first two strata, and most of the rest.

When two (Chloe and Eleanor) out of those three have absolutely atrocious physical damage output on their own, and the remaining one (Denica) doesn't fair much better in that department, I very much can afford to choose their weapons based on utility, rather than attack power.

With all of that finally out of the way, there's a certain quest in this game that I want to draw attention to:

Rare Breed Hunter is a quest that requires you to—and you're not gonna believe this—hunt a rare breed monster. The objective is on 2F, and after meandering on that floor for a while, you'll eventually run into this formation:

Nothing special. A good Wing Thrash took it down before you could say "ooh, shiny."

HOWEVER. Only after you win this battle are rare breeds will be set to spawn naturally. This means that you can play through EO5 in its entirety without encountering a single one of these, so long as you do not do this quest. EO5 is the only EO game that has rare breeds in which you can simply choose to never encounter a single one.

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Me: Hello Etrian Odyssey V for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems, may I please get Crooked Tree from this Chop Point, so that I may buy and forge the Sequoian Bow, which has the useful Aegis Prayer weapon skill?

EO5: You want Spiraling Vine?

EO5: You want fucking Ivied Bark?

Me, increasingly distraught: the the tree

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Despite the game playing up FOEs as these big, ferocious guys that'll shred you like cheese without hesitation or difficulty, the map says "yeah you could fight that thing and maybe even win."

Skipping to the end of 2F,

OH. YOU. Chloe doesn't have Detect Mana yet so she can't read what this says! Fabulous! Excellent!

Additionally, on the next floor,

There are Chop points! That, rarely, yield an item I need to make something pretty useful! Berry has Gathering Skill, but it's less likely to get you rare items from gathering spots than any of Chop, Take, or Mine are. Crucially, Chloe doesn't have Chop either! Fabulous! Excellent!

I'd been putting Chloe's skill points into Dark Smoke so that she can actually inflict worth a damn, and because between that and Toxic Smoke, it's the one I'm focusing on for the rest of the game. However, it appears I may have forgotten a few other priorities... It especially stings because, as it turns out, Toxic Smoke has been the Smoke skill I've been making more use of here! Y'know, the one I'm not investing skill points in?

Ugh. Well. It is what it is, I suppose.

Unlike the Toxipede on the last floor, the map and the game are both on the same page. Yes, this FOE could definitely shred the party like cheese without hesitation or difficulty. Then again, so could the Toxipede, since as it's name might suggest, it dishes out poison that deals some pretty hefty damage that the party is certainly not yet equipped to handle.

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Me: Hello Etrian Odyssey V may I please get a Skunk Cabbage from this take spot so I can sell it and start buying Nectar

EO5: Get Brown Tuber.

EO5: Get Lotus Fruit.

EO5: Get Fucked.

Me: cabidge

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HERE WE ARE, FINALLY ON THE SECOND FLOOR

This floor is, unlike the first floor, pretty uneventful! That means that, also unlike the first floor, we'll be moving through it rather quickly! Yay!

One of the first things we encounter is a character whose story definitely has a deep connection to the game's wider plot, and isn't one of the ONLY, like, four bits of worldbuilding in the entire game!

Next we fine Conrad—er, sorry. Force of habit. I mean Spirie of some random guild whose name I forgot! It's not likely at all that the person that made this character is reading this right now, but if by some slim chance they are, then... hey! Hi! Hello!

I ought to make mention of just how much wreckage Aurora is putting out. This enemy has 187 HP (almost twice that of a Rabid Acorn's 104), and Aurora's Chain Flame just deleted 136 of it. That's 72% of its HP straight-up gone in one hit.

Add onto that the initial poke that set off that Chain, additional pokes from others, which can set off additional Chains, attacks from Beck, Hero, and even Berry if the party's safe enough, and... most enemies at this point are dropping dead like nobody's business.

This is a big part of why EO5's Fencer is my favourite class in Etrian Odyssey as a whole; as with any follow-up-style class in the series, it's a bit of a chore to build around (as the guy who took around a YEAR to come up with this team comp, believe me, I would know), but unlike a Chaser Landsknecht, it has the skills it wants from the very start—no hefty prerequisites required—and unlike a Link Landsknecht, from the word "go," it's pouring on the pain like gravy at a Thanksgiving dinner. Boy is it sarisfying to see, and if you'll believe it, the true feast is still yet to come...

(Chain Killer Chain Killer Chain Killer Chain Killer Chain K—)

Anyways, as I said before, not much of particular note note happens on 2F, so after getting through about the first half, I go back to town.

There was one quest that I could take on at the moment. This quest wants you to reel in one forest fish...

...in exchange for five (and a level up for the party). It's a pretty good deal, I say. I personally don't make much use of the HP recovery that this game's food items provide since Chloe has more TP than she knows what to do with and a healing skill that costs practically none of it.

Before I end this post off, there's one small quirk with Chain skills that I want to mention.

A Fencer's Rapier mastery makes their equipped sword deal stab damage instead of a sword's default cut damage. One might assume that this change would be reflected in their Chain skills as well; for example, that Chain Flame would deal Stab+Fire damage instead of Cut+Fire damage.

In actuality, Chain Skills will always deal stab damage, regardless of the user's investment in Rapier Mastery, meaning it only affects normal attacks, and can thus be largely ignored by most Fencers.

This means that I was able to obtain Disloged Fangs (a material dropped by Ice Bats when killed with stab damage) even though Aurora has no points in Rapier Mastery at all, and as a result technically no rapier with which to stab.

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At long, long last, we're finally wrapping up 1F.

We finally return this guard's chickens, and in return he immediately gives one away to the party.

This chicken stays with Jenetta at the inn, and will lay eggs for the party every couple of days. This will be very helpful in time.

I also farmed up a boatload more Conical Canines to fully forge Aurora's Kopis and (not shown) Berry's Madfa. As said before, Berry won't do much attacking with it—even with the weapon upgrade, and even with that weapon fully forged, her damage is still really hella shrimpy (and it can't even activate chains!)—but it's forge bonus is a solid HP Up, which is perfect for her.

With all that said and done, though, we won't have much business on this floor for a very long time. Finally, we'll be heading up to 2F.

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Back in town, our freshly-plucked dog teeth make us some new equipment. I don't much care for the Madfa unlock, for a reason you'll see extremely soon, but that shiny new Kopis is perfect for Aurora; I'll be getting it for her right away.

Meanwhile, at the bar, we accept a quest from Syrik that just so happens to require us to unlock... a Madfa. Having already done so, we quickly turn the quest in, and receive...

...a Madfa! Berry promptly replaces her old Fire Gun with it, though she won't get much use out of it herself, on account of her having a party to guard.

On that note, I won't actually be using Gunmount at all until... basically the end of the maingame, if not postgame. The main reason for that is just that Berry won't ever really need it. Yeah, it does save hella TP at it's earlier levels, but in later strata, she'll be wanting to use other artillery skills over Gunmount.

Plus, I also just have something of an aversion to skills with prerequisite skills that I'll never use. In this case, the prerequitsite is Heal Guard (no, not the Nexus version. It wishes it were half as good). I'll never use it, and it clogs up my skill list!

Anyways, while forging up Berry and Aurora's newly acquired weapons, I get some Short Bows for Denica and Chloe and forge them up. In the former's case, the extra damage will be nice. In latter's case? Well, Chloe's not doing any respectable STR-based damage as a Celestrian, so the main draw is the AGI bonus you get from forging. Eleanor's gonna get her own bow in due time. I'm not too pressed about her acting faster or doing any more bow damage.

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Now, we are finally getting close to wrapping up the first floor. I swear not every floor is gonna take 600 updates. I swear.

(Imagine Berry doing this two more times) I actually... forgot to tell that guard that I saved all of his chickens, so the reward for that will unfortunately have to wait...

In the dreaded northern area, we run into this ugly mug. This is the third reason I got the party to Lv5. Simply put, it hits hard, and has a line-target defense debuff that makes it hit even harder. I didn't want to take any chances with this guy.

Thankfully, a Hunter Shot from Denica and a good old-fashioned walloping from Aurora rendered the thing dead before it could do anything with that debuff it slapped on the front row. I may have overestimated the Wild Dog.

I take it upon myself to hunt down some more Wild Dogs for their Conical Canines, which I'll need for a quest very soon.

This is a very silly formation, but at this point, we can take on Air Squirrels just fine, thanks in no small part to Eleanor's newly acquired Wing Thrash. Unfortunately, as seems to be a running theme with most of Hawk spec Rover's skills, it synergizes weirdly/poorly (read: not at all) with Fencer's Chains. In the case of Wing Thrash specifically, it's faster than even a Chain skill's initial prep. It will not and cannot proc Chains at all.

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Anyways, the team has at last reached Lv5. Now, I can share with you second reason why I did this:

Denica finally gets Hunter Shot, which is basically her best skill until gaining access to Legendary Titles. Though, the main event is actually Berry acquiring Animal Care.

Earlier on, a guard near the entrance requested for us to find his lost chickens. Now that we have Animal Care, we can get thst done.

Additionally, if you're especially sharp, you may remember that Eleanor is a Brouni, and as such has had the ability to learn Animal Care since lv1.

While neither Eleanor or Berry are particularly pressed for skill points (nor will they really ever be) I gave the point in Animal Care to Berry simply because, between her and Eleanor, she'll be slightly less in need of SP over the course of the first two strata. Thus, she has slightly more to throw into Passives (like Animal Care, for instance!), Union Skills, and the like.

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While I was getting the party up to lv5, there's a particular event I wanted to make special note of. Those who have played EO5 before may remember the event on the first floor surrounding the snapping turtle guarding the copper coin.

The way the event plays out is that, after attempting to grab the coin multiple times, and getting your fingers chomped on by the turtle in most of those attempts, you're given the option to take a breath and calm down before continuing.

As you do so, one of your characters will suggest simply moving the turtle and then grabbing the coin. You can choose to do this, and the event will end with you taking the coin, no more pain required. This is how I assume most players have done the quest.

However, you can also choose to keep on grabbing at the coin, despite the rationality of the other choice. What you might not know is that if you choose this, you can still successfully grab the coin without moving the turtle.

I don't know if it's an AGI check or what, but after a few more attempts, Aurora here eventually managed to evade the turtle's jaws, and nab the coin at last.

The end result is the same, so the extra effort is more or less for naught...

...and you've the potential to take quite the beating, too; each bite from the turtle deals 20 points of damage. Still, I don't think damage from anything outside of battle can kill a party member; had she been bitten one more time, Aurora would have likely been left with just 1 HP.

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Since I now have some fresh new Lv1 characters in the party, I took it upon myself to rest Berry and Denica back to Lv1 to match. For the sake of synced exp bars of course.

Now, I'm gonna go run around in the southern part of 1F until the party reaches Lv5. There are three main reasons for this. The first one being to make up for the levels that I just rested off of Berry and Denica (and that Aurora, Chloe, and Eleanor never got). The other two reasons... I will divulge in due time.

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Our first battle, and it's...

Honestly kinda toothless.

Berry just uses Line Guard on the front row. The worst a Roper can do at this point is use a basic attack, which can sting, but not as much as an Air Squirrel's Balloon Drop. Mercifully, no such enemy is present.

Terry's put one point into Chain Shock (on account of the dreaded Air Squirrels being weak to volt), and a bunch of other points into passives that don't really matter right now.

You may have noticed in the first screenshot that I FORGOT TO SUMMON MY DOG. If she want's to contribute to Chain Shock—and she does—Denica's got no other skill to use but Target Arrow (which has a nifty defense debuff attached, so it's not all bad). But that's not the end of my forgetfulness...

Yeah... there's no excusing this one. I straight up forgot to invest ANY points into ANY skills on Pearl and Louisa. Thankfully, they both have bows equipped, so their basic attacks can still activate Terry's Chains—which is arguably more important than whatever else they could have done if they DID have skills to use—but still.

The rest of the battle was nothing to write home about, and I imagine things will stay that way until we encounter the Dastardly Balloon Squirrel. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some skill points to spend...

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Lmao I play the game with voices muted so these stratum intros are complete dead silence with text crawls until the music starts

But that aside HOLY SHIT IT'S TIME TO FINALLY PLAY THE VIDEO GAME

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I don't know if anyone else does this (someone out there probably does), but I have a strict order in which I organize equipment on characters. From topmost to bottom-most slot:

1. Weapon

2. Shield

3. Headwear

4. Body Armour

5. Armwear

6. Legwear

7. Accessories

I adhere to this order always, and you can trust me when I say that when the game gives you a temporary party member, and their equipment doesn't follow this rule, I shake my head in disappointment and breathe a heavy, saddened sigh.