Let's Play Monster Quest: Part 21b
More skirmish grinding. Bit of a short update this time.
Another place we haven't visited in Eirika's story.
The people I brought in to get some experience. Will Ewan finally be worth the trouble? Will I get anyone else promoted?
Hooray! Something Ewan can actually damage and thus get real experience out of!
Then Franz murders it. You can just barely see the red starburst effect of a critical -Franz got a completely pointless crit on the second swing. Oh well.
Myrrh goes north and gets a lucky (And vaguely ironic?) crit, instantly killing this Killer Bow Bonewalker. I'd intended to feed the kill to Knoll, but this works.
Gilliam trades blows with an Axereaver Bonewalker. That 1% crit doesn't happen or anything, not that it would be much of a concern anyway.
Tethys uses her Torch Staff -the thing has literally like 50 uses, why not- and reveals... this guy. Eh.
L'Arachel annihilates this Bonewalker in my drive to get her S in Light Tomes. (Which is a bit silly of me, arguably, since she'd probably hit S in the next proper chapter before I get the S Light Tome, but oh well)
Colm walks up and reveals... ugh. An enemy Revenant. Oh, and some other stuff. Whatever.
Artur gets another rank in Dark! (C) He may yet wield the dread powers of Gleipnir for himself! Oh and he actually got a crit on the second hit I failed to screenshot.
Enemy turn, and first the Axereaver Bonewalker runs up to Myrrh and... uh. Myrrh, stop being crittable by everything! Not that it happens this time, but between her low HP and her horrible Luck, using Myrrh is risky. I should probably check if I have any unused Goddess Icons lying about, now that I think about it...
One Bonewalker runs up to Colm, he yawns at them, and with a hearty chuckle he promptly assassinates them.
Colm is kind of terrifying at this point.
I miss the shot, but the other Bonewalker takes a ranged shot at Colm. Colm is unimpressed.
I normally keep my promotion items on whoever I intend to use them, even if they're many levels away from promoting. I should really stop doing that in Monster Quest.
Fortunately...
... Colm is more than fast enough to take it back, and even gets a sweet level out of doing so!
Knoll softens up the Revenant.
Myrrh finishes it off, because I'm hoping for Thief bonus experience!
Why did I take this screenshot? To remind myself that this particular kill proved Revenants don't give Thief bonus experience in Monster Quest. She got like 3 experience. The Thief experience bonus provides a minimum of 20. Dangit. So there's not even any real upside to facing zombie thieves in my skirmish grinding.
Tethys revealing more stuff. None of these enemies are very interesting.
Franz softens up the westmost Bonewalker so Artur can snag another kill for Dark Magic Experience.
Gilliam finishes off the Axereaver Bonewalker for kill experience.
L'Arachel vaporizes this Bael, gaining a pretty decent level and hitting S in Light magic.
Enemy turn! The Short Spear Bonewalker lobs at Myrrh, but she's still not been critted so it's all good.
The Bow-wielding Bonewalker in the southeast takes a shot at Franz and only doesn't die in response due to blind luck.
Then it's my turn again, and Gilliam takes a strike at the Short Spear Bonewalker. Even dodges the retaliation.
Which sets up for Ewan to actually land a kill! It's a miracle!
... now if only the level was better. It could certainly be worse, but he really needs Magic a lot more than Speed right now. There's so many enemies he literally cannot scratch in these skirmishes! And he's mostly 1-3 points away from being able to actually hurt them, so this is agonizing.
I mean, I suppose I could give him a better Tome...
Myrrh softening up this Gargoyle so Knoll can finish it.
Colm revealing some enemies. Couple of Bonewalkers. No big deal.
Tethys healing Myrrh, because ouch.
Franz vaporizing the Bonewalker. Maybe I'll actually promote him someday.
Then I have Artur wait here and that's the end of my turn. The idea is hoping the Gargoyle attacks him instead of Franz...
Franz dodges the Bonewalker, doubles it, crit-kills it on the second hit. Eh.
... and the Gargoyle goes for Franz like I was hoping it wouldn't but figured it would. Dang.
Artur finishes it off on my turn. In retrospect I think I should've had Franz use a Javelin to kill it. Dang.
Instead Franz runs north and Tethys heals him.
And that's basically my entire turn.
First Bonewalker throwing itself at Myrrh. This one lives.
The second one can't even hurt her (even though it could crit her) and promptly gets crit-killed. Also that shot of Myrrh prepping for fire breath is pretty rad.
Ewan doing some chipping damage for experience.
Moving Colm up- uh. Oops.
This kind of thing is why I hate Fog of War in Fire Emblem. Admittedly, I could've moved Colm less aggressively... but basically the game is making me choose between getting the mission done in a timely manner while having fun while taking blind risks or playing stupidly slow and boring and tediously while still having blind risks involved, just slightly less bad of ones. And usually fog missions are timed and so on, which is part of why I'm in the habit of being stupidly aggressive in them, because the games trains you to be so.
Knoll finishing off the Bonewalker and getting a nice level. He really needs more Luck, but otherwise he's looking pretty darn good.
Artur obliterating this Mogall that can't even hurt him.
And Tethys using a Physic to heal Myrrh. I've got infinite Hammerne, I can be as wasteful as I want.
Missed the shot of it approaching, but the boss Bael comes for Colm, misses, gets doubled.
Then one of the non-boss Baels hits him, poisons him, and gets vaporized by a (regular) crit.
Followed by the other regular Bael hitting him and being assassinated instantly. Colm is a terror now, seriously.
The Gargoyle goes for Myrrh.
The Mogall goes for Ewan... and to my surprise, it can't double him! He would've survived regardless, but that's still a pleasant surprise.
Now if only he could get meaningful experience for hitting it.
My turn again, and I start by having Franz finish off the Gargoyle from a distance.
Knoll goes to make a hit on the Mogall, just barely unable to double it, but hey, he dodges its retaliation. That's cool. Also note how Colm has run away from the boss Bael. I'm hoping to feed the boss experience bonus to someone else.
Tethys healing Ewan.
Boss Bael goes to Franz, who gets a pretty sweet level out of chipping it down. Nice that he dodged, too.
The Mogall goes for Ewan again, and I don't bother to screenshot the actual combat.
Down south, I apparently forgot to take a screenshot of Gilliam going to set down in the woods to bait out this Entombed and oh my god it can double him and crit him.
Those are actually two different screenshots, even though they don't look it.
Yeah, I completely forgot about Entombed getting +15 to crit. It's been months since I last touched the game. This could easily have been a restart, instead of Gilliam double-dodging just fine.
Gilliam runs away and the Hoplon Guard gets passed to Gilliam.
Because I'm a moron, though it all works out.
Franz takes out the boss Bael. Huzzah! Experience!
(I'd wanted Ewan to chip it for some experience, but it had 2 more Resist than he does damage with the Fire Tome)
Knoll and Myrrh take out the Mogall, while also approaching down to help fight the Entombed in a minute.
Tethys dances to get Knoll closer, and I end turn looking like this.
Aaaand the Entombed promptly steals the Hoplon Guard.
I thought for a second this might be a restart. Buuut-
-Colm to the rescue!
Whew.
It's about this moment it occurs to me that I really ought to have the Hoplon Guard on Myrrh, as she's by far my most consistently crit-vulnerable character, and it's her primary flaw. That gets done post-mission.
Meanwhile, Ewan can actually hurt this Entombed!
But he doesn't.
Blocking in the Entombed with L'arachel, because it turns out she's faster than it and her insane Luck means it can't crit her. Now it can't circle around Colm, and I'm free to have ranged attacks land hits from safety.
Knoll gets a hit in for some experience.
Myrrh gets Danced...
... letting her actually land a strike on the Entombed! It's a solid level-up, including 2 HP... but no Luck. That's okay. With the Hoplon Guard it won't be a big deal. It's just frustrating because I'm mostly-certain she won't be able to go above level 20, and so cannot possibly cap Luck even with perfect luck, already. She'll be fine though. Kinda.
... actually it occurs to me that, contrary to Sacred Stones, she'll probably be basically worthless in the post-game, bar grinding up stat-boosters. Huh.
Then it's the Entombed's turn, and it goes for Colm, who promptly murders it. Dang. The level is okay, at least. Speed is vital for him, and with how much Monster Quest loves its critty enemies, Luck is always good.
Which ends this map, because that Entombed was the last enemy.
Not as much progress as I was hoping, but got some important levels and all.
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Next time we... do more grinding. I know. I'm as excited as you are.
Another place we haven't visited in Eirika's story.
The people I brought in to get some experience. Will Ewan finally be worth the trouble? Will I get anyone else promoted?
Hooray! Something Ewan can actually damage and thus get real experience out of!
Then Franz murders it. You can just barely see the red starburst effect of a critical -Franz got a completely pointless crit on the second swing. Oh well.
Myrrh goes north and gets a lucky (And vaguely ironic?) crit, instantly killing this Killer Bow Bonewalker. I'd intended to feed the kill to Knoll, but this works.
Gilliam trades blows with an Axereaver Bonewalker. That 1% crit doesn't happen or anything, not that it would be much of a concern anyway.
Tethys uses her Torch Staff -the thing has literally like 50 uses, why not- and reveals... this guy. Eh.
L'Arachel annihilates this Bonewalker in my drive to get her S in Light Tomes. (Which is a bit silly of me, arguably, since she'd probably hit S in the next proper chapter before I get the S Light Tome, but oh well)
Colm walks up and reveals... ugh. An enemy Revenant. Oh, and some other stuff. Whatever.
Artur gets another rank in Dark! (C) He may yet wield the dread powers of Gleipnir for himself! Oh and he actually got a crit on the second hit I failed to screenshot.
Enemy turn, and first the Axereaver Bonewalker runs up to Myrrh and... uh. Myrrh, stop being crittable by everything! Not that it happens this time, but between her low HP and her horrible Luck, using Myrrh is risky. I should probably check if I have any unused Goddess Icons lying about, now that I think about it...
One Bonewalker runs up to Colm, he yawns at them, and with a hearty chuckle he promptly assassinates them.
Colm is kind of terrifying at this point.
I miss the shot, but the other Bonewalker takes a ranged shot at Colm. Colm is unimpressed.
I normally keep my promotion items on whoever I intend to use them, even if they're many levels away from promoting. I should really stop doing that in Monster Quest.
Fortunately...
... Colm is more than fast enough to take it back, and even gets a sweet level out of doing so!
Knoll softens up the Revenant.
Myrrh finishes it off, because I'm hoping for Thief bonus experience!
Why did I take this screenshot? To remind myself that this particular kill proved Revenants don't give Thief bonus experience in Monster Quest. She got like 3 experience. The Thief experience bonus provides a minimum of 20. Dangit. So there's not even any real upside to facing zombie thieves in my skirmish grinding.
Tethys revealing more stuff. None of these enemies are very interesting.
Franz softens up the westmost Bonewalker so Artur can snag another kill for Dark Magic Experience.
Gilliam finishes off the Axereaver Bonewalker for kill experience.
L'Arachel vaporizes this Bael, gaining a pretty decent level and hitting S in Light magic.
Enemy turn! The Short Spear Bonewalker lobs at Myrrh, but she's still not been critted so it's all good.
The Bow-wielding Bonewalker in the southeast takes a shot at Franz and only doesn't die in response due to blind luck.
Then it's my turn again, and Gilliam takes a strike at the Short Spear Bonewalker. Even dodges the retaliation.
Which sets up for Ewan to actually land a kill! It's a miracle!
... now if only the level was better. It could certainly be worse, but he really needs Magic a lot more than Speed right now. There's so many enemies he literally cannot scratch in these skirmishes! And he's mostly 1-3 points away from being able to actually hurt them, so this is agonizing.
I mean, I suppose I could give him a better Tome...
Myrrh softening up this Gargoyle so Knoll can finish it.
Colm revealing some enemies. Couple of Bonewalkers. No big deal.
Tethys healing Myrrh, because ouch.
Franz vaporizing the Bonewalker. Maybe I'll actually promote him someday.
Then I have Artur wait here and that's the end of my turn. The idea is hoping the Gargoyle attacks him instead of Franz...
Franz dodges the Bonewalker, doubles it, crit-kills it on the second hit. Eh.
... and the Gargoyle goes for Franz like I was hoping it wouldn't but figured it would. Dang.
Artur finishes it off on my turn. In retrospect I think I should've had Franz use a Javelin to kill it. Dang.
Instead Franz runs north and Tethys heals him.
And that's basically my entire turn.
First Bonewalker throwing itself at Myrrh. This one lives.
The second one can't even hurt her (even though it could crit her) and promptly gets crit-killed. Also that shot of Myrrh prepping for fire breath is pretty rad.
Ewan doing some chipping damage for experience.
Moving Colm up- uh. Oops.
This kind of thing is why I hate Fog of War in Fire Emblem. Admittedly, I could've moved Colm less aggressively... but basically the game is making me choose between getting the mission done in a timely manner while having fun while taking blind risks or playing stupidly slow and boring and tediously while still having blind risks involved, just slightly less bad of ones. And usually fog missions are timed and so on, which is part of why I'm in the habit of being stupidly aggressive in them, because the games trains you to be so.
Knoll finishing off the Bonewalker and getting a nice level. He really needs more Luck, but otherwise he's looking pretty darn good.
Artur obliterating this Mogall that can't even hurt him.
And Tethys using a Physic to heal Myrrh. I've got infinite Hammerne, I can be as wasteful as I want.
Missed the shot of it approaching, but the boss Bael comes for Colm, misses, gets doubled.
Then one of the non-boss Baels hits him, poisons him, and gets vaporized by a (regular) crit.
Followed by the other regular Bael hitting him and being assassinated instantly. Colm is a terror now, seriously.
The Gargoyle goes for Myrrh.
The Mogall goes for Ewan... and to my surprise, it can't double him! He would've survived regardless, but that's still a pleasant surprise.
Now if only he could get meaningful experience for hitting it.
My turn again, and I start by having Franz finish off the Gargoyle from a distance.
Knoll goes to make a hit on the Mogall, just barely unable to double it, but hey, he dodges its retaliation. That's cool. Also note how Colm has run away from the boss Bael. I'm hoping to feed the boss experience bonus to someone else.
Tethys healing Ewan.
Boss Bael goes to Franz, who gets a pretty sweet level out of chipping it down. Nice that he dodged, too.
The Mogall goes for Ewan again, and I don't bother to screenshot the actual combat.
Down south, I apparently forgot to take a screenshot of Gilliam going to set down in the woods to bait out this Entombed and oh my god it can double him and crit him.
Those are actually two different screenshots, even though they don't look it.
Yeah, I completely forgot about Entombed getting +15 to crit. It's been months since I last touched the game. This could easily have been a restart, instead of Gilliam double-dodging just fine.
Gilliam runs away and the Hoplon Guard gets passed to Gilliam.
Because I'm a moron, though it all works out.
Franz takes out the boss Bael. Huzzah! Experience!
(I'd wanted Ewan to chip it for some experience, but it had 2 more Resist than he does damage with the Fire Tome)
Knoll and Myrrh take out the Mogall, while also approaching down to help fight the Entombed in a minute.
Tethys dances to get Knoll closer, and I end turn looking like this.
Aaaand the Entombed promptly steals the Hoplon Guard.
I thought for a second this might be a restart. Buuut-
-Colm to the rescue!
Whew.
It's about this moment it occurs to me that I really ought to have the Hoplon Guard on Myrrh, as she's by far my most consistently crit-vulnerable character, and it's her primary flaw. That gets done post-mission.
Meanwhile, Ewan can actually hurt this Entombed!
But he doesn't.
Blocking in the Entombed with L'arachel, because it turns out she's faster than it and her insane Luck means it can't crit her. Now it can't circle around Colm, and I'm free to have ranged attacks land hits from safety.
Knoll gets a hit in for some experience.
Myrrh gets Danced...
... letting her actually land a strike on the Entombed! It's a solid level-up, including 2 HP... but no Luck. That's okay. With the Hoplon Guard it won't be a big deal. It's just frustrating because I'm mostly-certain she won't be able to go above level 20, and so cannot possibly cap Luck even with perfect luck, already. She'll be fine though. Kinda.
... actually it occurs to me that, contrary to Sacred Stones, she'll probably be basically worthless in the post-game, bar grinding up stat-boosters. Huh.
Then it's the Entombed's turn, and it goes for Colm, who promptly murders it. Dang. The level is okay, at least. Speed is vital for him, and with how much Monster Quest loves its critty enemies, Luck is always good.
Which ends this map, because that Entombed was the last enemy.
Not as much progress as I was hoping, but got some important levels and all.
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Next time we... do more grinding. I know. I'm as excited as you are.
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