Golb89 Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 (edited) On 7/8/2020 at 11:00 PM, ping said: Update 17 - The Infinite Malignity Of The Stars Spoiler On 7/8/2020 at 11:00 PM, ping said: Nearl comments on Warfarin opening that chest here, stressing him out a little. She'll do that a lot. On 7/8/2020 at 11:00 PM, ping said: Nearl: "Yes... Your pain makes you powerful." More stress for the party, how very nice... More stress for the party, how very nice... (also, those are two empty sacks and some robe, the fuck are you talking-- Actually, don't answer that) Actually, why would Warfarin get stressed from any of that? On 7/8/2020 at 11:00 PM, ping said: Hey, a new journal page! Here's the previous ones (one - two - three), so there's only the conclusion missing. I'm sure it'll be a nice and lighthearted happy end! On 7/8/2020 at 11:00 PM, ping said: Alright, Nearl goes meditating in the Abbey, Warfarin's plague gets healed, Benice gets a week off, and Lawrence... gets right back into the action? And THAT's why you shouldn't pick up random rings you found. Maybe. On 7/8/2020 at 11:00 PM, ping said: He does! In an Antiquarian run, no less! Well duh! On 7/8/2020 at 11:00 PM, ping said: Finally, Jessica hides behind Lawrence and forces him to [Protect Me!] On 7/8/2020 at 11:00 PM, ping said: The Leetness of his HP count shouldn't distract from one problem with my team set-up, though: Lawrence is taking a lot of punishment over the course of the expedition. So far so good, since this means that the squshier party members do not... ...but Saiga can't use her stronger single-target heal to counteract this. 16 HP healed in total is great, 4 HP on one very injured hero not so much. On 7/8/2020 at 11:00 PM, ping said: Hodene's obsession with money is a bit annoying (since quite often, you'll want to use a key on chests), so I'll probably get rid of it sooner or later. To bad: we could have renamed him Stechkin with that. Maybe. (Actually, didn't Berenice suggested a Jester name a while ago?) On 7/8/2020 at 11:00 PM, ping said: I'm still not sure if there's any gameplay distinction between "supplies" and "provision". Pretty sure supplies are stuff like herbs and shovels while provisions are food (or viceversa) On 7/8/2020 at 11:00 PM, ping said: That crit sends Benice over the edge and he becomes Irrational. This comes with the rather bad side effect... ...of him reverting to human form, so no Rake spam for us in this fight... Berenice, you had ONE JOB!!! On 7/8/2020 at 11:00 PM, ping said: Benice: "ERRRRAAAAAGHHH!" On 7/8/2020 at 11:00 PM, ping said: The walls close in, the shadows whisper of conspiracy! Oh, and that Clapperclaw? Puts him to 100 stress as well. Two afflicted heroes! Yayyyy... Lawrence: "They aim to sneak up on us!" Eh, could have been worse... Much worse... On 7/8/2020 at 11:00 PM, ping said: Lawrence: "Perhaps this will encourage loyalty!" Beatings will continue until morale improves... ... maybe. On 7/8/2020 at 11:00 PM, ping said: The space between worlds is no place for motal men. ...which is just enough for Saiga to finish it with a critical hit. Flawless (well, casualty-free) victory! Saiga: "Blacken our world no longer!" Ironical how Saiga of all people wasn't afflicted with anything though... On 7/8/2020 at 11:00 PM, ping said: Except that I didn't realize that Saiga is a stress eater, which means I would've needed 3 rations, which means that the entire party took more additional stress damage from hunger than I recovered with camp skills (which I didn't make a screenshot of, because I was busy facepalming). ... welp, nevermind. Also: Quote Pretty sure supplies are stuff like herbs and shovels while provisions are food (or viceversa) 2 out of 4: halfway through! Edited July 16, 2020 by Golb89 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ping Posted July 17, 2020 Author Share Posted July 17, 2020 Update tomorrow. I literally had more than 1000 screenshots to go through and while I'm close to the end, I'm also close to falling asleep. Spoiler On 7/15/2020 at 7:20 PM, Golb89 said: 1 done, 3 more to go... eventually. Hehe, I was wondering where my regular Anime injection was. On 7/15/2020 at 7:20 PM, Golb89 said: https://www.awkwardzombie.com/comic/hands-off Aw yiss, some vintage AZ. My games library seems to completely different than Katie's these days, but I'm still keeping up with her comics. On 7/16/2020 at 6:51 PM, Golb89 said: Actually, why would Warfarin get stressed from any of that? ...good question. Maybe because he views pain as a form of piety and Nearl's thoughts don't appear quite as holy? On 7/16/2020 at 6:51 PM, Golb89 said: To bad: we could have renamed him Stechkin with that. Maybe. (Actually, didn't Berenice suggested a Jester name a while ago?) If so, then I've missed it. Confirmation, @Benice ? On 7/16/2020 at 6:51 PM, Golb89 said: Ironical how Saiga of all people wasn't afflicted with anything though... Give it time, I'm sure we'll get there sooner or later. On 7/15/2020 at 7:59 PM, Benice said: This is what a math textbook looks like to me. Looks more like interpretation of poetry to me *barf* On 7/15/2020 at 7:59 PM, Benice said: Hehehehehehehehehehehh... WAIT NO NOW I CAN'T EAT GARLIC NOOOOOOOO THERE'S DAYLIGHT SPARKLY VAMPIRES SO MAYBE YOU'RE A GARLIC SPARKLY VAMPIRE (also don't worry I gotchu) (garlic sparkly vampires? Still a better premise than Twilight) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golb89 Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 Until then: [Addendums] Spoiler On 7/8/2020 at 11:00 PM, ping said: Well then, a practically complete dungeon crawl with a masochistic nun as our main healer. And Nuns in "The Darkest Dungeon": On 7/8/2020 at 11:00 PM, ping said: Though, in retrospect, that had to be expected. Maybe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benice Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 2 hours ago, ping said: Update tomorrow. I literally had more than 1000 screenshots to go through and while I'm close to the end, I'm also close to falling asleep. No sweat, mate! Take care of yourself first, entertain us later. 2 hours ago, ping said: If so, then I've missed it. Confirmation, @Benice ? I...Don't think so? If I have, we can drop it for now. Although after Stechkin, I would like to request the OG Bard name: Cacophonix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ping Posted July 18, 2020 Author Share Posted July 18, 2020 ^ Stechkin and then Cacophonix it is, then! Update 21 - Noblesse Oblige Spoiler Next stop: Nightmare Central. Probably. It's a long mission, which means two camps, which means two chances of a Pramanix flashback. Small aside: Since we've gone through the first three nightmares already, Apprentice-level missions would now be safe if we were to recruit a rookie Shieldbreaker. After clearing the fifth nightmare, Veteran missions are clear, and there's seven in total. Nightmare aside, this mission has a very nice trinket as a reward, too, even though we already got the Grave Robber's Crimson Court set. Equipping this Talisman over her Absinthe trades some Blight chance and resist for +2 Spd and a couple out-of-combat bonuses, which I think might be worthwhile. To prosecute our war against the Swine, we must first scout their squalid homes. Nice dungeon layout to zig-zag through the rooms. My initial formation was a bit off, what with Pramanix starting in 2nd rank where she can't... ...open the fight with [Impale], which pairs quite well with Honeybadger's... ...[Hound's Harry] for maximum AoE damage and Damage Over Time across the board. Enemies are somewhat more Blight-resistant here, so Impale isn't quite as good as it could be (especially since Pramanix wears a -stress trinket instead of her +blight one), but it still works quite nice: With Auvray's [Rain of Sorrows] added to the mix... ...this can often wipe out the two backrow enemies before they can act while already putting ome damage on the two frontliners. As usual, I kinda skip though the dungeon exploration as long as nothing unusual shows up. This team line-up is fitted for the Warrens fairly well - two Bleed-centric heroes and one hero with a strong Pierce ability, which means that I can get through defensive enemies fairly well. Speaking of "unusual" and "defensive": Meet the Hulking Swinetaur. It's the Warrens' Veteran-level addition, alongside the Large Carrion Eater (which we've already met in the Courtyard) and it's pretty beefy with its hight HP and Prot. (note: Its base Bleed resist it 40%, but Auvray debuffed it) It's also one of the more "technical" enemies, having to set up its own attacks: It uses [Trot Retreat] to, well, retreat to the back, and only from there can it use its strongest abilities. [Boar Rush]... Well, if I recall, it'll land in some fight after this, so I'll show it again then. In any case - this move (as well as its other big one) moves the Swinetaur to the front, so it'll have to Trot Retreat again before its next attack. From that perspective, its impressive bulk (it has 50% more health than the Ghoul, for example) makes sense: Longer fights, but fewer attacks than other monsters. First camp goes without Pramanix warning us from any nightmarish interludes, but with the goodest set of camp skills. Not necessarily the best (I think the Man-at-arms got that), but definitely the goodest. Honeybadger: "I must rest now, girl. Your nose must guard us tonight."Honeybadger: "An affectionate nuzzle should put your hearts right." That camp was quite early, by the way - probably another instance of a full inventory and a bit of greed. First fight afterwards is against some Bloodsuckers including a Gatekeeper - who unfortunately dodges multiple attacks and then makes its [Elusive Exit], taking his invitation to the Courtyard with it. Another Swinetaur - and this one actually Does Something. The Cultist Gladiator uses [Stumbling Scratch] and gets a unlikely hit (its base Acc is only 49% and Pramanix has 26 Dodge). Doesn't matter too much, I guess, since it moves the Gladiator forward either way... ...which allows the Swinetaur to use its [Pig Spear] with a lot more success than the first Swinetaur had - a strong AoE attack with no additional effects (other than the Swinetaur moving forward). This also means that the Swinetaur, when sitting in 2nd+3rd rank, will sometimes use Trot Retreat (it did in the first appearance) despite it having no benefit. (filed under "things I learned while typing this") ...you mad, Benice? Between that crit and me not focussing the Acolyte (reasoning that she'll die to the AoE attacks soon enough since her HP is fairly low), this fight caused a fair amount of stress, but nothing run-ending. Saiga feels especially zealous today and figures that instead of Stress Eating (the quirk she is losing by doing this), she could just incinerate heathen writings and bad fanfics (which by her standards, I assume, are the ones without any smut) to make herself feel better. A nice scout reveals a secret rooms with untold riches... ...but unfortunately only after I used my last Skeleton Key, so instead of three super-valuable Trapaweföfaeefwhedrons, we just find 1250 Gold, which is worth 1250 Gold Each. Shortly after that, I've explored enough rooms to end the mission, but of course I use the second camp first. This time, Pramanix does give her warning, so instead of the good girl preventing an ambush (the nightmares can't be prevented and override that mechanic), Saiga offers a little Prayer. The 5% Prot on Honeybadger and Pramanix might not seem too much, but as far as I know, even a miniscule amount of Prot will cause damage to be rounded down - so 5% Prot will reduce 1 Dmg to zero, for example. ...well that ain't good. We face four Greater Pliskins, i.e. the sneaky snake spending the first two turns stealthed. I completely forgot that this was a thing, otherwise I could've prepared a little for this: Pramanix and Saiga have an anti-stealth skill each, but since this team is so AoE-heavy, I didn't think I was going to need it. So yeah, two turns of not doing a whole lot outside of healing the damage taken... ...and Pramanix at least blocking direct damage with her [Serpent Sway]. Auvery also uses [Reclaim]... ...a unique source of healing over time. I'm not a huge fan of the skill, but wanted to try it out, but then didn't use it because I always found Auvray's damage output more useful. And in this fight, Redeem (heals self and one other hero, can only be used below 40% HP) would've been a lot more useful. Instead, Auvray showcases another unique Flagellant thingy: The first time they get to Death's Door in a fight, they heal the other three party members for a decent bit. Luckily, he was brought to Death's Door by the Pliskins' racked up Blight damage, which means that he can use [Exsanguinate], the other heal-self-when-in-danger skill of the Flagellant, to save himself for now. And for the rest of the fight, really. Once de-stealthed, the Pliskins aren't nearly as dangerous (or tanky) anymore, and the fight is over fairly quickly. We find the next part of the Shieldbreaker's backstory, clearly setting up a Happy End lasting for the remaining three parts. [part 1 - part 2 - part 3] The fourth Shieldbreaker trinket is rather situational - it makes her a very good Mark abuser (her one non-dancing skill, Captivate, deals bonus damage against marked enemies), but it's obviously worse than useless outside of a dedicated team set-up. And there we go! We found a couple trinkets and the heirloom count is pretty good, so the relatively meager gold we got can be forgiven (well, and with the mission reward, it's not even that meager). Quirks are honestly underwhelming. It's nice for the bleed-centric Honeybadger to get a Weald quirk over a Cove one, but Stout, I believe, is 100% useless on a Flagellant because their only healing camp skill is percentage-based. Diseases caught after a mission are, as always, barely worth mentioning, although a Tapeworm is interesting in that it also causes the hero to lick food-related curios (and steal whatever they find). Still, in practice, this is just 770 gold lost. Speaking of underwhelming: Look at all the new heroes that we can't recruit because our roster is full! Some thematically arranged quirk management: Specter loses Lazy Eye (-5 ranged Acc, which affects all her attacks except for Mace Bash), Dismas locks in Eagle Eye (+5 ranged Crit). Next mission, next possible boss fight. The things I remember about The Thing: much stress (hence Sora), much prot (hence two frontliners that can bleed - Pramanix is busy getting rid of her Tapeworm, otherwise she would've come instead of one of them). The fiercest beast will lay down when it has not eaten. Steal their food. First thing we find in the dungeon: Another Shambler altar. But since Benice isn't here to DOOM US ALL, we just pass it. (actually, I was planning to return after the mission is done and all hallways have been scouted for The Thing. But then I forgot to keep a torch to activate it.) Unlike Saiga, Auvray decides to de-stress by reading heathen scripts and bad fanfics. We get a fair bit of scouting this run. Very helpful, since the quest objectives can be found in hallways (and you can usually skip a few of them) and since this dungeon has another secret room - I leave that for the end of the mission, though. Most effective Swinetaur: It uses [Trot Retreat] to set up a big attack... ...and then the Large Corpse Eater in front of it dies to a Bleed, which means that it doesn't leave a corpse. (and then the Swinetaur dies before its next action anyway) Suddenly, boss fight! The Thing From The Stars doesn't look too unusual at first glance: 148 HP (reasonable for a veteran-level boss), no Prot, two actions per turn. Saiga gets a lucky Stun here - the Thing has 105% Stun resist... ...everybody else (including Sora) uses their Bleed abilities, Frostleaf with a bit more emphasis than the other two. She also dodges the Thing's [Phase Gnaw], which is a fairly strong Blight and Stress move. Between turns, the Thing will always use [Return to the Stars]. It causes 7 stress (everyone has a 40% chance to avoid that effect though), costs the Thing 7 HP... ...and summons a Crytal Aberration - those things that corpses turn into in the Farmstead and that explode if left alone. It also heals all Bleed and Blight effects, so you may wonder why I put any emphasis on those. Well, wonder no more! On low HP, the Thing goes into turbo mode, making it a lot more dangerous (especially with that crit...) and ridiculously resistant to direct damage. And actually, since the Thing is quite slow and has two actions per round, it's quite likely that two of the three DOT ticks will still go through. The Shieldbreaker may still be the best class in this fight, but a good DOT setup is a close second. Especially if you get two lucky Stuns in a row, holy cow. I believe that's 25% chance proccing twice in a row. (Fire Emblem players: "25%? But that's like 13% true hit!") (DnD players: "Well, that's still more likely than a single nat 20.") (Thing From The Stars: "BLAHHHHHHH!") !Warning! Very loud. Also, ancient meme. Like, Queen Victoria old. [Paralysing Shard] - shows Saiga how being stunned is like, which stresses her greatly (21 stress with the crit...) And we begin anew. BLA-- aawww... BLAAaa...? That big shard wasn't there before was it? Indeed it wasn't - [Transfixing Shard] is a Debuff attack instead. THe Dmg reduction honestly feels a bit redundant with the Prot, although I guess it helps the Thing if it hits a Shieldbreaker. The Thing is down to 11 HP when it uses Return to the Stars at the start of turn 4... ...but it still has time to hit a [Vorpal Strike], its most standard attack. Fairly high direct damage and some stress damage (as all of its attacks have), but no other added effect. Still very threatening if it crits... ...if it crits while the Thing still has more than 10 HP. Things went really good in this fight, I have to say - those two stuns, Frostleaf's early crit - so I think this was a lot less scary than it could've been. And part of that is, like with the Collector, that you can't predict when you will fight the Thing during your mission, so it's possible to run into it with much worse HP/stress levels than I did. As our reward, we get a pretty good trinket (again, 5 Prot is better than it seems), some Shards, and some gold. There's a couple Thing-specific trinkets, too, but they have a pretty low chance to drop. Soon after that, we find the final quest objective, but there's still the secret room to plunder, as well as a regular treasure room. It's guarded by another Swinetaur, who manages to show us what [Boar Rush] can do when it actually hits: A TON OF DAMAGE. ALSO A STUN. The Corpse Eater had managed to set up and then use a Mark on Frostleaf - first time that I wasn't able to prevent that, but I got a couple of low Dmg rolls in this fight. Like Auvray in the last dungeon, Frostleaf luckily doesn't have to roll against death, though - Saiga gets a turn before anyone else. Still interesting that this random mob fight turned out more dangerous than the roaming boss... The Swinetaur does get a final action, though: If it is forced into 1st rank because there's no other monster (or corpse) on the field, it'll use [Crunching Backhand] for moderate damage (it rolled high here) and sometimes (only 80% base chance, which is pretty low at this point of the game) a stun. But that was the last fight of the dungeon. I still set up camp to heal stress (very effectively - it helps that Auvray was the most stressed out, since the Flagellant has a camp skill to recover 50 Stress), get the remaining valuables, and leave. ...actually, not quite. First, I return to the Shambler's Altar, think "riiiiiight. Torch. Derp", feel really stupid for a while, and then leave. This was a "gather" mission, so three inventory slots were blocked. And a fourth because I didn't dare throwing away my food before moving to the Shambler's Altar. And a fifth by the crystal shards we got from the Thing. Which makes this a reasonable haul, I think. Prismatic Isolation is one of a couple "Prismatic Quirks", which a hero can get after fighting the Thing From The Starts. Like Twilight Dreamer, these are one-per-roster quirks and automatically locked in, so if I would want another hero to be Prismatically Isolated, I would have to pay money to remove the quirk first. Not that I would - this is one of the weakest Prismatic quirks, so I honestly don't really care either way. Short Hamlet summary: Saiga loses Risktaker (don't really want to deal with the lowered Dodge), Lawrence stops licking worship-related Curios, and Sora immediately gets his disease treated. Pramanix (who's at 50-something stress from the Nightmare) spends the week in the cloister. Now then, for the next expedition, we'll be able to overstock to our heart's content again. And what better place to do so than the Courtyard? We go in with as much food as is available, plus full stacks of bandages and herbs to heal Bleeds/Debuffs. Last time we went into the Courtyard, we beat another Crocodilian who was guarding the eastern half (or maybe two thirds) of the dungeon. We backtracked a little because we spotted a secret room (where we got Auvray)... ...and after we back-backtrack to where we beat the Crocodilian, we get a nice double-scout. The yellow lock is where we ultimately have to go, but of course, we'll have to find the key to the lock instead. First battle of the run, and it's a fairly strong set of enemies. But I've come prepared: Phil is here for her double stun (which might have been the better play here), but her Dissection Kit trinket plus the attack bonus from her Bloodlust make her a surprisingly strong melee character as well - she practically one-shots the Manservant here, thanks to the added Bleed. She's also lightning fast - 16 Spd is ridiculous and she pretty much always goes first in battle. Part of the reason is that Dazzling Mirror, which gives +4 Spd against Bloodsuckers (i.e. permanently in this dungeon) and also gives +20% Stun chance against them, making this just about the best trinket she could ask for. Sigurd can deal a ton of damage - keep in mind that this is 18 Dmg throuhg 30% Prot - which is helped by the Mercurial Salve (+25% Dmg vs. Bloodsuckers). His equipped skills other than [Smite] are his stress heal, his Stun, and Holy Lance to fix positioning if needed. No fanfiction this dungeon, I'm afraid. The Flagellant is just an amazing class in the Courtyard in general, and I'm glad that I finally have one (two, even) of them at a high enough level to bring. He's wearing a Heartburst Hood (+4 Spd when HP below 40%), which means that he'll be able to use his comeback skills that much quicker, and Surgical Gloves, which gives +8% Crit (for Melee attacks, which all of his moves count as) and some less impactful bonuses and maluses. Crits are good for Auvray, since it also makes his Bleeds stick for two turns longer - very handy just in case we'll run in to a boss or two. Specter does the Vestal's usual "boring but incredibly strong" shtick - heal, stun, maybe finish off an enemy once in a while. She's bringing her Salacious Diary for the catch-free +25% healing, and a Life Crystal (+20% HP, -1 Spd) for her own survivability. [Buried Blast] The enemy chevalier can deal a lot of damage if they hit, but they don't get too much opportunity to do so. At the end of that long corridor, we run into a new enemy type (I think), the Courtesan. She's not particularly tanky, so we'll have to wait for future encounters to see her full moveset, but in this fight... ...she only manages to use [Mind Your Manners] before she goes down, which causes a Mark in addition to its moderate damage - not really a danger, because according to the wiki, only the (Large) Corpse Eaters can make use of it. We've gone south first at the intersections, following the instructions of the voices in my head. They add that while there's a couple curios in some branching pathways, it's best to just continue straight to the south, ignoring any other direction. In the next room, we find the next Courtesan, this time using [Damsel in Distress]. This one forces one of her allies to guard her, while also putting +35% Prot and a Mark on them. She really seems like the vampiric Antiquarian so far, which is to say "pretty bad in combat". It does let her live long enough to use [The Thirst] on her next turn - we've seen this on a couple other Bloodsuckers already. It stresses the target, has a high chance of carry the Crimson Curse (Joke's on you, Phil's already cursed!)... ...and also transforms her into something that would give even Sir Mix-a-lot some concerns. [The Thirst] again, since she rolled high initiative on the next turn. Generally, the "bloodlust" form of most bloodsuckers has some unique attacks, but I don't think we'll see any of those during this run. Next Courtesan, but this time, she doesn't get a turn at all. Double Stun OP. However, the Manservant manages to get into Bloodlust and then get another turn to use [Choice Cut], a weak attack, but carrying a 3-point Bleed. That group of monsters was guarding a key - with the wrong colour! I've been tricked! (Not really, we just need this key to reach the yellow one) Of course, that yellow key is on the other side of the intersection, so back to the north we go. Interestingly, the last hallway spawned a trap and a fight, which I believe is pretty rare. I think if it happens you can always see it on the minimap. That curio was a Damned Fountain, which I skipped at first - because it heals 30 stress, which wasn't too useful then, but certainly is now. The newly spawned fight is actually a fairly tough one, thanks to the Ghoul. Since I initially focused on the Ghoul (because Sigurd could reach him, but not the Courtesan), the Courtesan gets a turn even before losing a single HP - and this time, the joke's on me. Next cursed character! Good thing I brought quite few bottles of The Blood with me. TWO Courtesans! Surely they will show us something new? (They don't. One Thirst is all they manage to do in this fight) Once again, we just go in a straight line. There's even more side rooms on this northern part of the segment, but there's nothing enticing enough to sacrifice progress for. What does lie behind the portal? Another Crocodilian, is what! This is how far I definitely wanted to get on this run, but maybe we can get though this fight and still get a little closer to the end...? For now, we unleash all our fury on the Croc, which isn't that much, since both Phil and Sigurd can't reach it back there. But like in the last Croc fight, Phil can at least slow it down with her double stun. Sigurd heals some of Specter's stress, Specter deals some minor damage with Judgement, Auvray deals some Bleed... ...and the Crocodilian opens with a miss. A nice one, too, since [Swarming Corruption] deals a fair bit of HP and stress damage. Second turn is mostly the same, except that the Croc lurks forward to 3rd range - still out of range of Sigurd and Phil's Incision... ...but close enough for Specter to inflict a Stun of her own. ...which means that Phil has nothing to do at the start of the next turn. Everyone's at full HP, the Croc is still stunned, so she does a futile hack against the reeds. The Crocodilian does land a [Swarming Corruption] that turn, but things only get interesting on turn 4 - [Submerge], which always sets up... - exposed to a killing blow... [Apex Predator] and HOLY SHIT THAT'S A LOT OF DAMAGE AT LEAST THAT PUT IT INTO MELEE RANGE BUT STILL Auvray goes even down to 8 HP from this [Teeth Rake], but as we know, he doesn't mind as much... ...since he can use [Exsangunate] to recover 13 HP and deal an even stronger Bleed than usual to the Croc. Specter then gets pulled to 2nd rank by another Teeth Rake, which isn't too bad - Auvray getting pulled to the front before means that it's Sigurd in 3rd rank... ...and he can use [Holy Lance] to put Specter and himself into reasonable positions again. And that's the fight! Pretty clean overall, despite that Apex Predator - stress is still fairly low, HP still fairly high. It drops another Crimson Court trinket, this time for the Antiquarian. As usual with her, it's an amazing trinket for an amazingly bad class. Like, this healing buff is twice as strong as Specter's diary (which is also a CC trinket, mind) with no downside whatsoever. Oh, and the treasure chest has the yellow key, of course. Back we go, again! On the way back, Sigurd in his Craving state decides to lick TWO curios on the way that I ignored on the way north. He's lucky here and gets some minor treasure for his trouble... ...but the second time, he causes an unnecessary additional fight with yet another new enemy type: Meet the Esquire. He's hardly any less squishy than the Courtesan though, so he doesn't show any of his abilities just yet. Behind the yellow lock, the next fight, the same outcome. Nothing new from the Courtesan, either - she just forces the Esquire to guard her right before (and I mean RIGHT before) he dies to a DOT. Next crossroad, and this time we have to go north first - there's yet another key to be collected, but first, we run into this neat curio: Firewood doesn't seem to valuable as far as "treasure" goes, but goddang it is a gamechanger. Setting up camp, especially with the Vestal and Crusader's camp skills available, gives us a TON of additional stamina to continue this run. But for now, we continue onward. Another Esquire that doesn't do anything... ...oh, and we do set up camp immediately. This time, we do the Holiest camp instead of the Goodest, which reduces our stress levels almost to zero. We find another ineffectual Esquire, but then we run into TWO of them! Will that finally be enough? It is! Just barely though - look at the HP. [The Thirst] does the usual transformation into a hidious creature... no, not this one... That. Not that much more handsome, to be honest. And there's the green key! We haven't spotted the corresponding lock yet, but it isn't too far away. We make a little detour first, though - just one hallway, because I somehow knew about another bundle of Firewood hidden there. After that, we immediately turn around... ...and head to this inconspicuously-looking part of the map. We even pick yet another bundle of Firewood on the way here - now you know why I've brought so much food into the dungeon. And for some reason, I feel like setting camp again already, despite health and stress still looking fine. Which also means that I have a bit of room for a combat-related camp skill, so Specter uses Bless (+10 Acc and Dodge) on Sigurd. Specter: "My friend, the light shines upon you!" Next room,... uhm... that's a new monster, isn't it? And it has three actions per round? Say hi to the Baron! ...say bye to the Baron! So, here's the gimmick of this fight: The Baron immediately hides in one of those Pulsating Eggs (and they're shuffled, of course, even though there's no animation showing that). If you deal any damage to them... ...they pop and reveal either the Baron, or some random generic Bloodsucker. Patience is advised here - while multiple Bloodsuckers aren't dangerous per se, they will still reduce your precious HP, especially when the second gimmick is active: While any of those eggs are on the field, you can't use any ability that restores any HP - no Vestal healing, no Flagellant comeback skills, no stress heals from Sigurd. This means that revealing the Baron early like I did isn't very lucky - you'll still want to destroy the eggs, since the Baron will start doing stuff... ...like this [Crowd Pleaser] - not terribly much damage, but keep in mind that the Baron has three actions per round. Without any healing (and yes, this does include Auvray's low-HP skills), this will add up - quickly, in this case, since the Baron uses this skill three times on this first turn. Speaking of pleased crowds: You actually hear an audience laughing and cheering in the background when the Baron attacks, or when you hit the wrong egg while the Baron is hidden. This is indeed just a game for those vampires. So, because I quite literally cannot live without healing, Specter does break the third egg. Her damage output isn't that high anyway and the Baron has pretty high Stun resist (87%), so her attack is the most expendable here. (bit of a scientific experiment, too: Hitting an egg will inflict an attack's DOT effect on the spawning monster, but stuns do not carry over) Auvray uses [Punish], which is an incredibly strong skill here - three actions per turn also means that the three Bleed ticks come way faster than they usually do. Sigurd [Smite]s. Again, the Baron is pretty resistant against Stun, so I don't think it's worth to use Stunning Blow with its reduced damage. To note: All three cursed heroes are in passive state right now, which is a bit of a shame - they wouldn't go into Bloodlust by consuming The Blood, so Sigurd in particular loses on quite a lot of bonus damage here. Maybe it would've been worth it to just go back and forth a bit before the fight, just to get him to Craving/Bloodlust. Specter had freed a Sycophant from that egg, by the way. And as you can see, Auvray would really appreciate some healing already. But first: Some [Necessary Discipline]. Decent direct damage (the Baron rolled high here) and a nasty 4-point Bleed AND a 4-point horror on top. It also pulls Phil forward one rank, but Sigurd can fix that real quick. Since two heroes are getting fairly low now, Phil breaks the remaining egg and after two more Crowd Pleasers... ...(one of which whiffs completely)... ...Auvray uses [Redeem] to heal Phil (10 HP) and himself (13 HP). With an AoE heal from Specter on top of that, things are looking a lot less dire now, so it's time to stack some damage on the Baron. The Baron using [Forced Enthusiasm] here helps a little, too - those are nice bonuses, but they're on a one-shottable enemy. (Wiki says that this skill gives +10 Dmg, +4 Spd, +3 Crit. The Stun chance comes from the Sycophant sucking someone's blood, but I guess it has the wrong number on that crit bonus?) The Baron uses Necessary Discipline on Specter and Sigurd after this, but once his HP approach 50%... ...he uses [The Second Act] to do his old shell game again. This time, Phil finds him immediately. Not great, really, since this means that we have to deal with his attacks without being able to heal for even longer. Because of that, Sigurd does go for the Stun gamble this time - he succeeds, otherwise Specter would've tried, too. Main priority here is to reduce the Baron's damage output as much as possible while cracking the eggs one by one. Well struck! Indeed! This is practically another +10 Dmg because the (5-point) Bleed lasts two more turns thanks to the crit. Since this bossfight is still a damage race, I can't neglect putting damage on the Baron, either. Calm down there, Atomos! (Final Fantasy 9 spoilers behind the link) [The Thirst] - heals 18 HP and gives the Baron +3 Spd. No alternative form, though. Eggs are smashed, so that I can hopefully counteract the Baron's damage... ...which is really adding up fast. This is not an easy boss fight. I still have to wonder if cracking the eggs was the correct course of action here, because Specter gets precisely one heal off before... ...the Baron goes for the third shell game. And again - first egg smashed already reveals the Baron. (see? He got bled from the attack on his egg) But this time, since he's already pretty low on HP, I do go all-out on him: Auvray, Sigurd, and Phil all use their main damage dealing moves. And RNG is on my side here: This dodge also means that the Baron doesn't heal any HP... ...and this crit means that... ...the Baron finally goes down. No casualties, not even an afflicted hero, doesn't get much better than that. He drops another blueprint to rebuild another district once we have some (read: LOTS) heirlooms to spare. The dropped trinket is not too great, honestly - nice big numbers, but the Houndmaster's only healing skill is a self-heal (and it's not even as good as the Leper or Abom's) and stress camp skills come up once or twice per mission if at all. The Acc bonus is nice though. Many backrow enemies have pretty high Dodge. And once we get the second part, the set bonus seem quite nice, as well. But we're not quite done! Setting up camp after the fight is a no-brainer, since it's practically free stress relief (although I have to wonder why it HEALS stress to rest while a large group of mosquito vampires is partying in the background). Finding the stuff is only the first test, now it must be carried home. But there's another room behind the boss room and in it, we find another red key - there's actually still something hidden in this dungeon! And we do have to get it now, too. The mission is officially fulfilled, so once we leave, this dungeon will be replaced by the next one. Our final goal is quite a ways away still - I have around 150 screenshots from after the Baron fight - but I think it's fine to skip most of them. We do finally see another Esquire skill though! [Rib Cracker] isn't particularly dangerous though: average Dmg, a -Spd debuff, and a 1-rank knockback. The Knockback is a bit annoying here, since Auvery can't attack from 3rd rank (no idea why past ping put him in 2nd rank to begin with, tbh). Even more annoying is that the Supplicant infects him with the Curse, as well - now there's no non-Vampires left at all in the Courtyard. A new Courtesan skill: [Midnight Minuet] (Minuet being a baroque dance, you probably heard the Minuet in G that everyone used to think was written by Bach) This particular Minuet has a rather unique effect: it buffs all of the monsters with +4 Spd and +25% Dmg... ...but it also shuffles them and debuffs their Acc by -16. Right before entering the final room (literally one tile before it, I think), Phil enters the Wasting state of the Crimson Curse. Surely, she can last for one single fight...? (she can) Another new enemy skill: The Bloodlust Manservant's [Refined Palate]. It appropriately stresses the target and carries a Stun. My stinginess with the Blood delays the fight a little bit - Phil skips a turn, and Auvray decides to whack her. Not because of the skipped turn but because... Auvray: "You are keeping the Blood for yourself, aren't you!" Phil: "Give me some Blood and I'll consider it." But in the end, the fight is still easily won and our reward is another Crimson Court trinket. It's... honestly pretty shit. Best part about it is that you can only find one of each CC trinket, so it's good to have it out of the way. NOW we're done! Our reward CC trinket isn't too great either - you'd have to be below 50% HP to make it worthwhile, which isn't really a spot where I would like Frostleaf to be in consistently. Unlike regular boss missions, this one seems to be locked in as soon as the mission pops up, so there was no way to shuffle to a better one, unfortunately. The Baron's Lash is good for the +4 Spd alone. We won't be able to use it right away though... ...since beating the Baron also un-curses all our vampires. Benice can eat garlic again!...since beating the Baron also un-curses all our vampires. Benice can eat garlic again! Quirks on our heroes are decently good, not really lock-worthy, but nice to have. The next visit to the Courtyard can and will have to wait a short while. It's a a Champion-level mission, so I wouldn't mind having a fully upgraded Blacksmith and Guild, and right now, there's no pressure to start it yet: There's no infestation in the other dungeons for now - no random Bloodsucker mobs, but also no additional invitations, so we wouldn't be able to go more than once even if wanted to. Little hamlet update: Pramanix became Calm during meditating and we can't be having with that because it reduces her damage on turn 1. And Morphew locks in her second quirk because she is just so good. Finally, a short look on what districts I'm eyeing up right now: The Altar of the Light looks very nice - healing bonuses on Vestals always do - and so does the Training ring because I'll always be biased towards Shieldbreakers. (and honestly, Houndmaster and MaA are very good all-around classes, too) A more generalist option would be the Cartographer's Camp. Its description is a bit vague/misleading, since its bonus is constant, not an increase of the effects of the current light levels. Copied from the wiki: +Loot +1% Player Crit Chance +2.5% Scouting Chance +5% Monsters Surprised Chance -5% Heroes Surprised Chance ...which is basically some bonuses from 100% and some from 0% torchlight, although toned down a bit. But that will do it for this update. Thank you for reading! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benice Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 Spoiler 5 minutes ago, ping said: ...you mad, Benice? RAWR! GIVE ME MY MANGOES! 24 minutes ago, ping said: First thing we find in the dungeon: Another Shambler altar. But since Benice isn't here to DOOM US ALL, we just pass it. BOOO! BOOOOOO! I CAN'T RUIN THE EXPEDITION! 0/10 UPDATE!1!!one!11!!! 31 minutes ago, ping said: A TON OF DAMAGE. OOOOFFF. 7/10 update, somebody almost died but not enough Abominations... 36 minutes ago, ping said: No fanfiction this dungeon, I'm afraid. BOOOO! 0/10 UPDATE! NOT ENOUGH ARVIS X DIERDRE FANFICS!1! 44 minutes ago, ping said: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGHH! MY EYES! 46 minutes ago, ping said: Speaking of pleased crowds: You actually hear an audience laughing and cheering in the background when the Baron attacks, or when you hit the wrong egg while the Baron is hidden. This is indeed just a game for those vampires. Pffft. Wait, why is everything here a bug-bloodzuccer thing? Have I missed something? 51 minutes ago, ping said: Benice can eat garlic again! YE 53 minutes ago, ping said: Oh bruh there's another one. Great update again! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ping Posted July 19, 2020 Author Share Posted July 19, 2020 ^ So a 2.33/10 update on average? Could've been worse, I guess. 22 hours ago, Benice said: Wait, why is everything here a bug-bloodzuccer thing? Have I missed something? Imma point at the first cutscene from the Crimson Court. There's a second one (rather graphic, even for the game's standards), but iirc, we have to beat the remaining two CC missions before we get to see it, so that'll be a while. For now, we only know about that one mosquito lady infiltrating the Ancestor's court when he was young. Update 22 - SQUEAL! Spoiler Bit of a shorter update this time, maybe. I've done three dungeons like usual, but the first one is a bit of a breather: A short apprentice-level mission, which I didn't think I would do at this point of the game. However, I simply do not have a decent 1st rank character that hasn't reached Lv.3 yet. Benice in beast form is the closest fit, but since every transformation stresses out him and the party, I'd rather not do a longer mission that way. (I also notice right now that I didn't rename Hodice/Stechkin. He doesn't go on any mission this update, so I think I can be forgiven, though) So yeah, quick summary: Benice transforms... ...and Wayne June seems confused. The Abomination is doing the cleansing, sir! One funny thing: There were FOUR Confession Booths in this rather short dungeon, which means that while there were fewer treasure curios (doubly annoying because this was an Antiquarian run)... ...at least everybody went out of the mission with almost no stress whatsoever, despite Benice's best attempts. But yeah, 15k and very few heirlooms isn't that much haul for an antiq run, even if it was a shorty. And everybody gets a shitty quirk, so part of that money will have to be spent in the Sanitarium, as well... I don't really care about Enlightened (Meditation is my favoured way of stress relief, anyway), but the other three are all pretty darn bad. Silence is also still on Lv.1, which is a bit awkward - she might have to go through a short Veteran mission at some point, I think I'm done with Apprentice missions for the run. For now, Silence and Benice are the first to lose their bad quirks... ...and I set my eyes on this nice trinket reward. The Cleansing Crystal obviously isn't good for every class, but that +40 on three resists is pretty darn good on most non-DOT classes. The Thing is potentially a bit of a problem here, especially since Kroos (whom I absolutely want to bring against the Swine King) really cannot deal that well with high-Prot enemies. I still double down on the Mark set-up, though - both Honeybadger and Cliffheart's marking abilities have -Prot on them, so it should be possible to just punch through the Thing's defenses. Or, alternatively, the Thing doesn't show up. My first attempts at summoning were crude and the results, disappointing. I soon found however, that the type and condition of the host's meat was a critical factor. The best results came from pigs, whose flesh is most like that of man. A nameless abomination, a testament to my failures - it must be destroyed! Wayne June, Mr Ancestor, Benice isn't even here. And he has a name. Rude. The path to the boss (which is guaranteed to be in the bottom left) is nice and short. There's still a couple battles on the way, but nothing too major. And I have to say that the Marking strategy works fairly well here, thanks to the addition to the tanky Swinetaur. It goes down a lot quicker than when we first saw it. We find the second page of the Trampled Journal, which makes it the first completed side story of the run: And we're back to the Swine Royalty! This fight actually has one significant change from the Apprentice-level fight against the Prince: Little Wilbur now has two actions. He uses the first one to [Bit o' Squeal] and try to stun one of your heroes, so the Arbalest isn't as much of a "I WIN" button than she was before. [End This One] In addition to that, the one problem with the strategy that could've come up before but didn't... comes up. Rallying Flare clears Marks... from the other three heroes. Ironic. She could save others from death, but not herself. So Kroos just dishes out some great damage instead (Honeybadger set up the mark before)... ...and Saige makes a desperate, but futile attempt to stun the Swine King... (its Stun resist is pretty high, so this is the expected outcome) ...and Kroos gets hit by [Obliterate Body]. It's actually not quite as bad as I was expecting, but it's still possible for the Swine King to bring Kroos to Death's Door in two attacks. (also the crit rate of this attack is scarily high at 16%...) Next turn, next action that I didn't really want to take: Kroos is so fast that she goes before Wilbur's second action - no mark to clear, so he just uses her basic attack again. Wilbur uses his double mark this time, so this might be dangerous... Honeybadger and Cliffheart just do damage (the mark lasts for a full three turns against this boss, because the King still only has one action per turn), Saiga tries and fails to get a Stun again... ...and the Swine King just uses [Wild Flailing]...? That's weird, but I guess the King will sometimes be merciful. (This is a max damage roll, btw. It really is quite a bit less dangerous than his power moves) Third turn, third time that the fool-proof strategy doesn't work out. This time because Wilbur succeeds in stunning Kroos. Those marks on Honeybadger and Cliffheart were still from last turn - this time, Wilbur misses Honeybadger and the old mark runs out... ...when Honeybadger takes his turn puttind damage on the Swine King. So, after Cliffheart and Saiga do their usual damage and not-stunning, the Swine King again only obliterates a Body instead of Masses. Next turn, everything seems to line up to finally do the clear-mark strategy: Wilbur tries to stun Kroos again, but she resists; he puts a Mark on Saiga... ...and Kroos says, "Nah, screw you. I wanna shoot the pig again." The reason being that the Swine King was already down to 28 HP... ...so she and Cliffheart don't have any trouble taking it out before its turn. Wilbur can be quite a pain if you have some heroes at or close to Death's Door after the Swine King goes down, what with a Stun attack that hits the entire party. In this case, it only delays the inevitable... ...DELAYS THE INEVITABLE... (Kroos, you're supposed to be super accurate!) ...there we go! Thank you! As rewards, we find two not too useful trinkets - the Book of Holiness is a bit too gambly for my taste (and we already got an advanced version of it without the Death Blow part) and the Witch's Vial is mostly obsolete at this point (and we have one already, too). I set up camp afterwards - a bit premature, since I still want to explore the rest of the dungeon, HP levels aren't THAT bad, not to mention stress, but I want to be in top shape in case the Thing appears. It doesn't, though, which makes this Ghoul dealing two crits (and stuns) in a row the most dangerous enemy in the remaining run. And with that, the second (or third, counting the Baron) tier 2 boss mission is done. Haul's so-so, but I'm happy I got that Cleansing Crystal trinket. Kroos catches the Plague and one of the worst quirks in the game, so she'll be out of commision for two weeks. Not a bit deal though, since she's a fairly specialized character anyways. We are getting closer to the power cap of our heroes: We got enough portraits in that last mission to fully upgrade the Guild, so our Lv.5 heroes can now max out their skills. Jessica is the last member of last week's expedition who gets rid of her newly aquired bad quirk, joined by Phil. Winded isn't that bad a quirk, but you gotta make use of the Sanitarum, right? Welllll, maybe I shouldn't have. I spend a lot of money on upgrading the next crew's skills and equipment - so much that even after selling a couple of worthless/obsolete trinkets, I'm down to less than 1000 gold after getting the supplies for the next mission. And that mission leads us into the Ruins. We've used the Melee Vestal a couple times already, so I would really like to get the trinket that makes that build Actually Viable (tm) - those are some really nice bonuses. The fiends must be driven back, and what better place to begin than the seat of our noble line? Nice scout! I've brought both Nearl and Benice despite them being underleveled, so I anticipate stress being a bit of a problem. To make up for that a little, Lawrence opens most battles with [Bolster], giving everybody +6 Dodge and -10% Stress. In addition, he's wearing the Quick Draw Charm, just to make sure (or at least very likely) that he acts before the enemies. Otherwise, this is a fairly normal team comp. Pramanix deals direct damage and a bit of Blight... ...Benice is heavier on the whole "Blight" business and can use his Stun (no transformations this mission)... ...and Nearl heals. Benice is being a greedy boy here, triggering his Hylomania ("Obsession with material things"). Weirdly enough, it's Lawrence, not one of the underleveled adventurers, who has some issues with his stress levels - some early crits against him, and then the stress dealers started prioritizing him. Doesn't matter though - no nightmare materializes itself and the Thing remains absent, so the mission turns out to be fairly straightforward. Most annoying part: "OK, I've scouted every room and hallway, so there doesn't seem to be a Secret Room in this dungeon. No more treasure chests either, so I can just throw away the remaining skeleton keys." Well look who's wrong... Oh well! Still around 20k gold and quite a lot of heirlooms, so I'm not particularly sad about the run. Both those negative quirks are pretty bad and will have to go before Pramanix and Nearl go on their next mission. Fated is less impressive than it sounds - it has a 10% chance if you roll a miss, and hit rates aren't THAT bad that it has too much of an impact. Effectively, this turns a 50% hitrate into 55%, with the effect going down as hitrates go up (60 -> 64 | 70 -> 73 etc). Anyway, to the Sanitarium we go. I guess I forgot about Kroos, but hopefully I'll think of removing her quirk before going into the next mission. Lastly, I trade in some busts for more deeds, to get the last two cost reductions from the Blacksmith. Money's pretty tight, so I think it makes a lot of sense to do so before getting the final level of Weaponsmithing. That's it for this somewhat shorter update - thanks for reading! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golb89 Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 (edited) [Addendum of the addendum] Spoiler (Pretty sure i don't need to add a quote for this one) On 7/11/2020 at 9:49 AM, ping said: Update 18 - The Fearful Fours Spoiler On 7/11/2020 at 9:49 AM, ping said: Since my money has gone quite a bit (it's at 1953 gold after buying supplies), I don't immediately go into the Farmstead, but do another Antiquarian run instead, with Sigurd, Saria, and Vicent accompanying Gitano into the ruins. (Though, ironically, you are bringing Gitano instead of Jessica this time) On 7/11/2020 at 9:49 AM, ping said: So, long story short (literally, this was a long mission): Money, money, money. And a fair number of Heirlooms on top of that. On 7/11/2020 at 9:49 AM, ping said: Cove Explorer is nice though - 10% Scouting is a fair bit. On 7/11/2020 at 9:49 AM, ping said: Yyyyyyyepppppp. (Gee, masochistic nun again?) On 7/18/2020 at 12:59 AM, Golb89 said: On 7/11/2020 at 9:49 AM, ping said: There can be no hope in this hell, no hope at all. I agree, 2020 sucks. On 7/11/2020 at 9:49 AM, ping said: ...a Flagellant? And another Steam achievement I didn't pick up yet, how nice. Turns out you don't get treasures in the courtyard's secret rooms, but additional adventurers. Huh. To be honest, right now, what with the full barracks, I would've preferred the money. On 7/11/2020 at 9:49 AM, ping said: Silence returned to the village with the rather awkward alias of "Duquesne" On 7/11/2020 at 9:49 AM, ping said: Which means that poor Specter is forced, FORCED! to go to the brothel. I'm sure she's devestated about it. (yes, I know, she could've gotten drunk instead. But roleplay, though!) Why not both? 3 done, only 1 to- On 7/18/2020 at 6:19 PM, ping said: Update 21 - Noblesse Oblige 6 hours ago, ping said: Update 22 - SQUEAL! (Guess i'm not catching up anytime soon...) Edited July 19, 2020 by Golb89 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ping Posted July 22, 2020 Author Share Posted July 22, 2020 On 7/20/2020 at 1:10 AM, Golb89 said: 3 done, only 1 to- YOU BETTER HURRY (One day I'll get a computer that's good enough to run BATTLETECH without slowing down to a crawl. Had to quit halfway through the campaign.) Update 23 - VVulf at ze door (actually update 22 because I skipped #20. Counting is hard and editing posts is sometimes impossible, so I guess I'm stuck with the wrong numerals) Spoiler Temping... But no! We stand with Benice! (also with Vincent) (also I do want to save up some shards) The next weeks, I really need to keep making money. I'm mostly out of trinkets that I would want to sell, I'm constantly going down to 1-2k gold after getting my supplies, and I'm just barely starting to fully upgrade my Lv.5-6 characters. The fiercest beast will lay down when it has not eaten. Steal their food. So, Antiquarian mission it is - but one on Champion-level. It's a "gather three things" mission, so it's nice to have one or two treasures (the antiques) with a lot of potential value in one stack. No bosses on this mission, hopefully - I've made sure to avoid The Thing From The Stars and didn't bring a Shieldbreaker on the mission. Champion missions in the Warrens give us another new enemy type: The Swine Skiver, a pretty tanky, very dangerous backrow fighter. Getting the jump on this group allows me to at least get rid of the Swine Heaver before it can do anything... (Wayne June's commmenting on the Heaver bleeding out here) ...but the Skiver with its 49 HP / 15% Prot is way too tanky to be dealt with in one turn. (For comparison: The Swine Slayer in the front has 41 HP / 33% Prot) [Spit to Roast] deals pretty nasty damage, has a 21% crit rate, stuns, and knocks the target to the 4th rank. Gitano resists both Stun and Knockback in this case (not that the latter really would've mattered) and with her two trinkets combined doubling her healing power, she almost manages to patch herself up fully with a crit-heal. Oh, and if you thought Spit to Roast is what makes the Skiver dangerous? Think again. [Cripple them] can be devestating, dealing good damage, a 3-point Blight, and a Debuff (-8 Dodge, -6 Spd). Confidence surges as the enemy crumbles! It gets another Spit to Roast in, but Sigurd resists the Stun and Knockback and finishes it with a nice crit. In Champion missions, it's more important than ever to not rush to end a fight once the main damage dealers are gone. Sigurd and Auvray have gone down below 50% of their health before the Skiver has been dealt with, so it's simple mathematics where they might end up if we went into another Skiver fight without healing up first. Note how Sigurd regains less HP than the rest, btw: [Butcher Cut], in addition to a 4-point Bleed, now also reduces Healing Received by 50%. (it was 33% in Veteran dungeons and not present at all in Apprentice ones) Not entirely sure how 50% of six is four, though. Maybe it's additively with Saria's bonuses, but she has +40% on her healing spells, and 90% o six also isn't four, no matter how you're rounding. SILLY PING IT IS EASY WHEN YOU WRITE IT DOWN. SARIA'S BASE HEALING IS FOUR. SIX IS FOUR TIMES ONE POINT FOUR, ROUNDED UP. FOUR IS FOUR TIMES ZERO POINT NINE, ALSO ROUNDED UP. By the way, I've done the math on the back of my Star Wars fanfic draft where Padmé marries Obi-Wan instead of Anakin. You should check it out. I especially like how Luke and Leia aren't siblings anymore, so now it's OK for me to ship them. (Editor's note: I'm not actually sure if I figured this out correctly or if I'm missing something else. Rounding in video games can be confusing.) Anothr new, Champion-exclusive enemy type: The Brigand Hunter. It's... honestly just a slightly stronger version of the Fuselier (which does have its own Champion tier) with very slightly higher numbers in most areas. The only really new thing: Its [Blanket Fire], on top of the slightly higher Dmg, higher Debuff chance (it lowers your Dodge) and minimally higher Acc, also inflicts a bit of stress. This one's not really new, but I don't think we've seen it happen before: The Infamous (and any other kind of) Cutthroat's [Uppercut Slice] can knock the target back a rank. It's kinda annoying here because the Flagellant can't attack from the backrow (although Auvray just uses Redeem to heal himself and Saiga), but this is generally the weakest attack in the Cutthroat's arsenal. Same here - Sigurd hasn't Holy Lance equipped (he brought his fan fics instead), but he can at least heal some stress instead. Oh, and look at this beautiful stalling! Seven turns and full HP levels at the end of the fight! (Would've been better if I had killed the Hunter earlier to avoid the stress slowly piling up, to be honest) All in all, this mission went fairly well - yes, HP got pretty low during every single fight, but nobody got to Death's Door and stress levels have been very manageable. Before we leave, we still secure one treasure chest... ...guarded by a group of already known enemies. And again, HP gets pretty low at some point in the fight. (that Swine Meathooker actually got two crits in a row, too, both against Auvray) And again, stalling a fight and heal back up is very important. Don't LTC in this game. (I think I mentioned this before, but one reason Blight/Bleed + Stun is good is that it makes fights go a little longer after they're already won, so you can get more free actions to heal) This is honestly a very satisfying screenshot for the end of a mission. All inventory slots are filled with treasure (or the quest objectives) and stress is so low that nobody will have to spend any time and money healing that, so this is just about as good an outcome as this mission could have had. The trinket reward might also be useful in figuring out how the healing formula works exactly. In less scientific circumstances, it's still fairly powerful. Reading fanfics is the Crusader's only attack that counts as ranged, so Unerring isn't the most amazing skill for Sigurd to pick up. I do like Thick Blooded, even if it's not a huge bonus to the resist. DOTs can be a real pain if you're the one getting hit by them. As always, the diseases get removed immediately. In addition to that, Benice (Hylomania) and Nearl lose their vices; Nervous (+10% Stress) being the more pressing one. The last mission gave us the "Bumper Crop" town event again, reducing the supply (and provision) cost to zero. It helps - the "283" in the bottom left corner is all the money that I have left after filling the Sanitorium and upgrading this week's team's equipment and skills as far as I'm able to. This week, we do a standard "clear room battles" mission into the Weald, while also fishing for some boss fights. Morphew is with us so we might have to step on some sneks, and the Thing might be roaming this dungeon, as well. This is, of course, a champion-level mission, which also means that Gawain can join us again after a loooooong break. "50% Prot", you say? First fight is just two of these Fungal Clawers, not dangerous at all. (you see Phil healing Gawain's Blight here) (proof that Bandit Hunter and Infamous Fuselier are in fact two separate enemy classes) Fight's not too exciting, though. Phil is using [Incision] again, since monsters tend to be pretty Blight-resistant around here. Maybe this one will be more interesting? The Thing is back! [Phase Gnaw] - piercing damage (which ususally doesn't matter too much) and a very strong Blight. Gawain is honestly pretty bad in this fight, even though it doesn't seem like it at the start. In fact, [Hew] killing the Crystalline Aberations that the Thing spawns between turns while still putting some damage on the Thing is pretty nifty. But once the Thing goes down to 40% and gets its huge Prot bonus (and offensive bonuses), "some damage" becomes "pitiful damage" very quickly. That was quite the jump ahead, but I have to say that I've been quite lucky with what attacks the Thing used - mostly the low-power debuff moves, and then it even misses its first [Vorpal Strike]. Morphew: "No defense can handle attacks from all directions!" On my side, it's Morphew with [Pierce]... ...and Phil with [Noxious Blast] are the main damage dealers. Noxious Blast deals a 7-point Blight at this point... ...(most of the time, anyway). Only the Flagellant's (non-spammable) Exanguinate has a stronger DOT effect than that. The Thing still manages to hit Morphew and Gawain with one [Vorpal Strike] each, but it doesn't land a crit... ...and goes down relatively easily on turn 5 alredy. It was still a stressful fight in a game-mechanical way, but luckily Morphew is the one suffering the least - very nice looking at the potential Nightmare where she would take a lot of stress per turn automatically. In addition to the comet shards, the thing also drops one of its unique trinkets. "Big bonus below 40% HP" is something three of those four trinkets share - I'm generally never too keen on conditional bonuses of that sort, but in this case, -15% Stress isn't terrible on its own, making this a fairly strong trinket. As comparison, our standard, byeffect-free stress-reducing trinket gives -20% stress, so hardly any more than the Shifting Hide does at base. In the room after the fight, we get a scout and spot a Secret Door - bit in an awkward place, since if we don't want to spend three inventory slots on the Traödadsfihlfjasons for the entire dungeon (and we don't), we'll have to go all the way to the other end of the dungeon and then allllllllll the way back to the secret room once we've done the mission objective. The Blighted Crone that we run into here is the first champion-tier only enemy of the Weald. She's pretty squishy, but 41 Dodge is a lot and she starts the fight stealthed. 10 Spd is very fast, too: The Grave Robber, the fastest class in the game, caps at 10 Spd at max level as well (although the GR can increase that with trinkets and/or quirks). (actually, wiki says that she can appear on veteran missions, too. I guess we missed her or my memory isn't doing too good today) Squishy + Backrow usually equals "very dangerous", so Pramanix uses her Twilight Dreamer quirk to hit the Crone... ...and Phil uses her AoE stun to circumvent the stealth and still not hit her. Dang! This means that the Crone gets two actions: at the end (because the enemies were surprised) of turn 1, she uses [Curse of Vulnerability], which marks the target and reduces Acc and Dodge... ...and at the start of turn 2, she follows up with [Embrace the Dark], which deals 10 points of stress (and reduces torchlight, but that's not too important). Both these moves will randomly target one or two of your adventurers. (she's actually not quite as dangerous as I thought she might be, having the Swine Skiver fresh on my mind. Still a priority target, though, like any stress dealer) This is a fight Gawain feels a lot more comfortable in, since the Corrupted Giant has huge HP, but no Prot at all - basically a perfect target for the Leper. ...nevermind. [Confusion Spores] shuffles the party. Gawain doesn't approve. After that fight, I decide to set up camp to reduce stress as much as possible. Morphew gives no warnings, so Specter does her ambush prevention... ...and Gawain does his best at the whole stress reduction business - which isn't amazing, but this group just doesn't have a big selection of de-stressing skills. New enemy! The Hateful Virago has high HP, high Dodge, high Spd and a little Prot - not too easy to kill for a backrow enemy. Reminicent of the Swine Skiver, even, but the Virago doesn't nearly have the same damage potential. Its [Ruinous Hex] is very similar to the Crone's Curse of Vulnerability - hits either one or two heroes, marks targets, gives the exact same debuffs. It's a bit stronger and less accurate, though. Its most dangerous ability is [From Death Comes Life], which it'll use between turns if there's any corpses on the field. It turns those corpses into Necrotic Fungi - these don't do anything on their own... ...but like the eggs in the Baron fight, they prevent any HP-restoring skill from being used. At least they don't leave any corpses themselves for the Virago to re-re-re-re-re-revive. The Hateful Virago's more direct damage dealing attack is its [Putrefying Breath], which also deals a 3-point Blight and knocks back the target one rank. All in all, not as threatening as the Skiver on her own, but a potentially dangerous support class. So is my artistic genius, Morphew. Next new enemy that isn't really all that new: The Brigand Raider is the slightly stronger version of the Cutthroat. Besides slightly increased Numbers... ...its [Shank] also sets a Mark on the target. (also: OW!) In other news, here's why despite being arguably the worst class in the game (assuming that you count the money in the Antiquarian's favour), the Leper is inarguably the best class in the game. Gawain: "Summer before the Fall." And it's a wrap! More stress than the previous mission, but I manage to get treasure into every inventory slot again. ...surely Morphew didn't have the Warrior of Light quirk, right? That's a bug, right?? I did't forget to lock in a +Dmg quirk on a direct Dmg dealing class, RIGHT?!? Also, move resist on a class that really gives zero fucks about being shuffled. Wooo. Good quirk on Gawain and great one on Specter, though. Back to the hamlet and - Vvulf at ze door! *credits roll* Like the Shrieker event that we got some updates ago, this gives us access to a this-week-only dungeon - but this time with some more pressure. If we decline the call, Vvulf is going to destroy one upgrade in the hamlet. "decline the call" being the operative word here: You can, in theory, start the mission and immediately retreat to avoid damage to the hamlet - but that will also kill one (randomly chosen, I believe) member of the expedition. We obviously won't do that! The correct course of action is to have four heroes die in the fight against Vvulf. Even though Vvulf's mission doesn't give any gold reward (and it's likely that we won't find too much treasure during the run, either), Photomania is a quirk that I really don't want Specter to lose. Unlike Phil's Slowdraw (-4 Spd on the first turn is truly awful for a specialized Stun class). Gawain learns to eat some oranges, Morphew learns to eat, period. You normally really, really want a Man-at-Arms for this mission, but unfortunately, Lawrence only reached Lv.3 at this point, so it'll have to be Auvray, Pramanix, Sigurd, and Saria - a group that's still fairly strong defensively. This mission, like the Courtyard, has a predetermined map of which you can only see what's right next to you. Unlike the Courtyard, it's pretty short, though. The only enemies you can run into are (afaik) Bandits. This first mob is weirdly weak - this is a Darkest-tier mission (same as the final dungeon), but as the colour schemes (and the un-cloaked Fuselier) indicate, these are tier 1 and 2 enemies. Not sure what's up with that. So yeah, not a problem. It seems to be the only fight of that sort - the following room battle has the high-level enemies that you'd expect. Yeahhh, definitely closer to what I expected. As you can see, we took quite a lot of HP damage - luckily, Auvray's [Redeem] helps out a TON here. And the next room is already where the boss waits. There's a bit more to explore, but it's a good idea to face Vvulf before you've suffered too much attrition. At the start of every turn, Vvulf will use [Bombs away] and I would've been really happy about this dodge... ...IF IT DID ANYTHING, THAT IS The mechanics of this aren't unlike the Prophet's: One rank gets set up us the bomb (so even if you swap position of your heroes, the bomb remains where it is). No bonus points if you can guess what happens at the end of the turn. Nothing much to do about it though - technically, you can knock over the Barrel o' Bombs, but that will take at least two actions per turn and the Barrel has a Riposte ability AND Vvulf will just replace it with another one if we do. So, simply dealing damage to Vvulf is the best option here. Sigurd and Pramanix have set up a bit of a dancing formation, allowing Sigurd to use [Holy Lance]. This is necessary for Sigurd to contribute, because first thing Vvulf does is use [Get Them!]... ...which summons two Brigand Raiders, pushing Vvulf to 3rd rank (outside Sigurd's Smiting range) and (screenshot is taken a bit early) stunning Auvray. (you can see the stunned Auvray in the background here) During the turn, Vvulf doesn't do too much offensively. Get Them!'s direct damage isn't too big and here, he uses [Tower Shield] to guard one of his minions. What a caring boss! This does allow Sigurd to attack Vvulf by targeting the guarded Raider, in case the dance gets disrupted by a Stun or a weird initiative roll. OK, end of the turn and... A dizzying blow to body and brain! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK LIKE SERIOUSLY WHAT THE FUCK GODFUCKINGDAMNIT ...ok, breathe in, breath out, while Vvulf is setting up THE NEXT FIVE FUCKING BILLION FUCKING DAMAGE... ...be the leaf... This is where the Man-at-Arms would've come into play - stack him with as much Prot as possible via trinkets, then guard whoever is targeted by the bomb, which will increase his Prot even further. That crit would've dealt 32 or 33 Dmg (rounding's still weird in video games) - still bad, but no insta-Death's Door. FUCK THE LEAF FGPJOAEWFNÖFVÖ:LXCMNYV 73% DEATH BLOW RESIST MY ASS (a short coffee break later...) OK, look at the silver lining. Vvulf targeted the now-empty 4th rank, so we won't get hit by another bomb immediately. Let's just forget for a second that we have almost the entire fight ahead of us, with one third of our firepower immediately falling TO THE FIRST BLOODY DEATH SAVING THROW I SHOULD ADD Vvulf uses [Warcry] twice this turn - 8 stress to two heroes, no direct damage. Nothing major. And the second Raider whiffs his attack. Alright, maybe we still got this..... Third turn, Vvulf throws the next bomb at Pramanix in 1st rank. YOU FOOL THIS IS WHAT I PLANNED ALL ALONG! [Serpent Sway] SUCK IT NERD! So, er, not even nearly as reliable as the MaA tactic for this fight is, but very satisfying when it comes together. Next turn, Pramanix gets targeted by Vvulf again. She still has one Aegis left, so I try to be greedy and not renew it. Naturally, the reamining charge gets used on a less dangerous move. Yep, not as reliable as the MaA... Death's Door. Again. Serpent's Sway blocks two attacks and you can't stack it beyond that and it only has two uses per battle, so despite hindsight and it not working out, I don't even think I made the wrong call there. Jesus, Vvulf's stubborn. Pramanix goes first in the actual turn, so she can immediately Serpant Sway for safety... ...and then dodges the Shank anyways. And honestly, with that heal, things don't look too bad. ...y'know, apart from Auvray fucking dying. But Vvulf's HP has been going down consistently and he really has that much health left at this point. Next time, Sigurd's the target... ...but Pramanix's like, "nah man, i got this" and uses [Impale] to take his spot... Well, mostly to kill that one Raider while still damaging Vvulf a little. Worth it? Probably not, especially since Vvulf summons a new Raider immediately after this. Sigurd probably would've withheld one bomb without going to Death's Door. Pramanix doesn't. She goes first again, trying to kill Vvulf before anyone else's turn. Chances weren't super great (38.5%, between high roll and crit, if my quick maffs are correct), but what else is she going to do? Not dying, at least! Phew! But Vvulf lives to the end of the turn, so another hero at Death's Door it is... I think I could've killed with Saria, but I wasn't sure if that despawns the Raiders, so I healed Pramanix instead. Mistake. But not punished. Pramanix FINALLY takes Vvulf out... ...and it does despawn the remaining Brigand Raiders. Now, I could've explored a little more - I believe there's a treasure room with a random Ancestor-tier trinket behind Vvulf, but I do NOT want to risk it being guarded. Loot is, of course, pretty shit. We basically got the loot from one room and two hallways, so this is not even as bad as I would've thought. And we get bad quirks on top of that, too. Ugh. I guess the Warrens one is quite nice when it comes up... ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benice Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 2 hours ago, ping said: I'VE BEEN REPLACED BY A PREPROMOTE NOOOOOO 2 hours ago, ping said: Temping... But no! We stand with Benice! (also with Vincent) (also I do want to save up some shards) 12/10 UPDATE WOULD RECOMMEND 2 hours ago, ping said: The Swine Skiver, a pretty tanky, very dangerous backrow fighter. Looks like quite the charmer. 2 hours ago, ping said: By the way, I've done the math on the back of my Star Wars fanfic draft where Padmé marries Obi-Wan instead of Anakin. You should check it out. I especially like how Luke and Leia aren't siblings anymore, so now it's OK for me to ship them. 2 hours ago, ping said: A dizzying blow to body and brain! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK Oh my god! Wow! That's brutal! 2 hours ago, ping said: LIKE SERIOUSLY WHAT THE FUCK Oooh nooo... 2 hours ago, ping said: OOOOOOOOF. RIP Auvray. 2 hours ago, ping said: But not punished. Pramanix FINALLY takes Vvulf out... That actually didn't go as bad as it could have. It was looking like a party wipe for a while. 2 hours ago, ping said: ... I just realized that the keeper bloke (or whatever his name is) is trying not to laugh, from the looks of it. Sorry about missing the previous update (again!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benice Posted July 22, 2020 Share Posted July 22, 2020 2 hours ago, ping said: I'VE BEEN REPLACED BY A PREPROMOTE NOOOOOO 2 hours ago, ping said: Temping... But no! We stand with Benice! (also with Vincent) (also I do want to save up some shards) 12/10 UPDATE WOULD RECOMMEND 2 hours ago, ping said: The Swine Skiver, a pretty tanky, very dangerous backrow fighter. Looks like quite the charmer. 2 hours ago, ping said: By the way, I've done the math on the back of my Star Wars fanfic draft where Padmé marries Obi-Wan instead of Anakin. You should check it out. I especially like how Luke and Leia aren't siblings anymore, so now it's OK for me to ship them. 2 hours ago, ping said: A dizzying blow to body and brain! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK Oh my god! Wow! That's brutal! 2 hours ago, ping said: LIKE SERIOUSLY WHAT THE FUCK Oooh nooo... 2 hours ago, ping said: OOOOOOOOF. RIP Auvray. 2 hours ago, ping said: But not punished. Pramanix FINALLY takes Vvulf out... That actually didn't go as bad as it could have. It was looking like a party wipe for a while. 2 hours ago, ping said: ... I just realized that the keeper bloke (or whatever his name is) is trying not to laugh, from the looks of it. Sorry about missing the previous update (again!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ping Posted July 22, 2020 Author Share Posted July 22, 2020 2 hours ago, Benice said: That actually didn't go as bad as it could have. It was looking like a party wipe for a while. Yeah, the death coming so early made the fight really scary, and I was fully expecting a total party kill. Losing a fully leveled character still stings though. 2 hours ago, Benice said: I just realized that the keeper bloke (or whatever his name is) is trying not to laugh, from the looks of it. He seems to be grinning permanently, so it's probably some kind of affliction. Covering his mouth, knowing that he can't put on a serious face, might even be an attempt to show respect for the dead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golb89 Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 (edited) On 7/13/2020 at 4:34 PM, ping said: Update 19 - For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. Spoiler The warrens expedition in a nutshell: And the weald too: Maybe. On 7/13/2020 at 4:34 PM, ping said: THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE AND IT'S THIS ONE On 7/13/2020 at 4:34 PM, ping said: (*)Translator's note: "plan" means "keikaku" (**) (**)Translator's note: "keikaku" means "plan" (*) Yeah, i already knew that... On 7/13/2020 at 4:34 PM, ping said: (wrestling a lion is still a bad idea, btw) Nevermind bears... On 7/13/2020 at 4:34 PM, ping said: ...because it allows Skadi to start the battle waiting in that room (three out of three!) with the stealth and damage boost from her Shadow Fade. That way, she can use the weaker Thrown Dagger to pick off a backrow enemy on turn 1 and then Lunge on turn 2. Should have named her Manticore instead... On 7/13/2020 at 4:34 PM, ping said: On 7/13/2020 at 4:34 PM, ping said: Haze (remember her?) also gets rid of her own Lick Worship Curios quirk (Hieromania), which may or may not be useless since she also has the third one of that kind, Hagiomana, already locked in. Still not sure how the game handles overlapping quirks of that kind and I may never find out. On 7/13/2020 at 4:34 PM, ping said: 12 hours ago, ping said: YOU BETTER HURRY YOU BETTER SLOW DOWN Maybe. Also, i forgot to mention this last time but the name Grani (and Skadi too, but that's irrelevant now) is valid for either the Grave Robber, Bounty Hunter or Hellione class, whichever comes first. (Then again, that's probably become irrelevant too considering i'm still 3 updates behind...) Edited July 23, 2020 by Golb89 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ping Posted July 23, 2020 Author Share Posted July 23, 2020 12 hours ago, Golb89 said: Should have named her Manticore instead... > 50% chance to dodge Physical and Arts attacks and is less likely to be targeted by enemies That's actually pretty appropriate for the Grave Robber. I'll write it down, in case we get a potential Grani and then another GR. 12 hours ago, Golb89 said: YOU BETTER SLOW DOWN NEVAH! (well except if I take another two-week break. That would be a slowdown.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benice Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 (edited) 18 hours ago, ping said: Yeah, the death coming so early made the fight really scary, and I was fully expecting a total party kill. Losing a fully leveled character still stings though. Come to think of it, what does leveling up actually do? Edited July 23, 2020 by Benice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ping Posted July 23, 2020 Author Share Posted July 23, 2020 (edited) 35 minutes ago, Benice said: Come to think of it, what does leveling up actually do? Spoiler I haven't really shown that between dungeons after the first updates, but it gives access to the advanced upgrades of the Guild and Blacksmith. A hero needs to be Lv. 1/2/3/5 to get the 2nd/3rd/4th/5th level of skills, weapons, and armour. The level-ups on their own aren't worth very much: +10% to most resists is all. Large parts of what we're doing is preparation for the Darkest Dungeon: Get the heirlooms needed to upgrade Guild and Blacksmith; get heroes to Lv.5-6 to get access to max level skills and equipment; get money to pay for the upgrades. From a heartless gameplay perspective, getting a hero killed wastes all the money you've invested in them (and the time it took to raise their level). It costs 2375 gold to get a single skill to max level (plus 500 if the hero didn't start with it) and most heroes will want 5-7 skills to choose from, even if they only can have four equipped at a time. Fully upgrading a hero's weapon and armour costs about 11000 gold. All of this is assuming that we've gotten all the cost reductions on Guild and Blacksmith, which we only recently did, so in reality, our characters will have been even more expensive. Not to mention the money I've spent removing and locking in quirks in the Sanitorium. You, for example, leveled up to Lv.3 recently. To fully make use of it once you go on the next mission, I'll have to spend 3000g in the Blacksmith and 5000g in the Guild (the Abom is extra expensive because he actually needs all eight of his skills). Once you reach Lv.5, I'll have to spend another 6000 + 10000 gold. -- Leveling up Armour increases HP and Dodge. Leveling up weapons increses Dmg, Crit%, Spd. Leveling up skills increases Acc, Crit%, proc chance of added effects, severity of Bleeds and Blights, and most damage boosts against certain enemy types. To put some numbers on it, the Abom's base HP goes up from 26 to 46 between base level and max level. Base Dmg goes up from 6-11 to 11-20. Edited July 23, 2020 by ping Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benice Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 10 minutes ago, ping said: I haven't really shown that between dungeons after the first updates, but it gives access to the advanced upgrades of the Guild and Blacksmith. A hero needs to be Lv. 1/2/3/5 to get the 2nd/3rd/4th/5th level of skills, weapons, and armour. The level-ups on their own aren't worth very much: +10% to most resists is all. Large parts of what we're doing is preparation for the Darkest Dungeon: Get the heirlooms needed to upgrade Guild and Blacksmith; get heroes to Lv.5-6 to get access to max level skills and equipment; get money to pay for the upgrades. I see, I see! Thanks for the explanation, it makes a lot more sense now. It also makes me feel more sad about Auvray... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golb89 Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 5 hours ago, ping said: > 50% chance to dodge Physical and Arts attacks and is less likely to be targeted by enemies That, and this. (The elite version basically means ALL of her attacks will benefit from the stealth bonus) (Also, is noone gonna mention how Berenice double-posted above?) Spoiler Then again, you did too: On 7/18/2020 at 6:19 PM, ping said: ...since beating the Baron also un-curses all our vampires. Benice can eat garlic again!...since beating the Baron also un-curses all our vampires. Benice can eat garlic again! (Oh, and i was gonna suggest Blaze or Reed for the 2nd Flagellant, but thanks to Berenice's spoiler i already know that won't be necessary...) On 7/18/2020 at 6:19 PM, ping said: Update 21 20 - Noblesse Oblige Spoiler On 7/18/2020 at 6:19 PM, ping said: Next stop: Nightmare Central. Probably. It's a long mission, which means two camps, which means two chances of a Pramanix flashback. On 7/18/2020 at 6:19 PM, ping said: Saiga feels especially zealous today and figures that instead of Stress Eating (the quirk she is losing by doing this), she could just incinerate heathen writings and bad fanfics (which by her standards, I assume, are the ones without any smut) to make herself feel better. (Source) On 7/18/2020 at 6:19 PM, ping said: We find the next part of the Shieldbreaker's backstory, clearly setting up a Happy End lasting for the remaining three parts. Pretty sure this part is just a retelling of what happens in her intro story. On 7/18/2020 at 6:19 PM, ping said: Saiga loses Risktaker (don't really want to deal with the lowered Dodge) On 7/18/2020 at 6:19 PM, ping said: ...and also transforms her into something that would give even Sir Mix-a-lot some concerns. Uh uh... Also, the courtyard expedition in a nutshell: Maybe. (It actually might fit the Starry Thing even better) On 7/18/2020 at 6:19 PM, ping said: Finally, a short look on what districts I'm eyeing up right now: The Altar of the Light looks very nice - healing bonuses on Vestals always do - and so does the Training ring because I'll always be biased towards Shieldbreakers. (and honestly, Houndmaster and MaA are very good all-around classes, too) What about the Arbalest??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golb89 Posted July 26, 2020 Share Posted July 26, 2020 [Addendums] Spoiler On 7/11/2020 at 9:49 AM, ping said: Which means that poor Specter is forced, FORCED! to go to the brothel. I'm sure she's devestated about it. (yes, I know, she could've gotten drunk instead. But roleplay, though!) Again, why not both? (Also, i keep forgetting that the next HWM name in list is Contender) On 7/18/2020 at 6:19 PM, ping said: There's no infestation in the other dungeons for now - no random Bloodsucker mobs, but also no additional invitations, so we wouldn't be able to go more than once even if wanted to. O RLY? On 7/19/2020 at 6:41 PM, ping said: For now, we only know about that one mosquito lady infiltrating the Ancestor's court when he was young. Spoiler Oh, i remember that one... ... too bad we won't be seeing her anymore. Maybe. On 7/19/2020 at 6:41 PM, ping said: Update 22 21 - SQUEAL! Spoiler On 7/19/2020 at 6:41 PM, ping said: ...and Wayne June seems confused. The Abomination is doing the cleansing, sir! He was talking about this though. Maybe. On 7/19/2020 at 6:41 PM, ping said: And we're back to the Swine Royalty! On 7/19/2020 at 6:41 PM, ping said: So Kroos just dishes out some great damage instead On 7/19/2020 at 6:41 PM, ping said: ...and Kroos gets hit by [Obliterate Body]. On 7/19/2020 at 6:41 PM, ping said: ...there we go! Thank you! On 7/19/2020 at 6:41 PM, ping said: Kroos catches the Plague and one of the worst quirks in the game, so she'll be out of commision for two weeks. On 7/19/2020 at 6:41 PM, ping said: Welllll, maybe I shouldn't have. I spend a lot of money on upgrading the next crew's skills and equipment - so much that even after selling a couple of worthless/obsolete trinkets, I'm down to less than 1000 gold after getting the supplies for the next mission. On 7/19/2020 at 6:41 PM, ping said: To make up for that a little, Lawrence opens most battles with [Bolster], giving everybody +6 Dodge and -10% Stress. On 7/19/2020 at 6:41 PM, ping said: Weirdly enough, it's Lawrence, not one of the underleveled adventurers, who has some issues with his stress levels - some early crits against him, and then the stress dealers started prioritizing him. On 7/19/2020 at 6:41 PM, ping said: Fated is less impressive than it sounds - it has a 10% chance if you roll a miss, and hit rates aren't THAT bad that it has too much of an impact. Effectively, this turns a 50% hitrate into 55%, with the effect going down as hitrates go up (60 -> 64 | 70 -> 73 etc). On 7/19/2020 at 6:41 PM, ping said: Lastly, I trade in some busts for more deeds, to get the last two cost reductions from the Blacksmith. Money's pretty tight, so I think it makes a lot of sense to do so before getting the final level of Weaponsmithing. Only 1 to go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ping Posted July 26, 2020 Author Share Posted July 26, 2020 @Golb89 Spoiler On 7/24/2020 at 12:25 AM, Golb89 said: (Also, is noone gonna mention how Berenice double-posted above?) Nice weather today. Didn't the sportser in the sportsgame sport very sportily today? On 7/24/2020 at 12:25 AM, Golb89 said: What about the Arbalest??? To be fair, "very good all-around" is not what the Arbalest is designed to be. "Very good in specific situations, but easily rendered useless if circumstances work against her" is more like it. 15 hours ago, Golb89 said: ... too bad we won't be seeing her anymore. Maybe. Nope! Never! The Vampire situation has been solved. Forever. 15 hours ago, Golb89 said: [Comic with Jessica] Oh god, now I feel bad harping on the Antiquarian all the time... -- Names have been noted: Contender (for the HWM after the next, who is already to be named Batta), Blaze and Reed (Flagellant). Next update (YOU BETTER HURRY, MATE) in an hour or so - I'll use the powers granted to me by the RULES STICKY and make a doublepost, since two spoilers in one post seem to make things wonky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ping Posted July 26, 2020 Author Share Posted July 26, 2020 Update 24 - Open your eyes, sheeple Spoiler Word is traveling. Ambition is stirring in distant cities. We can use this. Since we now have an empty unit slot (*sigh*), I make a small heirloom investment into the Stage Coach, allowing the occasional Lv.2 hero to appear. It looks like I'm going to go on an Apprentice mission again after all and Silence will appreciate it, so I'm mostly looking for a unit that can function in the 1st rank. Haute would - but I'd rather not recruit a Lv.0 adventurer at this point. The investment isn't super high - no other hamlet upgrades are really pressing once Guild and Blacksmith are at max level, so it only pushes back the next district a little. For the next mission, we go after the second incarnation of the Hag. The trinket reward is honestly not that impressive, but I want to get the boss missions out of the way already. Frostleaf is here because she can reach the backrow (where the Hag will be); Lawrence can buff and riposte; Saiga... well, guess. Kroos is not at her best in this team comp, since nobody will be setting up marks for her, but she can shoot the backrow, as well. [The Ancester's comment when we first went after the Hag:]I had collected many rare and elusive volumes on ancient herbal properties and was set to enjoy several weeks immersed in comfortable study. My work was interrupted, however, by a singularly striking young woman who insisted on repeated calls to the house. Her knowledge of horticulturalism, and its role in various arcane practices impressed me greatly. My licentious impulse gave way to a genuine, professional respect, and together, we began to plant harvest and brew. I'm genuinely impressed that the Ancester still hasn't murdered anyone in this story yet. *googles "licentious meaning"* Ah, I see. There is method in the wild corruption here. It bears a form both wretched and malevolent. I've been bitching about it not being clear where the boss is a couple times, but this time it's actually really annoying: There's two rooms that are 5 hallways away from the start, and they're as far apart from each other as possible. No choice but to flip the metaphorial coin - I decide to go left first. Great is the weapon that cuts on its own. This team comp is very light on DOTs - Frostleaf has If It Bleeds, but that's it. As a result, enemy comps with a bit more Prot (like this one: 50% on the Fungal Grabbers, 25% on the Fungal Batteries) take a bit of time to whittle down. Lawrence is kitted offensively here, specifically to make use of his Riposte ability. The Legendary Bracer increases his Dmg by 20%, while the Man Slayer's Ring gives another +25% Dmg against Human-type enemies, like Bandits, these Fungi, or a certain witchy creature. Frostleaf is kitted offensively because that's what Hellions do. She wears the Heaven's Hairpin (less stress, more Acc) and the Surgical Gloves (more Acc and Crit). The wiki was right and the Crone can indeed be present in Veteran-tier missions. Still annoyingly dodgy - Kroos, Lawrence and Frostleaf all whiff their attacks before Saiga finally finishes the Crone. In addition to the Sun Ring (more Dmg and Acc), Kroos also wears the Medic's Greaves (+33% Healing) to make her a pretty decent secondary healer. Very helpful, since the Arbalest can't hit 1st rank very well, so this often gives her something to do towards the end of a fight. Bonus points because her healing skill also gives a boost to Healing Received from future heals for a couple turns. I probably don't have to say what role Saiga is playing. It's not the Melee build - she's only in 2nd rank because the Blighted Giant knocked Lawrence back a rank. (next fight goes pretty smoothly) If I knew that the boss would wait in the next room, I would've liked to set up camp in the previous room - Kroos, Lawrence, and Frostleaf all have some camp skills that give combat boosts for the next four fight, so that would be nice to have. But since I may still have half a dungeon to clear, I don't want to waste my camp while I have good HP and stress levels... ...and the Hag does turn out to wait on the other end of the dungeon. Back to the entrance we go! On our way, we find a Troubling Effigy, which gives a hero a random positive quirk when cleansed with Holy Water. Saiga gets a fairly good one out of it, especially given that we're about to face a human boss. Some points docked for it being an offensive quirk on a healer, I guess. I'm going to skip the rest of the dungeon - you can see from the stress levels that it wasn't too tough to get through, despite the team comp not being optimal against the random encounters. The advantage of me going thought the entire dungeon before facing the Hag is that now I can safely set up camp and have those bonuses for the boss fight. As I said, Kroos and Frostleaf would've had some good camp skills, too, but the Man-at-Arms is probably the best class when it comes to buffing the party before a big fight. Lawrence: "The key to a continued heartbeat is to MOVE YOUR FEET." And there we go! Last time, we managed to beat the Hag pretty handily - let's see how things go this time. Kroos and Frostleaf outspeed the Hag and get the first bit of damage in, before... ...she grabs Kroos and puts her [Into the Pot!] Kroos slowly takes damage while being cooked (surprise, surprise) - 4 HP every time anybody takes a turn, so 20 Dmg per turn (the hag has two actions). The hag likes her AoE attack [Meat Tenderizer] - not too strong, but very dangerous when a hero is spat out of the pot once they reach Death's Door. It also means that Lawrence's [Retaliate]... ...or rather, the following Riposte, is quite good in this fight - this is the main reason why I put two +Dmg trinkets on him. Well, I could, Kroos, but then the Hag would just grab the next hero and we're back where we were. It's better to concentrate our damage on the Hag - it's the middle of turn 2 and she's down to 29 HP already. [Seasoned to Perfection] - some mild stress-dealing attack. [Iron Swan] - Less mild. So yeah, fairly easy two-turn. The hag still has pretty low HP at 99, probably to counteract that some of the heavy-hitting classes have trouble reaching her (the Leper is completely dead weight in this fight, even), but she goes down really, really fast if you set up your team appropriately. But to be fair, if you don't beat her really, really fast, there's a good chance that your cooked character will have to roll against death at least once or twice - Kroos would've definitely reached Death's Door on turn 3 (and be a bit screwed by being poured into 1st rank) There was one room left unscouted in the left part of the dungeon, but I can't be arsed to walk through the entire dungeon just for that one room. So home we go, with a lot of heirlooms, but not as much money as I would've liked. Not too much to say about the quirks. Antsy will have to go immediately; rest isn't too impactful, I don't think. We've seen this event before - last time, it was 100% inconsequential... ...and this time, as well. I didn't even make a screenshot. Bad work, past ping. I would like to wait for a character that can function in 1st rank and that's already at Lv.2 (or at the very least Lv.1) and I can affort to wait for that, too. Pramanix and Specter rid themselves of some stress; with Sigurd being blocked by the Caretaker since he's too god-fearing to do anything but pray for stress relief. We found enough heirlooms to get the last Blacksmith upgrade, so we're finally ready to fully upgrade our heroes once they reach Lv.5. Except that we're still kinda poor... ...so we do another Antiquarian run. The Fire Emblem player in me is a bit disgusted at this sight: four max-level adventurers STEALING THE PRECIOUS XP!!! Anyway, we've been to the Ruins before and we don't encounter any new enemies, so I won't show the battles in detail. This one is new and now we're only mission the first part of the story. Here's parts three, four, five, and six. One word about the party: Saria is wearing the Melee trinket (which increases Dmg and, as long as she's standing in 2nd rank, healing) and while she can't use her single-target heal, the group heal is pretty darn strong at this point. And with the bonus damage against Undead enemies, her Dmg rolls aren't too shabby, either - this [Mace Bash] is even without any boosts by her Hand of Light skill. Next finished journal! Now we know all there is to know about Darius: Day 1 - Rare are travellers on the roads this autumn, and rather than starve I pressed my last coin into the hand of one who dealt in rumours and shadows. Ravens carried cryptic notes that there was a person, or persons who was pledging coin for services best left unmentioned in a hamlet I had never heard of. I am packing to leave immediately. Day 4 - The road to this damned hamlet was a tricky one, both to find and to travel. When it revealed its ruined face, I swore had never seen such neglect, some buildings collapsed, and uncaring residents fidgeting uselessly. I went swiftly to the tavern - others with similar interests had gathered there and I was assembled into an expedition. We leave at first light on the morrow. Day 6 - As we travelled from the hamlet, an eerie dread grew. We all felt it but did our best to shrug it off. Sleep was difficult until Raeven, one of my companions, passed me a bitter concoction. The most devout of us, Therion, prayed softly for our safety, superstitious but well intentioned I suppose. I am already falling asleep.. Day 7 - We tangled with some unruly louts. Raeven called them cultists. They were ferocious but clumsy. Day 8 - Moira has been afflicted with sickness, it must have been some rotting air from a coffin she insisted on piercing with her spade. As terrible as this place is, I know I will not fall for any trap nor crazed idiot. I wager my lucky coin on it. My End - I scrawl this, victim of cruel Fortune, who took me up on my wager for I have lost my lucky coin and I now lie helpless as my blood flows swiftly from my ruined body. My fingers are cold… It was no trap, nor raving cultist that sealed my fate. We were ambushed by strange undulating shapes, 2 small entities that I cannot hope to describe and a third, much larger beast. Poor Moira was crushed into a pulp as Therion defended her - he soon lost his arm and his wits left him, “Shambler! Shambler!” he kept shrieking as Raeven yanked him to flee. I tried to play hero, to buy them a few moments...blew away one of the smaller monsters...last shot...then smashed into the wall...the big one...maybe they made it out... Oh hey, this is starting again. How great. Grrreat. Grrrrreat. Well, we probably should start the next Courtyard mission in the not too distant future, I guess. We can send fully upgraded heroes now, so I suppose it'll be fine. This was a "use item on quest objective" mission and we manage to find the third and last of the Corrupted Altars before we had to set up camp. "Set up camp" I said? I meant "hunt nightmares"! With an Antiquarian in the party, which is a bit reckless, but it'll be fine... Not a full line-up of sneaky snek. Hooray! The Enraged Rattler opens the fight by guarding the Pliskin - which is stealthed anyway. It still matters, though: Morphew ignores stealth thanks to her Twilight Dreamer quirk, so this could've been a one-shotted Pliskin. The Pliskin and the Adder go for Pramanix and Gitano, respectively. As I mentioned in a previous update: 5% Prot (check the bottom left corner) does matter. (this is the Rattler's Riposte, which is why the damage is so low) And turn 2, the Rattler already goes down. Once the Pliskin is de-stealthed after its second turn, I focus on it - it has way less health than the Adder, so this should reduce the damage I'm taking overall. Meanwhile, the enemies focus on Morphew... ...getting her Hp pretty darn low pretty darn quickly. Gitano and Phil (who also clears the Blight with her heal) patch her up at least a little bit... How quickly the tide turns! OOF! [Paralyzing Quills] ...and suddenly it's Gitano who's at Death's Door and stunned for good measure. Not blighted, at least... Morphew: "We will save you" And since Morphew managed to kill the Pliskin right before Gitano got to 0 HP, there was no real danger of Gitano dying before Saria's turn. The remaining danger would've been [Adder's Fang] critting someone to Death's Door while adding a Blight, but since this attack's direct Dmg actually isn't that high (4-7, with a 4-point Blight), that's very unlikely to happen. So while the Adder can prolong the fight a bit by [Molt]ing itself... ...the rest of the fight really was just a matter of time. (I believe that Ancester quote is a reaction to a large enemy going down) The next part of the Shieldbreaker's backstory - here are numbers one, two, three, four. It's indeed her point of view of her comic, spelling out what's happening a bit more explicitly and giving us a little glimpse at her thoughts. This next class trinket is probably one of the SB's best ones - yes, -2 Spd sucks, but I'd say it's well worth it for the massive HP bonus. You can also use it to give a bit of Spd control for setting up a dance with a fast character - a Highwayman or another Shieldbreaker with some +Spd trinkets/quirks, for example. There's a little bit of dungeon left to explore after this, although the mission is already fulfilled. This fight here isn't particularly dangerous, but Phil getting shuffled to the front really sucks - without Incision (which she doesn't have equipped because skeletons don't bleed), she is completely useless in 1st rank. Morphew shuffles her back to 2nd rank, where she can at least spam her Blight ability. While I don't get into danger during this fight, it's still a bit costly, since two crits by the Bandit Hunter... ...add a fair bit of stress. Not enough to get Morphew close to an affliction, but the other three heroes would appreciate a free week or three to recover their stress. (oh, and I don't have any Holy Water left to make use of the Eldritch Altar in the background. Too bad.) And after that, we're done with exploring, too. Nice haul overall, especially if you add the new Shieldbreaker trinket to the pile. Good quirks on Saria and Gitano, too, even though the latter loses an already pretty good one for it. Maybe I should've locked Evasive in, but I'm still very hesitant to invest money into my Antiquarians - they'll never be candidates for boss missions, anyway. This week, we get a nice candidate for our (for now...) final spot on the roster. Cairon (or rather Batta) isn't really too good in terms of quirks... ...and in fact, he gets rid of that HP penalty before anything else, but the HWM is still a really nice, straightforward damage dealer class and I wouldn't mind a second one on the team. Pramanix joins him in the Sanitarium to work on her Plutomania. Morphew is stressed enough to warrant a visit to the Bar - using the Tavern for stress relief so that Sigurd can use the Abbey to pray without worrying about catching the Crimson Curse again. The last mission's reward was a nice bonus if we go to the Ruins again right away... ...so this seems like a great time to tackle the Prophet for the second time. Take us away, Wayne June! [what Mr June had to say when we first went after the Prophet]Excavations beneath the manor were well underway, when a particularly ragged indigent arrived in the hamlet. This filthy, toothless miscreant boasted an uncanny knowledge of my ambitions and prognosticated publicly that, left unchecked, I would soon unleash doom upon the world. How had he survived the stockades, the icy waters, and the knives I delivered so enthusiastically into his back? How had he returned time and time again to rouse the townsfolk with his wild speculations and prophecies? Rasputin? Oh, sorry. I meant, "Rasputin?" I'm going to skip the preliminaries - most noteworthy, Frostleaf stops Stress Eating thanks to an Eldritch Altar and I find two Jute Tapistries (which are worth 4500 gold each). On the negative, Frostleaf got more stressed out than I would've wanted to, so Nearl uses Pray for that extra little bit of stress relief instead of doubling down on the Man-at-Arms' combat boosting camp skills. Indeed, the Prophet is hiding in the backrow and will keep there, unless you spend time breaking down the pews in front of him. [Rake] Which I'm actually planning to do, despite having decent reach on this team, since it'll give us 2500 gold per pew removed. Get on it, Benice! You may remember the first Prophet fight, and if not, that I mentioned that his main gimmick is kinda similar to Vvulf's: [Calamitous Prognostication] predicts calamity at the start of every turn (so this happened right before Benice's attack). You may also remember that I was lamenting the lack of an Man-at-Arms in the fight against Vvulf. Since the Prophet will mark two ranks each turn, [Defender] isn't quite as powerful as it would've been against Vvulf, but it can still reduce the total damage you're taking by a lot. Between carrying Barristan's Head (25% Prot), Nearl's Prayer during camp (5%) and this skill (26%), Lawrence takes less than half damage. Nearl and Frostleaf also target the front Pews, even though they could've reached the Prophet, too. It's all about that money, see? The Prophet uses his one regular action to use [Fulminate] to cast a 2-point Blight on the whole party (although Benice and Lawrence resist it). Not too dangerous on its own... ...but potentially dangerous with [Rubble of Ruin]'s high burst damage. If it hits. Very nice start to the fight. (the idea is that if Rubble brings a hero to Death's Door, the DOT may trigger a Death Blow before you can do anything about it.) Next turn, next double-target Prognostication. Lawrence still uses Defender on Frostleaf - doesn't do anything in terms of the Guard, but it increases Prot to its cap of 80%. [Eye On You]Eyes On Me (Still don't like FF8 very much. Doesn't make the soundtrack any worse though) Oh right - the attack deals stress and stuns, although Benice and Lawrence both resist it here. That's 5 Dmg through 80% Prot, so 25 base Dmg on Lawrence. [Rubble of Ruin] is quite strong when it hits. Especially if it keeps rolling double targets, although that's almost completely made up for by Lawrence consistently being one of those. Benice breaks down the second Pew here already, so we're making good progress offensively, too. Benice: "GWERRRRRRGGHHH!" Hope I didn't miscount the "R"s here, I would hate to misrepresent Benice's eloquent speeches. Prot's capped and Lawrence is targeted by the Prognostication already, so there's no reason to use Defender instead, so he sets up Riposte with [Retribution] instead. It's quite good in this fight, despite Rabble of Ruin unfortunately not getting countered. Benice keeps [Rake]ing, to make use of that skill boosting its own damage after being used. As all buffs, it's "capped" (or rather, each individual buff expires after three turns), but it's still really good for damaging both Pew and Prophet. ...wait, single target [Rubble of Ruin] does trigger Riposte? ...wait, the prophet is dead already? Dangit, Lawrence, we were 9 HP away from another 2500 gold, you tryhard! That means we go home with one inventory slot wasted on supplies! I might as well restart the whole campaign! (I think that should be silly enough to be recognizable as sarcasm, but you never know on the internet. Maybe I should add more exclamation points, ones and elevens?) +2 Spd's always nice. Maybe not quite as good on a healer, but it goes very good with Stun skills. A blight-based character being afraid of blighted enemies is not that great, so Benice will have to wear a straitjacked for a week before going on an adventure again. Fear of Unholy isn't great either, since it more or less blocks Frostleaf from going to the Ruins (and there's the odd Ghoul or Skeleton in other dungeons, as well). Next time: An attempt to get further into the Endless Harvest than on our first try. Unplanned, but this town event is rather convincing. We'll see how it goes. For now, thanks for reading! YOU'LL NEVER CATCH ME! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golb89 Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 Spoiler 8 hours ago, ping said: "Very good in specific situations, but easily rendered useless if circumstances work against her" https://www.reddit.com/r/girlsfrontline/comments/bemxxr/no_capes/ On 7/22/2020 at 5:19 PM, ping said: Update 23 22 - VVulf at ze door Spoiler On 7/22/2020 at 5:19 PM, ping said: SILLY PING IT IS EASY WHEN YOU WRITE IT DOWN. SARIA'S BASE HEALING IS FOUR. SIX IS FOUR TIMES ONE POINT FOUR, ROUNDED UP. FOUR IS FOUR TIMES ZERO POINT NINE, ALSO ROUNDED UP. On 7/22/2020 at 5:19 PM, ping said: Anothr new, Champion-exclusive enemy type: The Brigand Hunter. https://www.awkwardzombie.com/comic/duress-code On 7/22/2020 at 5:19 PM, ping said: The Hateful Virago's more direct damage dealing attack is its [Putrefying Breath], which also deals a 3-point Blight and knocks back the target one rank. https://www.awkwardzombie.com/comic/juicy On 7/22/2020 at 5:19 PM, ping said: So is my artistic genius, Morphew. She is Vigna now: On 7/22/2020 at 5:19 PM, ping said: ...surely Morphew didn't have the Warrior of Light quirk, right? That's a bug, right?? I did't forget to lock in a +Dmg quirk on a direct Dmg dealing class, RIGHT?!? Also, move resist on a class that really gives zero fucks about being shuffled. Wooo. Welp, guess now she can be Fang instead... On 7/22/2020 at 5:19 PM, ping said: On 7/22/2020 at 5:19 PM, ping said: Pramanix FINALLY takes Vvulf out. [Bonus] The Vvulf expedition in a nutshell: Maybe. 7 hours ago, ping said: YOU'LL NEVER CATCH ME! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ping Posted July 27, 2020 Author Share Posted July 27, 2020 19 hours ago, Golb89 said: https://www.reddit.com/r/girlsfrontline/comments/bemxxr/no_capes/ That would be very accurate if she was dragged into the danger zone. Kroos doesn't explode when she gets shufled to the front, but she's pretty screwed. --- GOTTA GO FAST! Update 25 - ROGNTUDJU!!! Spoiler As promised, back to the Farmstead we go. This time, with 75% less Shard Mercenaries: Courcy the Jester is the only one we'll be bringing this run. I didn't rename our Farmstead Quartett (Crusader, Hellion, Jester, Vestal) because they aren't part of the main campaign, but feel free to tell me otherwise. As usual, the Jester is here to push the Jester buttons - stress relief and boosting Acc/Crit with Battle Ballad. The Ancester's Bottle should help him not dying, and its stress penalty is compensated for by the Tambourine - torchlight in the Farmstead always counts as 100% for trinkets and quirks. I thought the Salacious Diary was what kept her sane, but anyway: Can't go into an endless battle mission without a Vestal, honestly. Specter goes for some stress reduction instead of another +heal trinket since stress will very likely become a problem sooner or later, and she won't be slaying too many enemies to keep hers in check. Damage dealer #1: Fang, wearing her Dancer's Footwraps to make sure that she'll go first most of the time. (I've done the Farmstead run before the SB name request was made, so she'll be Morphew in the screenshots for a little while) The Spectral Speartip is the trinket that I've been saving crystal shards for - and then I misremembered and thought that it would cost 75, not 65. But now we got it and it's bloody amazing. Great bonuses for the cost of a bit of reliablity - and then again, her action will rarely go to waste even if she targets the wrong enemy, since Pierce does the same damage to anything. Hey, do you know what's even better than a Shieldbreaker? TWO SHIELDBREAKERS! Pramanix goes into the dungeon with two Spd-reducing trinkets to cement the turnorder between her and Morphew, so the two of them should be able to dance with great consistency. Especially as long as Fang stays in the Bloodlust phase of her Crimson Curse: Initiative rolls add an 8-sided die to every combattant's Spd, so Morphew is guaranteed to act before Pramanix. I'm not memeing here, by the way - this is considered to be a very solid team to tackle the Endless Harvest. Vestal and Jester are vital for HP and stress healing, and the Shieldbreaker deals consistent damage against any enemy type thanks to her Pierce skill. So what do we do with that set-up: We spam [Impale]! It's not quite as good in this initial fight, since it's only three enemies with the Plow Horse taking two ranks... ...and we haven't quite built up the Acc boost from the Jester's Battle Ballad yet. (Sleeper's Herald, the crystal thingie in the center, has a permanent Riposte) The Plow Horse uses [Trample] on turn 2 which, despite only hitting Spectre... ...fully shuffles the party. To get into the right formation faster, Pramanix moves forward two ranks (SB can't move three), but Courcy still has to use [Dirk Stab] twice. Not without success, but I'd rather see the Battle Ballad bonuses stack up already. We half of an empty turn with no enemies present, so Pramanix uses that to move forward two ranks again... A singular strike! ...which then allows Fang to push back Courcy back to 3rd rank with a [Pierce]. Order has been restored. This next Plow Horse decides to be annoying too, scoring a Crit and a Stun on Pramanix with this [Rearing Strike]. That means that Fang can't be shuffled back to the front before her next turn. In order to keep Pramanix in the front for HER next turn, Fang uses [Captivate], the one SB skill that doesn't move her back or forward. The attack itself is so-so: -25% Dmg, but a 5-point Blight. Strictly weaker than her Adder's Kiss (same Blight, but full damage), but more flexible and able to hit the 3rd rank. Speaking of: [Adder's Kiss]. Like Impale, this can only be used in 1st rank and moves the Shieldbreaker back a rank. Basically, I can swap between the two skills without interrupting the dance - Impale when there's three or four enemies on the field, Adder's Kiss otherwise (or if there's a specific enemy that I want to kill quickly). And now the Battle Ballad spam shall begin!! (seriously, this is what he will do 95% of the time) Another advantage of the [Impale] spam: the Crystal Abberations spawning from corpses (and exploding if you don't destroy them within one turn) are dealt with very easily, too. And another advantage of the Battle Ballad spam: Everybody is at +12 or +16 Spd permanently (varying depending on the turn order, I think), so once this is set up, it doesn't matter anymore that Pramanix had to slow herself down to make the dance more consistent. (see stats on bottom left) Aaaand first wave done! In the "break room", we find a Fresh Harvest, healing Pramanix for a whole TWO HP! Wow! (this would've healed up to 44 HP, or 90% of her max HP, by the way) Next wave consists of the standard Farmstead enemies, as well. Note the blue arrows on our heroes: The Battle Ballad bonuses carry over between fights. The Jester is very, very good here. That's a lot of numbers. (The Foreman will always give Riposte to one Farmhand, so the surviving one is countering Fang here, but since she's also killing a Crystal Abberation, she's still regaining HP in total) Second wave of the second battle, with a cloaked Scarecrow in the front. But guess what strategy doesn't care about stealth? GG Better luck next time. They will, and quickly. Not much to say about the last group of this segment. They don't even get a single turn between them. Next break room gives us a party heal - up to 65% of everyone's max HP, or zero in this particular case. Things are going really well so far. Next segment, new lighting effect: More stress, which is bad; more Blight, which is helpful for our double SB Impale spam (it's only a 2-point blight, but those add up); Dodgier enemies, which shouldn't matter with Battle Ballad in full effect. Pramanix: "We were just on that cursed farm... How did we get here??" The bandits don't get to do a whole lot - this dodge saves everyone a bit of stress, though. This one's a bit more interesting - the Maggots fall to Impale very quickly, but the Ghoul obviously is a lot sturdier. Which means that [Adder's Kiss] has a lot of value here. Courcy takes a little break from singing... ...to make sure that the Ghoul goes down one turn earlier. Next group: A Crone in the back (offscreen here) and some of those Fungi folks. They're kinda resistant to both Blight and direct damage, so they take a bit longer to take down, but they're not too big of a threat offensively. And with that, we've basically come as far as we did on our first attempt. Last time, Mildred gave us her Locket (which I absolutely should've equipped on Fang, by the way. It gives bonuses against the Miller - doubling as a spoiler that we might meet him again - and +3 Spd. Way better than the Dancer's Footwraps). This time, she just adds another 15 shards to the 20 we got as a reward for getting this far. Next segment, back to the ol' Farmstead classics. (Fang's bark here actally heals some of her stress) More classics. More classics. So yeah, nothing to report about that segment. At the end of it, however, there's a now curio: I'm like 99% certain that we can't get any ambushes in the Farmstead (including the nightmares), since it just doesn't make any sense in the way this mission is structured, so I spend all my Respite points on various combat boosts, both offensive and defensive. On we go, now into Gleaming! lights. "+5% CRT" is not something you like to read about your enemies. We lose two bonuses: For one, Fang calms from her Bloodlust, which leaves her with some debuffs and +1 Spd. Now she's six points ahead of Pramanix, which means that there's a slight chance (between 1/64 and 3/64, depending on how Spd ties are handled, I believe) that the turn order doesn't work out as planned. She can't get right back into Bloodlust, either: drinking The Blood would only give her +7 Dodge and +3 Spd for three turns, which is too short to be worthwhile. On the plus side, four maggots is a very safe mob to re-apply Battle Ballad. A bit short a battle to get the full stack, sure, but we get another fairly harmless mob to keep pressing the Jester button. The third group is starting to become more dangerous, especially with the two stress dealers in the middle. Specter prevents the Madman from doing anything sinister, and the Courtier dies to two Impales and the added Blight damage, though. Death waits for the slightest lapse in concentration... "+5% Crit"... Still, we get through it easily enough, and the curio in the next break room heals Courcy up to full. Next fight: Boss fight! The Miller, as foretold by Mildred's locket, is back for round 2. However, so is Fang. And Pramanix. Just like the first fight, the Miller starts by summoning a Farmhand... ...and then freezing it with [Winter's Breath]. As long as the Frozen Farmhand is on the map, I can't use guard skills (whatever, this team doesn't have any to begin with). More importantly, it automatically guards the Miller. Neither Fang nor Pramanix have their guardbreak skill equipped (they both run Pierce/Impale/Adder's Kiss/Captivate)... ...but at least I can use [Impale] to get a little bit of damage on the Miller instead of overkilling the Frozen Farmstead - as is, it dies to the next DOT tick. [The Master Beckons] again, this time summoning a Scarecrow to the field. He also starts [The Reaping] - really should've thought of Mildred's Locket before going into the mission. The Scarecrow misses a [Haunting Revelation] here, which would've cause minor damage and some stress via Horror status effect. I completely ignore it in return... ...since two more Adder's Kisses get the Miller really close to dying already. This one confused me for a minute while typing this, because [Shard of Growth] is a skill that the Scarecrow didn't know in the first two missions and you have to click a button on the wiki to display it. It gives the entire enemy team a 5-point Restore effect... ...which then gives the Miller another turn to Reap. And of course he gets a crit on Courcy while doing so... ...and the Miller goes down fairly soon after that. Still a pretty good fight, looking at those HP and stress bars. We get some more comet shards as reward, as well as a situational trinket (not useless though - we've used the anti-human equivalent in the 2nd Hag fight). The Corrupted Harvest is a very nice curio to get... ...because it provides Peace through Violence, Temperance through Gluttony, and Humility through Pride. Oh, and it reduces everybody's stress by 60, which is enough for everyone to go to zero in this case. The light goes back to Gleaming! for the next segment, but that bandit fight doesn't amount to anything significant. Same with those fishies, honestly. The big Uca Savage's main source of damage is a Bleed effect, and I'm still well stocked up on bandages to quickly cure those. I use Impale until the little fishes are gone, and then switch to [Pierce] to kill the Uca Savage quickly. And another one. (the bleed on the injured one comes from Courcy, who made sure it wouldn't get another turn) And another one. That's the last enemy of the segment, though. Standard Farmstead again... ...and another Gleaming section. This time with enemies from the Warrens. The Swinetaurs tend to survive a bit longer than I'd love here, since they resist both Blight and direct damage, so they don't take a lot of damage from Impale. And the game throws quite a few of them at me. Most of the time, I manage to have only one of them on the field, so they can't use their Trot Retreat --> Stongest Attacks cycle, but a double Crit [Crunching Backhand] still hurts. "50 chance to hit two adventurers", the wiki says. "Hold my beer", the RNG answers. And when when the crits keep coming... ...well, this happens. Oof! More OOOF! Barely above 0 HP, but still... The two Swinetaurs are actually dancing the same way Fang and Pramanix are, using 1st-rank attacks that push them to the back when they use them. And now I'm imagining those two Swinetaurs doing a Viennese Waltz. Specter gets her turn after that, so luckily, no death saving throws have to be rolled. And with one of the Swinetaurs gone, the immediate danger is gone for now, too, since they can't cause any DOTs and their Crunching Backhand (which carries a low-% Stun) can't reach our healer. ...what do you mean, another enemy?! Luckily, nothing comes of it, except that the Sleeper's Dream ending this segment is being a kill-stealing bastard. Getting another camp is not quite as good, since I don't have a lot of HP-restoring camp skills equipped. Pramanix eats the remainin two rations to get at least a bit of additional healing, but her HP is still very low... ...which of course is the perfect condition to be in for immediately running into the second boss of the Endless Harvest! It's a giant rock! A rock! And it's giant! The Fracture opens the fight using [Seeds of Despair]... ...which summons three small Focus Points. By the way: I never did much Farmstead stuff in my first playthrough, so I didn't have any idea what to expect from this boss fight or what these "Focus Points" are supposed to do. But removing them seems like a good idea nevertheless. Morphew started the fight in 2nd rank because I forgot to reset the positions after the last one, so she uses [Captivate] here. She also picked a very good time to crave for The Blood again, so she spends this entire fight in Bloodlust. The Fracture itself has three actions per turn, using the first one to cast [Befouling Tint]... ...which turns one of the Focus Points into an Unfinished Aberration. You might be able to guess in what direction this is going... (I'm looking things up as I'm typing this, so I can safely pretend that past ping was figuring everything out immediately!!) Pramanix: "As predictable as the sunrise!" I can't be sure what the correct ratio of targeting the boss and the growing Abberations is, of course. I'm starting with [Impale] as my go-to skill. With its other two actions, the Fracture uses Vile Focusing to summon a new Focus Point and then grows it into an Unfinished Abberation, as well. It seems difficult to keep up with this, so I expect that we'll see what a Finished Abberation does. Also: Note that the two Abberations have different colours from each other. Hmmmmmm..... Two more [Impales] get rid of two of the Aberrations, but the black Unfished one survives. The Fracture grows another Focus Point and grows another blue Unfished Abberration. Specter would've been able to kill the black one, but I figure that healing Pramanix might be the better move here. And I figured wrong. Go figure. At least I think so, because as I am learning right there, the transformations restore HP. If I read my screenshots right, the Fracture used Vile Focussing between turns here. Also, I can't help but notice the similarities. Fang gets a really nice [Impale] in... ...and with a little help from Specter and Courcy, only Jack and Averell survive. Averell doesn't seem to be too happy though, so he uses [Slow the Sands] instead of growing another brother. This attack carries a Stun and a -2 Spd debuff, but everyone resists both of those this time. Jack's even more mad about things, so he explodes in an [Eternal Blossom], causing Horror (3 points, 6 turns) and a short, but hefty debuff (-75% healing received) on everyone. The game of growing and stomping Abberations continues - a bit later, we have a green one finish. But before it can show whether or not it has a different effect than the black Abberation... ...the Fracture has a rather strong reaction to Pramanix' Impale. [Blooming Chaos] removes the three Abberations... ...and brings the boss into its second form: The Sleeper. This happens as a immediate reaction once the Fracture goes below 20% HP. This seems low enough that it would be possible to get it to 0 HP before the transformation, but I'm going to assume that you'll still have to fight the Sleeper - at least I can't find any clues on the internet that it is skippable. Unlike the Fracture, the Sleeper doesn't summon any minions, so Adder's Kiss is the spam of the day here. The Sleeper only has 30% Prot, so even though it only has one action per turn (so the Blight doesn't tick as quickly), this should be stronger than Pierce. Of course, it only having one action should be an indication... [The Sleeper Awakens] ...that this one action frigging HURTS. And a Blight on top of that because why the hell not. At least it's not very likely to go through - its base chance of 100% is pretty low at this point. Next turn, same strategy - Specter heals, Courcy pushes the Jester button, the Shieldbreakers use Adder's Kiss. The Sleeper is approaching half health, so that's going fairly well. [The Sleeper Stirs] OWWWWWWWW! Good luck out-healing that! This attack has way higher base damage than the waking Sleeper, but at least its crit rate is lower an it "only" deals a bunch of stress instead of a DOT. And the third turn's [The Sleeper Awakens]... ...brings both Specter and Fang to Death's Door. Bloody hell. ...At least it's a great example why the Vestal is the best healer? No other class can reliably heal more than one character away from Death's Door. And the Sleeper doesn't even get a fourth turn, so nobody has to die. Still, that's one scary boss... ...actually, I should retract that. The Sleeper is STRONG, but not necessarily SCARY. I don't think I've mentioned this, but heroes can't die in the Endless Harvest - if they fail a death saving throw, you're down to three characters for the run, of course, but they will reappear a week or two after you return to the hamlet. Total Party Kill is still bad though, since you lose the entire haul. Or so the wiki claims - as I said, I didn't really do much Farmstead stuff previously. See? It's all new territory for me. The Guardian Shield is... interesting. The bonuses are amazing for sure, but Lawrence loses a lot when standing in the back: No Riposte, no Stun, no standard attack. Maybe you could start in 3rd rank, activate Riposte, and have another character shuffle the MaA to the back? Wouldn't be sustainable for a long fight, because there's not really a class that can move between 3rd and 4th rank at their leisure, but it might be worth a shot. Memories are needed to rebuild one specific district in the Hamlet: The Mill, with an honestly really nice effect. We'd have to grind the Farmstead for it though - the Thing From The Star will sometimes drop those, too, but we've seen how reliable it is to even find the Thing to begin with. We also get a party heal - this one's a good one for sure - and hopefully enough to get us through another segment or two. Stress is still a big issue, of course - Pramanix in particular is closer to an Affliction than I'm comfortable with. This means that Courcy has to press the OTHER Jester button for now - [Inspiring Tune], which heals 14 stress and reduces stress taken by 20%. The second fight of the segment gives us a new enemy: The Bone Bearer, which could've spawned during our Champion mission into the Ruins, but didn't. Its sheer presence increases everybody elses damage by 25%. Which isn't even the only reason why you should ALWAYS focus it down first - but since I did, I can't show you the other reason yet. [Impale] Hey, no fair! That's MY move to spam! Otherwise, the segment goes really well so far - no Battle Ballad bonuses stacked up for the next part, but stress levels have gone down a bit. The treasure from this curio is underwhelming, to say the least. We have three Antiquarian trinkets that utterly outclass this one. 420 eyyyyyyyy We get more Warrens enemies here, including the Swinetaurs that gave us so much trouble last time they popped up. It goes better this time, though. (also, [Crunching Backhand], after 48518 double hits in a row, FINALLY only targets one hero here) Less good: a Swine Skiver, which is always pretty terrifying. Still, we manage to deal with it and reach 100 kills! WOOOOO! Oh, another one. Wooooo. wooooo Again, two heroes at Death's Door, both Blighted, one of them our healer. Not Good. Not helping. Luckily, Specter succeeds her saving throw, so we're safe for a little while... ...and the second Skiver is quickly done away with afterwards. The Ghol is being a troll though - surviving with 3 HP and punching Courcy right back to Death's Door. And now the true test...hold fast, or expire? Courcy doesn't like it. Refracted is specific to the Farmstead - or rather, only heroes who have visited it can roll this one. It's an interesting one, in that it gives some actually valuable bonuses, but it's still a penalty - +20% stress when you're already very stressed, which also means that stress dealer will prioritize you, is a quick way to 200 stress and a heart attack. (third achievement! Yay!) But that'll be it. There's not even a curio here (I was hoping for some stress reduction, maybe I'd have risked another segment then), and I'm doubtful that I would be able to get much further at this point. The reward for getting this far is honestly pretty legit - 24k and 24 heirlooms would be decent for a regular expedition and 76 comet shards might be enough to get the next crystalline trinket right away - I'll have to have a look. That's a lot of quirks. Risktaker on a SB might actually be a good deal, given that she relies on direct damage. Ashen will have to go, rest isn't too impactful, I think. Did I register last time that Endless Harvest doesn't seem to advance time for a week? Benice and Frostleaf are still working on their issues, with Pramanix and Courcy joining the latter in the Medical Ward. I'll probably have someone else keep Benice company, but that'll have to wait till next time - I think this mission should have been enough for one update. I'll see you next time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golb89 Posted August 8, 2020 Share Posted August 8, 2020 Sorry, but i currently got no time to follow this LP and most likely won't until the end of August. That said, if you get a Musketeer she'll be named M14 Ambriel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benice Posted August 8, 2020 Share Posted August 8, 2020 Luckily for you, I'm back, at long last! Sorry about the long delay. I now relate to Benice the abomination at a spiritual level, because I went on a backpacking trip, (hence why I was unable to comment on this LP, and I never did get enough wifi to load images, so apologies for that...) and had over 65 mosquito bites. On one leg. I didn't bother counting for the rest of my limbs, but they had bites aplenty too. Spoiler Anyways: On 7/26/2020 at 10:31 AM, ping said: My licentious impulse gave way to a genuine, professional respect, and together, we began to plant harvest and brew. I'm genuinely impressed that the Ancester still hasn't murdered anyone in this story yet. *googles "licentious meaning"* Ah, I see. Does this make the hag your other ancestor? On 7/26/2020 at 10:31 AM, ping said: Kroos slowly takes damage while being cooked (surprise, surprise) - 4 HP every time anybody takes a turn, so 20 Dmg per turn (the hag has two actions). She's under pressure (cooker) On 7/26/2020 at 10:31 AM, ping said: Grrreat. Grrrrreat. My backpacking trip in a nutshell. On 7/26/2020 at 10:31 AM, ping said: [Rake] Why are you making me rake so much? It's not even fall yet! I don't have any leaves to rake! On 7/26/2020 at 10:31 AM, ping said: Benice will have to wear a straitjacked for a week before going on an adventure again Ouch. On 7/27/2020 at 2:46 PM, ping said: My childhood! On 7/27/2020 at 2:46 PM, ping said: Farmstead.png On 7/27/2020 at 2:46 PM, ping said: Also, I can't help but notice the similarities. MY CHILDHOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDD! DON'T KILL AVAREL! On 7/27/2020 at 2:46 PM, ping said: RIP Joe, William and... I can't remember the last one. On 7/27/2020 at 2:46 PM, ping said: Avarell is eternal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.