#or maybe NightSeeker

[that1notetaker]

SINCE DAY ONE. @jundsthoughts @wixenforever

Another comic inspired by the awesome NottPott fic, The Burning of The Library by wixen here. In which Blaise is a suave motherfucker who wants Theo to get a hint, and ends up realising that the whole thing is deeper than both Draco and he thought. Theo remains oblivious for the most part, hidden under layers of intensity he doesnt have a name to yet.

Blaise, draco, who are used to this level of caring for one another from their parents. Also, common sense and Theo being an open hearted mf: 😳😳😳

Harry, somewhere: Ive never been more confused in my entire life.

[helladventurers]

Already having fun coming up with a goofy dodge tank party for my nexus playthrough, party setup is gonna be less flexible than usual since I already have 4 out of 5 slots taken by permanent members, so as a compensation I'm trying to think of some stupid class combos for whoever ends up taking the final slot or looking for ultra specific niche situations I could use a specific class for

[acradaunt]

Acra's EO Guild Card Megapost

Guild Cards are a neat thing in the most of the Etrian Odyssey games. Sometimes, they're pretty pointless, but in some, they actually do some neat stuff. I… have a tendency to do multiple playthroughs, to try different team compositions (as seeing how different a game can feel based on your builds is one of my favourite things ever, and I also like abandon them before the big fights, on the hypothetical urge I want to re-fight a boss at an appropriate level an infinite number of times), so I've amassed a fair few of my own.

Why am I uploading these now? Apparently the Nexus database got borked a couple days ago, so this is the perfect time for me to get a few feet in the door. I also swear this is the last time I'll ever post about these, seriously.

EO Nexus -A total of 100 Guild Cards are needed to unlock the Vampire pseudo-class. Obviously, 100 is a lot, so they obviously expected the community, paltry it may be, to come together to make a database. And they did. And then they locked it the second they got 108. And then it died. So now I finally get a second chance to contribute.

Galeforce

-My first (main) playthrough. I actually uploaded a card weekly to help out, but I think only the first one made it on in time. It's not Heroic because it's like a NG+++++ file. This is the final card, but for the weekly set of them, um, here:

Week 0 || Week 1 || Week 2 || Week 3 || Week 4 || Week 5 || Week 6 || Week 7

Stardust

-Filled with all my C-listers that couldn't fit into Galeforce. I ran them as two separate teams; the Boss Killers (shown here), who fought the FOEs/Bosses, and Team Midriff, who did all the exploration.

Sunstorm

-A Guild consisting of classes I mostly avoid using, and portraits I hadn't (as of its conception) used before. As always, there's like another three members that get used that aren't here, including a Survivalist, Nightseeker, and an Arcanist.

Maelstrom

-An attempt at a Nuzlocke-esque run, and also an 'evil' party. Characters stopped being used if they died, but only until the end of the stratum, to not make it overbearing. Being an evil party lacking in support and healing, this was an absolute slog that I considered a total failure by the Jungle.

Brilliant

-An idea for a mage-guild that kinda went askew. Starting as a Sovereign, three Zodiacs, and a Farmer, I ultimately turned this into three single-element teams; Each consisting of a unique Sovereign, a unique Zodiac, two other characters that get earlygame elemental skills (Survivalist's Flame Arrow, Landsknecht, etc.), but the same Farmer (Hazel) across all three. Didn't take it all that far, but worked kinda well!

EOV -Definitely where Guild Cards are seen the most. About 2-4 times every floor, there'll be an event that'll use you GC database to have another guild interact with you in the labyrinth. If you have none, you'll be introduced to memelord Conrad of the Freeblade Guild about 110 times in your course of a playthrough. In stark contrast, Nexus only has GC events maybe a dozen times across the whole game.

Starlight

-Main guild. Not a lot to say. It's a Chain-oriented party, because I love Fencers/Landsknechts.

Bundt

-Cake pun. See, bundt is a type of cake, and the guild is filled with Brouni. As in Brownies, the fairy/pixie/sprite, but I'm punning off the--- ANYWAY. Horrific offense, but don't die easily. Kinda miserable against a few specific enemies like the coffin jerks on 15F, but otherwise worked astonishingly better than you'd expect. Which is; not GOOD, but totally serviceable.

Necrocosm

-My original 'evil' guild, featuring two Necromancers, and edge as far as the eye can see. Two Necros work pretty well together; typically Velvet summoned them and Rue made them explode. The fact Necros heal and have evil vibes let them succeed where Maelstrom would totally fail. I also didn't bench anyone for dying, so that probably helped too.

Firebird

-This playthrough is only saved at Amalgolem and took like a single weekend to get there, so I didn't remember squat about it. Amalgolem is like my single fave boss in the whole series, so I just had to leave a file there. It's heavily skewed towards non-humans, and the bottom deck of the guild is just full of nigh-on unusable cross-classed horrors, like a Celestrian Pugilist and Therian Warlock.

EO2U -Probably where Guild Cards are the most functionally useful. Lets you get the Grimoire Stones the attached character has on hand as many times as you can afford. Pretty nifty, as Grimoires are semi-random in spawning.

Skyquake

-So I didn't actually buy EO2U when it came out for a variety of factors, not least being unaware how different it was from the original EOII, my first EO game. So I've only started this and Untold I fairly recently.

Ironroot

-Holy Gift gives you extra experience, but each level costs twice as much to trade as the previous. That is, you need two level 3 Grimoires to get a level 4. Or 128 level 3s for a single level 10. So having a Guild Card with lowish level Holy Gift is actually pretty dang useful to have.

Untold

-Story Guild. Haven't… uh, haven't exactly been Motivated to do Story mode in Untold 2. On paper, I really dislike the team composition. In practice, hasn't been so bad, but still not enough to make me play them more than necessary.

Fellbloom

-Now legally required Evil Guild. Probably won't ever get past Chimaera.

EOU -Unlike the sequel, Guild Cards don't let you choose what to get from the friend's Guild Card. You just get given a random Grimoire Stone once per playthrough per Guild Card. Kinda lame.

Untold -Unlike later games, only one save file here, and the game nigh-on requires you to play through the Story Mode before doing Classic in NG+, so, that's where we sit.

EOIV -First game to use QR codes. III had Guild Cards, but I don't know how you'd trade them. They do serve a purpose here; each Card gets given a random treasure, and having a Card lets you find that treasure in the overworld. Most are crap, but some are circumstantially useful, and some are permanent stat-boosts, IIRC. I don't think mine was very good…?

Zephyr

-Uh, EOIV had a glitch where your Ventured Days would go up dramatically every time you paused. I think it comes into affect if you ever do NG+. So I haven't actually played for 48 in-game years. Truth be told, now knowing of a way to back up save files, I am admittedly tempted to make a new EOIV playthrough, since it's been like a decade, but for my own sanity, I really probably shouldn't.

[solidandsound]

After I finished Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold, I was craving more of that Etrian Odyssey goodness so much that I went ahead and jumped into Etrian Odyssey IV, even though I'd told myself I'd hold off on starting anything new for a while. One aspect I wasn't sure I'd get much out of, though, was creating my own party rather than experiencing a set story mode. That was, of course, foolish; I am having a blast. I put a lot of thought into the backstory and dynamics of my crew and have come to love them deeply. So, indulge me for a while, as I introduce... Guild Trefoil!

Guild Trefoil, from the Latin ‘trifolium’, meaning three-leaved plant. This is another name for the clover plant, and also refers to various clover-inspired designs, such as those on heraldic crests. At the core of the guild are the three childhood friends Clover, Calyx, and Patrick.

Ship: Oxalis, another clover-like plant, colloquially known as a false shamrock. In EOIV, all airships are imitations of an original that fell to the ground long ago.

Clover, Sniper: Trefoil’s leader from the back. A fairly serious person. Orphaned at a young age when her parents set out to be Yggdrasil explorers in Armoroad and never returned. She was raised in a small village, at an orphanage for children left behind by explorer parents. She does not blame her parents; as world economies centre more and more around these mysterious labyrinths, other opportunities dry up. Her parents were doing all they could. However, she does hold a certain distaste for those who treat Yggdrasil exploration like a fun past-time, and for those who seek to profit from it at a higher level. She now sets out for Yggdrasil herself in the hopes of sending funds back to the orphanage. As someone with a high level of attention for detail, she is also in charge of the map.

Like the plant, Clover is small but resilient. (Portrait: female, pink.)

Calyx, Fortress: Clover’s carefree best friend. She, too, grew up in the orphanage for children whose parents died as explorers. Growing up surrounded by other children with competing needs led her to become patient and reluctant to complain. However, she is also slow to advocate for herself, something which Clover is quick to remedy. Calyx feels deeply indebted to Clover for all of her support throughout their lives.

Calyx is the collective term for sepals, a part of a plant that functions to protect the flower in bloom. (Portrait: female, redhead.)

Patrick, Dancer: childhood friend to both Clover and Calyx, also an orphan. Gay, maybe a little slutty. Definitely likes to have fun. Developed in a different way from Calyx in response to their environment; because he lacked discipline growing up, he isn’t too responsible and doesn’t tend to take things seriously. To everyone’s surprise, it was his idea to head for Tharsis and seek Yggdrasil. Although he pitched it to Clover as a way to help the increasingly poverty-stricken orphanage where they grew up, his real reason is tied to the boy he likes, Leif.

Patrick is named for Saint Patrick, who is strongly associated with the shamrock, a type of clover. The shamrock may have also been associated with the regenerative powers of nature; as a Dancer, Patrick is the party’s only healer. (Portrait: male, purple hair.)

Leif, Nightseeker: with a sword in one hand and a dagger in the other, Leif is Trefoil’s deadliest member. He seems to have had some training in combat before the beginning of the journey. However, his background is shrouded in mystery. He came to Clover’s village badly injured, barely kept alive by his sister, Kura. As he was tended to by Clover, Calyx, and Patrick, he became especially close with Patrick, and disclosed that he and his sister were on their way to Tharsis to seek out Yggdrasil. However, he would not explain why. He shared that he intended to head out again once he was healthy; Patrick did not see this ending well and offered to accompany him, soon roping his friends into it as well. Leif is a stoic figure, but occasionally lets his guard down and shows his true tenderness and sensitivity. He grows closer with Patrick by the day, but is nonetheless still guarded with him.

The name Leif is most closely associated with Leif Erikson, a Norse explorer who sought new lands. It also recalls a leaf, in keeping with our plant theme. (Portrait: male, red coat.)

Kura, Runemaster: Leif’s sister, who is even more taciturn than he is. Her greatest show of emotion seen by the party thus far was in the moments they first met, when she begged them to save Leif’s life. Since then, she has shown nary a smile. That said, she is very perceptive. This aids her in combat, as she is talented in reading the enemy, but she can also glean a lot about a person’s nature just by watching them. Like Leif, she comes to the group with prior training, showing great prowess with elemental magic. Also like Leif, she refuses to share anything deeper about herself. She shares her brother’s goals, but will not reveal them.

Named for the kura clover, or Trifolium ambiguum, a type of clover that is mostly white with red underneath, a similar colour scheme to her portrait art. (Portrait: female, short blue hair.)

(EOIV portraits can be viewed here, for reference.)

[elvenantics]

Thinking about this moment from the campaign run by the guild I'm in. Still my favorite moment of Saris from Voidforge smmsnsj

[theshatteredrose]

Chapters: 41/41 Fandom: Etrian Odyssey Series, Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Landsknecht/Nightseeker Characters: Nightseeker, Medic, Runemaster, Landsknecht - Character, Sniper, Fortress - Character, Dancer - Character Series: Part 1 of A Learning Experience Summary:

Varuna – Night Seeker, amnestic and a toxicologist. All he cares for is his brother, Nitish - Runemaster, psychic and naturopath - and the son of the man who raised them, Isiah - Medic, medical researcher and just plain badass. And his work as a researcher for the Count, of course. His life changes when he realises that he would learn more with firsthand experience. First, though, he needs to find a guild...or maybe one will find him first?

-----

Guess who turns 7 today! 🎉🎉🎉

[largestmothinnorthamerica]

Everyone says that EOIV is the easiest, so I don't know what game I've been playing, but I've never struggled like this before. People who reviewed my team (landsknecht, nightseeker, dancer, runemaster, sniper) said it looked fine. Maybe having more healing will make the difference, as well as being a bit overleveled now.

A lot of the problem is that I just don't like a lot of these classes. I don't vibe with landy. Nightseeker is fun but I don't have many attacks on him yet. Dancer is very fun but not what I want. Runemaster has one of my favorite aestherics in the series but I mostly hate playing it, and sniper? That one is good. Sniper can stay.

I just want to have arcanist already! I miss troubadour. I miss warlock. I REALLY miss highlander. I miss war magus. Getting into medic is a lot of fun, though. Truly. Going to apologize to Simon for what I've had him doing...

Anyway, I cleared the first labyrinth, so onward into the misty lands!

Redemption arc: I think I finally managed to get into Etrian Odyssey IV

[soulpart]

@nightseek asked: ❛   patch

He’s reckless, always has been — nearly cost him his life more than once, before it actually did. Distinct memories of being eighteen, lying half-dead in a ditch before a little dwarf came along just in time to fix him right up. You would think he’d learn after all this time not to run headfirst into danger, to maybe think before he leaps, but old habits die hard and he pays the price for it.

In his time as dead-but-not-quite, he kind of forgot how easy it was to get hurt.

Y’shtola’s touch is firm, but still careful. She was well-versed in the art of healing magics, he’s been made aware, so she knows what she’s doing. Slender fingers ghost over the open gash on his upper arm; it makes him flinch, almost jerk away, inhaling sharply through his teeth in a way that sounds almost like a hiss. But she grips his elbow to keep him in place and he really has no choice but to sit and let it happen.

It reminds him a little of Lamitt, though Lamitt was wont to gently scold him all through the healing process.

And as if on cue, “If you keep squirming, I won’t be able to do anything.”

Ardbert opens his mouth, closes it, blinks, and then replies with, “Yes, ma’am.”

The soft glow of healing magic brings with it a rush of pleasant warmth through his body, but the sensation of muscle and skin stitching itself back together is hardly a pleasant one. He closes his eyes, exhales, works his jaw, and waits. Wordless, but it’s hardly awkward.

She pulls her hands back, lips quirked upwards in a tiny smile and her cloudy eyes turning up to his face. She... looks rather pleased with herself, as she should be, and she also looks extremely expectant.

Ah, right.

“Thank you,” he says earnestly, grinning out of the corner of his mouth, stretching his arm out and flexing his fingers. The injury is no more than a pale scar over his bicep now. One to add to the collection. “Good as new. It’d be hard to swing my axe around with that nasty cut. I owe you one, don’t I?”

[chromaji]

alright GANG. we’re nearly at the end of this labyrinth which. was NOT how long I wanted to wait to introduce this team at all, buuut here‘s more about em, under the cut!

I think there’s actually a lot about these guys?!? Whoops 😅

Luneres:

A prince of a kingdom that, while they prefer avoiding conflict, can still definitely hold their own. People within this kingdom tend to pride themselves on their technology.

Luneres has a naturally friendly attitude, but he’s also cautious, and always determined to protect others.

Has an older sibling who is the current heir to their kingdom’s throne (I dont know if they’ll be an actual character that I make, yet 😅)

Once word of Yggdrasil reached his kingdom, Luneres volunteered to go to High Lagaard (so this is back to EO2U) to better understand Yggdrasil and if it would become a threat to the kingdom, or, you know, the world.

But he wasn’t sent off on such a potentially dangerous mission alone, of course...

Azuror:

[EO2U: Palm Alchemist/ EOX: Pugilist]

An android that was created to protect Luneres before he set off to High Lagaard.

Luneres named this android “Azuror” while they were on their way to High Lagaard. Azuror merely nodded in agreement. (“Well... at least he doesn’t seem to mind the name.” Luneres probably said).

Azuror doesnt speak to anyone he doesnt know until Luneres gives him the O.K. ... this wasnt programmed into Azuror or anything, he’d just rather not reveal anything to anyone, for his and Luneres’ safety.

While his reason for being built was to protect Luneres anyway, he genuinely does want to protect Luneres. He also wants to be someone that Luneres can trust and confide in, though he doesnt know how to put that into words (though the facts are that Luneres already DOES trust you & would die for you, ya fool).

No one knows WHO he learned how to pout from, but he does pout. Very discreetly, under his scarf. Usually when he can’t be around Luneres for whatever reason.

Feng:

[EO2U: Dark Hunter/ EOX: Nightseeker]

Really likes collecting things. Why? Well, who knows for sure, but he seems to hold a lot of value in objects, especially ones that people usually write off as having little value.

Feng tends to clear his mind a lot by strolling around at night. Sometimes, he’ll even go into labyrinths at night, by himself. He has been found sleeping inside of a labyrinth on more than one occasion. Yes, he’s always in relatively safe areas, but still!

Feng is a light sleeper.

He acts like a cold and distant man, but is actually lonely and fearful of many things (not like ghosts or monsters. more like, abandonment or showing any weaknesses). He has absolutely no idea how to convey this to his new teammates, or even his twin, so he just keeps to himself.

The ‘younger’ of his twin sibling, Eisio. They both work as mercenaries on their own.

They coincidentally met up in High Lagaard when hearing of the labyrinth’s appearance. They were in the middle of considering partnering up, and maybe forming a team to explore the labyrinth...

... but, that didnt matter much, since Luneres just stumbled upon them and ended up recruiting them both, anyway! It’s not like they minded, since they were both being paid by a prince!

Eisio:

The ‘older’ between their sibling, Feng.

The twins are both generally motivated by money, but Eisio sees it as more of ‘getting paid to do something they’ve always wanted to do; explore’.

Eisio seems to be a lot more strict about the jobs they’ll take in comparison to Feng.

Eisio is the one who draws the maps and manages the teams resources (Azuror is the team’s backup when Eisio isnt available).

When the team gets back from exploring, Eisio is usually already off to find an odd job or two to do! They’re a bit of a workaholic.

Eisio is secretly a bit self conscious about themself, and prone to comparing themself to others.

Ren:

[EO2U: Troubadour/ EOX: War Magus]

Ren loves to sing and dance!! Plain and simple!

Ren is bold, and doesn’t care about what others think of her at all.

People usually dont trust Ren to take the labyrinth seriously, due to her generally carefree and lax attitude, but she’s definitely a capable explorer. She’s surprisingly independent and resourceful, too.

Her ways of brightening up even the darkest of labyrinths is what even keeps this team alive and motivated at times. She’s surprisingly humble about it, though, saying that this is just how she is as a person!

So, Ren grew up in a... less than caring household. She‘s the oldest of three, so she’d always take it upon herself to watch after the younger ones. Eventually, she started doing small things like making up games and activities for her younger siblings, which slowly led to her gaining an interest in entertainment, particularly song and dance.

Actually. in an impulsive move, Ren ran away from home with her siblings a few years ago. While they’re ‘technically’ still on the run, Ren is pretty sure that their parents don’t actually care.

In their earliest years, Ren used her abilities as a troubadour to make money, but the profit was never anything grand. It wasnt until the news of a mysterious labyrinth appearing that made Ren realize that she may be better off at least TRYING to be an explorer, and to use her abilities to help others. Cue Lunere’s team asking her to join, and her realizing that helping this team conquer the labyrinth is her biggest chance to make BIG money!

In case there was any concern, Ren’s siblings actually live at the inn, basically. She was able to get them to stay at the same inn as adventurers do (in both High Lagaard and Maginia! nice), so that she would be able to watch over them. Maybe i’ll have to talk about these siblings more one day...

[there-can-be-more-then-one]

The “NPCs” of Alcestis

Okay, so except for the story, which you will find out when you rp with me ;3 (or if you do not have an rp blog you can also ask me tbh, if you are curious) We now get to the last post for the moment, until I can remember what I probably forgot! The “NPCs” of Alcestis! I am still leaving some things secret (unless you rp or ask, the deal ~) about the characters, and I may dab into their backstories a bit more later on. For now though, enjoy!

Crown Princess Freyda Idothea Alcestis The Crown and only Princess of Alcestis, who knows her duty full well and does her utmost best to live up to the expectations placed upon her. As her nation is currently in a crisis, and her Mother is ill, her leadership and abilities are tested as she needs to build up her land again. She is serious and determined and comes across as rather capable. Only to a few people, and only in a few moments she reveals her true anxiousness. She had been trained to take over the usual responsibilities of her Mother, she did not train for a crisis. She tries her best though, and is always ready to help in any way she can, should it be in her abilities. Sovereign.

Johannah Previously Freyda’s personal guard, now the appointed Leader of the Exlorers Guild. She actually is how Freyda pretends to be, serious, dutyful and more then capable of her rule. Even if she is quite blunt, sometimes even rude, her first instict is still to protect people. And if that includes telling them off because they would not survive the Labyrinth because of their weakness? Then so be it. Fortress. 

Sohyon & Yan-Wei Two Vessel Twins that lead the “Three Frogs” Inn in town. Well, at least in Sohyon’s case. Her older brother is busy leading an Exploration Team, and currently works, like many other Explorers, on finding out the abnormalities of their Yggdrasil tree. Sohyon meanwhile keeps herself busy with holding the Inn together. She trusts her brother to find out what did this, and her brother trusts her to keep everything in order as well. Sohyon is not the fighting type anyway, she is more of a softie. Easily nervous, friendly and soft hearted, she tries her best to keep her guests in check and heal them if needed. She is a bit naive and easily impressed, and generally well liked over town. Her brother however... He has her friendly demeanor, with him it is a bit more of a facade though. He is dedicated to find out what happened with Yggdrasil and willing to use some creative methods to find out. He is careful, and despite his methods, he does not like to take risks. Arcanist & reclassed Nightseeker.

Vale & Miho An Earthlian/Celestian couple (?) that leads the “Thiefs Lake Tavern”. Vale works as the barkeeper in town, and even build up his bar himself again after the moving of Yggdrasil. He takes struggles as a challenge, and overcomes them (the lucky bastard). He is welcoming and cheerful, and is just a little bit hyper to be honest. If you ever ask him for any of his stories, get ready for a full hour or traveling stories. With a ton of useless side details, like that one time he won the fishing competition with his old Mates in the Labyrinth or that other time when they climbed one of the trees after one of his Mates just jumped straight over a Labyrinth Wall and they needed to get after him OR that one time when... You get the point. Heed the warning his wife (?) will give you. Go to her just in case anyways, to be safe. Miho is rather quiet, maybe a bit stone faced even, but is actually quite humerous. Once you understand her humor. She is intelligent and organized, and works as the Questkeeper and Informant in the Tavern. If you need any tips, any intel, go to her. Retired Landsknecht and Retired (?) Warlock.

Kirio (& Bearlinda) Kirio is the... shopkeeper of the town. Sort of. Kind of. Half of the day he is. And he does not have a shop, but more just... a carriage, pulled through the town by his brownbear, creatively named Bearlinda. BUT he tries his best! He is optimistic, bright and charming, albeit a bit reckless, what he will admit. As said, one half of the day he takes care of his shop, the rest of the time you will see him in th city square, dancing away with his loyal beast. As useless as it may seem, for the struggling population of the city he has become a stable, once a day they can just forget their worries for a short while and just watch the artist display his mastered skill. It helps, and Kirio knows that. So, no matter what, he continues each day. Dancer (& Beast).

Polybius One of the very few, possibly even the only Maker in town, one of the few who is able to make puppets and breathe life into their creations. Quite a friendly and calm, however a bit eccentric of a person, who is always ready to help and support. They treat anyone with the same care (even the puppets), in any situation, and helps in any way they can. They are quite useful with their vast knowledge, rather keen attentioon to detail, a silent dedication, and first off all, their beloved puppets. However, aside from the ability to make the puppets, nothing is known about them, since the figure always wear an all hiding robe and mirroring mask. The voice is neutral, and it is not even known if Polybius is their true name. Maker.

Lora (****) The sorrowful, as his name and title now is, and the first Deirdre you will encounter is the Labyrinth. He is not quite as talkative, unless spoken to or directly asked, and despite his own curiousity, he will not make his questions known. He tries, he attempts to to do his best and serve his people for the time being, before he plans to... leave. Even if he may seem rather different, he is a very loving person at his core, who especially treasured his partner above everything. Now though. He is left lonely and regretful, and it will depend if he will ever heal. Dreamer.

[acradaunt]

EON Playthrough - Week 2

After the pretty great (to me) 3rd and 4th stratum, and the fairly stellar end to the 2nd (but then again, EO games always have the most interesting boss setup first), I think I’m at a sort of low-point in the game right now. The fifth stratum was alright, but only had one real gimmick and kinda ran it right into the ground.

Conversely, the sixth stratum felt waaay too short by compare and really felt like a 'breather' stratum. I didn't even bother buying anything the whole stratum and just bulldozed the boss no problem, before even bothering to try fighting the FOEs. On that; it's nothing really new in the series, but it's always really freaking weird to see a late-game FOE downgraded to a regular enemy, while simultaneously seeing an early-game enemy promoted to a FOE.

My initial perception of the seventh also seemed quite negative, being possibly the single most droll stratum in the whole series, but I have a little more faith after seeing its first FOEs do something I wish happened way more often; they're not near-boss level threats to be avoided at all costs (or at least until the last floor of the stratum) but annoying nuisances barely stronger than normal enemies that continually blunder into you.

Also, one last random note before character comments. Back in EOV, you were seeing other Guilds (or Conrad endlessly, if you never scanned anybody else's QR codes) show up in events on nearly every floor, if not multiple times per floor. I think it's happened maybe five times total so far. It's not really a bad change, but it is kinda odd.

Iris the Protector - After seeing no less than three different sources of mass-fire attacks in the 5th, and then later even the boss itself, it was time to bring Iris back. I believe this marks the first Etrian Odyssey in which blocking elemental attacks is worth a damn outside of three recurring bosses and maybe the ultra-superboss. That said, using her against the fire-breathing boss was actually the wrong call, as its damage output was incredibly poor otherwise. My first attempt lasted about 35 turns, ending with it getting three insta-kills when it had about 5% HP left. Switching her out and going full ham with Erika killed it in about 7. She also faired fairly questionably against the main fire FOE, as while Flame Shield is highly effective, it only blocks once per character. Not very helpful when that fire attack randomly hits seven times, especially when Taunted to utterly bombard the poor Protector. I think her greatest fault is that, right now, her defense is not remarkably higher than anyone else's. As stats expand outwards and upwards, hopefully she won't remain within 10 points of the Medic's defense.

Leon the Sovereign - As I suspected, Leon was gonna make himself useful soon, but he didn't quite work as I always hoped. When I first saw a FOE that could half your Max HP with a debuff, I thought I could preemptively counter it with the Max HP up buff. And while it does get rid of it afterwards, it doesn't do a thing to stop the dreadful debuff in the first place. Was also seeing ample amounts of annoying Ailments, so thought Prevent Order might also come in handy. And it does, but it's not guaranteed to actually kick in anymore. However, it also doesn't fade at the sight of an ailment; only if it tries and succeeds at blocking one does it fade. So it's kind of an even trade, really. Next odd surprise with him was finding that Sovereign's can innately wield staffs (that's new, right?), and with the third or so highest INT of any class, he's no slouch as a frontline caster once buffs are ready. Granted, he has to rely on weapon Skills, which is kind of unreliable, but they're also WAAAAAY more common than they were in V, so I'm not terribly worried. Throwing out ice chunks has gotten him by in most low-stakes random encounters.

Olga the Gunner - Also as expected, one good gun was all it took to get her going hard. And it's not even a good gun; just a decent one that was easy to forge at the start of the 5th stratum. She's gone from about 5 levels behind the main cast to the single highest-levelled member, so it's more than feasible to put a fresh recruit into the main party. If you're carrying the Memory Conch around. The infinite accuracy on the Leg/Arm/Head Snipes also needs a shoutout for breaking through some seriously annoying enemy skills.

Laura the Medic - Has probably spent more than half her time as of late in the front row. It's probably incredibly reckless, but it's yet to bite me in the ass, and she's doing fairly comparable damage to Klein or Erika's backrow Mirage Blade / Air Blade. It might seem weird to keep a Medic around when I'm bragging about things being in 'breather' territory, but the answer to that is Ailments have been showing up a lot, especially in tandem with enemies that are basically wannabe Nightseekers, totalizing anyone who's Ailed. So maybe I just have a really good team for this bit.

Coral the Landsknecht - Has basically devolved strictly into using the Shield Breaks at this point. New enemy, not sure what it's really capable of? Power Break away! Confident they're not a big deal? Guard Break and watch 'em fall in two hits. Links aren't exactly of priority when Olga's usually shooting someone else in the face/arms so they don't annoy me, and Leon is buffing, leaving only two other attackers, one of which is the Medic.

Klein the Hero - Used a bit when exploring new areas, as he's still really good for wiping encounters. But I know he struggles in bosses, so I'm leaning away from him when I can, because bosses is where I already struggle, and investing him isn't helping on that front.

Juri the Survivalist - Juri's basically only brought out for farming runs at this point. Still OKAY in combat, but that initial edge she had is definitely gone. The fact that she's usually much faster than Coral only hurts her chances, as Double Shot would be great for Linking, if it didn't go off first. Olga's slow and strong fits my setup much better than fast and unkillable. I'm still happy with the Survivalist class, though. Being unkillable wasn't even on their list of upsides in EOII, and they did even crappier damage back then, too. AND Ailments were garbage back then. So I guess being vastly improved is obviously good, but it still might not be enough to make you great.

[it-is-a-matter-of-will]

OOC - Favourite Portraits

Maybe I will use them later on as a Side Team. Not sure yet though. I will just make this as a note to remember the idea.

Female Portraits: Necromancer Murder Milf Blonde literal Angel Medic I do use Twintails Arcanist already but dangit she is adorable Actually both Arcanists I love them Only halfway healthy looking Hexer Gal The Black haired Landsknecht Gal on that one version where her mouth is actually closed Golden haired Sovereign Lady lookin serious Black haired Schoolgirl Zodiac angel girl White haired Bunny Bushi Hero Toddler Hero Big Sis Eyepatch “Can and will kick your ass” Dragoon White haired Masurao Gal (looks like a Princess) Serious Fencer Lady (blonde one, her alternative Portraits) Capable Ninja Alternate Runemaster Girl & Tired Aunt Short haired Hoplite Monk Twintails Alchemist Mystery All race portraits Male Portraits: Nightseeker who is Alucards affair son Here the Arcanists too btw I love my stick children Imperial Smug Prick Pugilist Kid with slight anger issues ‘n fancy Tattoo HARBINGER PONYTAIL Both Warlock Boys Green haired Rover Necromancer Curly & ripped Medic APH Iceland looking boyo White haired Dark Hunter Troubadour boys Gladiator Boy All race portraits

I like too many.

[itsya1upboy-blog]

I made a banner of my full EOX guild because that seems to be the popular thing to do right now. I didn’t crop from the poster, though; I used sprites ripped from various places and cropped those. The icons are various sizes, so my banner is more of a patchwork quilt than anything... Looks pretty messy and, dare I say it, jank.

I’m going to hack a couple of the units in, and another one is a spoiler for EOX, so I’m going to put this under a Read More just in case.

First row, left to right: Junpei (Hero), Vash (Landsknecht), Hisoka (Ronin), Snow (Protector), Bertrand (Hero+Vampire accessory), Lis (Ninja) Miku (Medic), Havardr (Landsknecht)

Second row LTR: Logre (Imperial), Katsuo (Nightseeker), Akane (Shogun), Renshaw (Landsknecht), Xiang (Pugilist), Alice (Farmer), Felicity (Farmer), Ash (Farmer), Sam (Farmer), Tom (Farmer), Evander (Highlander)

Third row LTR: Lestari (War Magus), Yuda (Arcanist), Annette (Sovereign), Harlan (Imperial), Flemming (Zodiac), Lars (Survivalist), Nicholas (Gunner), Maribelle (Harbinger)

Fourth row LTR: Flora (Nightseeker), Piper (Protector), Florentin (Sovereign)

I don’t feel like including subclasses right now, maybe later... I’d have to look back over my builds to check everyone’s because I can’t remember them off the top of my head. 

Most of these folks are new for Nexus! Havardr, Logre, Lis, and Miku are from EOIV; Junpei, Vash, Hisoka, Snow, and Bertrand are from EO2U, Akane, Katsuo, Renshaw, Xiang, and the five Farmers are from EO3. I’ve mentioned Flemming in one of my EOIV fics, but he was never a member of Muninn. 

All the others are totally new! Lars, Nicholas, Maribelle, Flora, and Piper are all from a guild centered in an Yggdrasil town I came up with on my own. Flemming is from the Empire and came to Tharsis, as did Annette and Harlan (though not affiliated with Flemming in any way). Lestari and Yuda are siblings from a small island village near Armoroad, but moved to Batavia a few years ago, and then came to Maginia from there. Florentin is a vampire noble stripped of his powers as punishment for something; I’m using the ring to simulate Bertrand’s Fafnir powers instead. Evander is actually...Elysia’s long-lost brother, long thought dead, who has stayed out of Grimaldi for personal reasons since his disappearance. He’s named after his grandfather. :P

The guild is under the name Phoenix, and Junpei is still considered its leader. The other members join under his guild roster. In fact, Marianne specifically told Lis and Miku to look for Junpei when they got to Maginia, as he was an old friend of hers. (Havardr and Logre board later as civilians, with Havardr’s family, but they join Phoenix to support Havardr’s family, as most of their money from their short-lived retirement went to helping his family get a small place in Maginia.)

[gravedice]

Hey, I noticed you got a sheet of the IV alts! I know I sent in a request before, but I thought, well, maybe I should strike again while the iron's hot, if you take multiple requests. I have 3 headcanons I was wondering if you could do: Imperial alt #1 (blonde, glasses) with the gay flag, Fortress alt #4 (short blonde hair) with the lesbian and/or butch lesbian flag, and Nightseeker default #1 (long white? hair, red eyes, black clothes) with the bisexual flag. Thanks in advance!~

Happy pride! :D Hopefully these are the right portraits!

[morika]

What do you think of Soejima's DLC portrait? Personally I feel a little hurt that Himukai busted his ass to help with PQ and all Soejima could do when his fellow atlus artist offered up a collab for his game was just clean up some cover art for a different game entirely. Couldnt even be bothered to draw a new piece.

For each artists’ participation for each others’ respective game series, it does seem a bit underwhelming that Soejima would be giving so little to the table after what Himukai has done for the special promotions of PQ. Who knows what’s going on between ATLUS directors/managers to be deciding which series gets more out of which artist. But you’ve got to remember that unlike the Persona series that has been out for years, Re:Fantasy is a completely new project so I assume they’ve wanted to sneak in at least a cameo (and while EOX is being advertised). Himukai had a lot more to work with in terms of character design and helping with PQ designs and the Re:Fantasy project is something to be anticipated so I guess EOX is being used to cater towards that.

While I appreciate a mild amount of design choice for Soejima’s art, the choice of putting that specific portrait render of the Re:Fantasy’s mascot feels odd. Perhaps its because I’m very used to the angle/dynamic poses that Himukai and the other guest artists have to offer that it makes Soejima’s look out of place. And this might just be me complaining of its style but the shading seems very gritty and incredibly edgy in comparison to everyone else’s guest art/Himukai’s art in the game that its a bit distracting.

 I know their art styles are completely different but that DLC portrait makes me think (it might sound redundant of me to say this) that it belongs to the Shin Megami Tensei series, not an Etrian Odyssey entry. I’m personally not invested in purchasing it because I’m planning on only purchasing the Nightseeker portraits and maybe the Farmer portrait.

[crystalelemental]

So I’m going over the classes I’m planning to run in EOX.  Thoughts below.

Harbinger may not have the attack buff, but it does get defense up as a natural passive while armor is active, so that’s nice regardless of which way you go.  Miasma Armor and Auto-Miasma were combined into one skill, which is actually super great, so they start off strong and you just want to keep the pain train running.  The re-application is based on using debuffs, so they’re kinda locked into those.  Wilting Miasma is the one that drops resistance to ailments, and is therefore probabaly one of the best aside from the default attack and defense debuffs, but that costs 7 points just to access so kind of expensive on top of the reap skills.  The new skills to remove Miasma Armor to prevent certain kinds of status, as well as the passive to re-apply it, are pretty neat additions.  Basically, it feels like a solid combination of the classes.  A few reap skills for status, three debuffs of choice to set of Ephemeral Reap.  Basically, a defensive variant of Nightseeker, I think.  You know.  Since they took the attack increasing passive.  Assholes...

Arcanist is pretty straightforward, all things considered.  The only big change is getting a revive dismiss spell.  Which...actually is pretty huge, depending on how much it heals upon revival.  It may still be best to sub-Medic and go that route instead, but they play about the same.

Princess got some interesting stuff, but mostly I’m fixated on how much the Elemental Bombs might suck.  The buff being applied to a line instead of one unit is nice, but attaching elemental affinity to ally weapons is pretty pointless outside of necessary setup for Elemental Bombs.  Which means you’re having to apply a useless buff to a line just to use it, and even then it may not be a strong elemental attack.  The only really interesting part is someone pointed out her final passive that can re-apply dispelled buffs might make her an infinite battery of elemental attacks if the re-application rate is 100% at max level.  Which I guess could be good?  Apply it to the back row that doesn’t focus on having a lot of buffs like Protect, Attack, Guard, or Dauntless.  Have her spam Elemental Bombs while she can.  But that leads to the bigger issue.  For a healing class, she’s really busy re-applying buffs as it is.  There aren’t a lot of turns to use elemental bombs.  So unlike Harbinger, this change feels like it’s actively splitting her role into two options: one focused on buff healing, and one focused almost exclusively on the elemental bombs for damage output.  Maybe damage will be increased so it’s actually more useful, but in my experience, Princess doesn’t have enough turns to work with to set up all the other buffs, set up an elemental weapon buff, then use the bombs for a few turns before having to reapply all the buffs.  It’s not going to be a consistent means of elemental damage.

Which leads into Gunner, the class that got fucked harder than any other class this game.  Which is really weird given how the Gunner seems to be one of their defining classes for the series.  They lost the basic elemental shots, and only retained Delayed elements, which you unlock at level 40.  Also, no Burst Shot.  Which is garbage.  Look, I know that attack was stupid strong.  I know that it covering all element types means it could hit the Dragons really hard but also count for their conditional.  But you know what?  Conditional Drops aren’t always fun, and it’s nice to have that option to cover them easily.  It was really the only thing that made Gunner a truly unique mage.  The delayed shots are still interesting and were generally pretty powerful, so hopefully they retain their strength.  But it almost feels like they want you to build toward Richochet, which is bad.  Attacks with a random number of hits are not good.  They’re what you have to rely on in EO3, but they’re really good, because they completely lack consistency.  I want consistency, and I want elemental offense.  Removing both from the Gunner feels...incredibly shitty.  Early game, they lost a big part of their niche, and late-game their focus has changed entirely.  I was cool with removing Climax from Dark Hunter.  An instant-kill attack with that much success was bound to be a problem that got removed sooner or later.  But this?  This sucks.  It’s so far the single biggest disappointment for this game.

Thankfully, War Magus remains unchanged.  They retain their best skills, including Ailment Slash.  Which dealt as much if not more damage than Burst Shot most of the time, it just didn’t have elemental affinity.  Which I take to mean that they just really want you to run physical offense over elemental, and I refuse to play that particular way.  Elemental offense is best offense, and I will not let this go.

And for reference, of the classes I won’t use initially but am really excited about regardless: Landsknecht got another passive buff for its links that let them be critical hits of all damned things, Ronin can use all offenses and stance skills auto-activate at the start of battle and give critical hit effects to related attack skills, Zodiac got some really cool tools with compression and further spread effects for their skills and all sorts of damage modifiers, Pugilist seems to have better skills for maintaining damage output after binds are applied this time, and Shogun seems to be just a bit more consistent, if only because the 2-4 hits is now straight-up doubled with two weapons.  Kinda bullshit they didn’t make it 3-4 to avoid being completely shafted by a bad roll, but hey, at least we’re not longer Charge reliant, so you can just immediately attack again with the buffs you have.