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Update 4: Hooray For Fetch Quests



We last left off in the Lamb Chop, after getting some important information about Veemon's whereabouts. We could run off to Wind Prairie right away, but Asuka City still holds some secrets for us.






The El Dorado, once blocked off by this pink-shirted punk, is now open for us! One may be asking, why now? Did we do something special?

The answer: Not really. Entrance to the El Dorado is governed by your Digimon's Charisma stat. Your Digimon gain Charisma as they level up, and Charisma can also be added through weapons and armour. This stat secretly governs just about everything, including access to the best weapons in the game. Entrance to the El Dorado requires a total of 210 Charisma among your Digimon, so it's not too hard to get in. The problem lies in knowing how to get in in the first place.

"This is a secret club where the item freaks gather."



Ponchomon, after giving you the El Dorado ID, offers to tell you some neat item information: Weapons can have different effects, such as dealing different types of element damage, but these effects only work when you're not using techniques.

Two-handed weapons are more powerful than equipping one-handed weapon, but are also more expensive. The most powerful weapons are specific to certain Digimon. There are also pieces of armour that function as weapons, such as shields that can attack.

Digimon can equip up to two accessories, but there are some accessories that you can only equip one of. There are items called Chips which can permanently boost your Digimon's stats.

Anyway boring nerd stuff over



"Only club members that are tight can enter!"
"We're tight, so you can go in!"



Now we can come and go freely. There's nothing to see here for the moment, but we will be coming back here frequently as the game progresses.

Now that our Charisma is over 60, we can go back to the Yellow Cruiser and challenge the other players.



Two of them drop 01a Boosters, and two of them drop 02a Boosters. We pick up a few of each before heading to the Armory.




The Bamboo Spear is needed because of Reasons. Now that we've got it, we won't have to worry about coming back to Asuka City for a good while. We can now head down the south path out of Central Park.





Shell Beach doesn't have much to do in it, but it is the background of the title picture. After a fashion.



"How about it?"
"If you want to fish you need a pole, string, and a hook."
"Then I'll make you a fishing pole."

Yesss I love terribly vague hints as to what you're supposed to do. That Bamboo Spear we bought earlier will serve as the pole, though that can be hard to figure out without looking it up.

Incidentally, Shell Beach is a neat-looking place.




Here we can find Gizamon, our first Water-element opponent.




Gizamon (from the onomatopoeia for "serrated", gizagiza) uses Water-element attacks, which won't pose a problem to anything but Growlmon, and even then it's nothing much.
pre:
HP: ~185
Techniques: N/A
Physical attack: Water-element
EXP: 19
BIT: 40
Item: N/A

On our way out we run into Natsumi again, and now we have the Charisma needed to battle her! The total Charisma needed has to be within the range of 60-209, otherwise you'll be rejected as we were in the beginning.


"I'm really good!"



She faces us with a Betamon, a Vegiemon, and a new Digimon we haven't seen before:




Kiwimon (from the kiwi) is a fairly strong Digimon to be facing at this point in the game, but not enough to make us worry much. It attacks by shooting Chibi-Kiwimon from its mouth.
pre:
HP: ~160
Techniques: N/A
Physical attack: no element
EXP: 15
BIT: 35
Item: N/A

As in all Tamer Battles, this Digimon clocks in stronger than its stats would be in the wild, with around 250 HP and the increased stats to match. Since it can be moderately difficult to take down, I used this battle to show off our shiny new DNA Digivolution!

Grizzmon/Growlmon DNA Digivolution

They DNA Digivolve together into BladeGarurumon, also known as KendoGarurumon or Garmmon. (Personally I prefer Garmmon, because who wouldn't like a Digimon named after the guardian of Hel?)


(unfortunately there aren't any Bandai-styled pictures of it. whoops!)

We net 63 EXP and 145 BIT from this fight, though the amount of experience you get seems to vary. Some sources say 65, some say 78, I don't know but we got 63 so I'm sticking to it.

Back into Wire Forest we go, and now we can take on Catherine.



Catherine's LV 11 Vermin Folder poses little challenge. As its title suggests, her Folder is just full of weak Digimon, and we easily take her out and earn a 03a booster.








"Hey, I was called "Gal Gamer Lucia" back in the day!"

We card battle her LV 12 Ogre Ogre Folder and get another 03a Booster. Opponent Folders are steadily becoming more difficult, though that's not saying much, since the strongest thing she got out was an Etemon (12/6).

"Uh, oh, I lost..."
"I guess my time is over."



To the southeast is the Forest Inn. It costs 12 BIT per Digimon to rest here, which is kind of a pain, but not awful.





Well. Okay.





"And I see ghosts here... they're everywhere..."
"...acting like normal Digimon... it scares me."

Wow dude uh I don't think I can help you with that bye

We skedaddle out of there and up onto a totally safe set of cliffs because anywhere is better than there really.



Another card battle. Robert's LV 13 Water Animal Folder can be challenging, as it's the first to require you to pull out more than 20 AP and HP at the same time. Of course, we win, and get a 04a Booster for our trouble.



Just above Robert is the entrance to Protocol Forest, which is where we need to head to get the next component for our Fishing Rod.






This is one of my favourite places in the early game, and it foreshadows what this general section will entail pretty nicely. (You'll see what I mean.)



Cocoons, bones and treefaces. So naturally we're going to run into:



Spooky spider shitlords!



Dokugumon (from the Japanese dokugumo, or "poisonous spider") is fairly weak, being OHKO'd by Growlmon, but its danger lies in its attack: it has the chance to poison your Digimon, which does far more damage than Dokugumon's attack on its own.
pre:
HP: ~195
Techniques: N/A
Physical attack: effect: poison; no element
EXP: 21
BIT: 40
Item: Spider Web

That Spider Web it drops will be the string for our Fishing Pole. It can also be used in battle to slow your opponent. After we get that, we can get out of here and head to Divermon Lake for the last piece!




To our right is a strip of land with a chest.



Bandannas go on the head slot, naturally, but we can do better. So this will go in the "To Sell" pile.



"Please take it out!"
"......... .........."
"Thanks, that feels better!"
"Oh, a Red Snapper was stuck."
"I don't need it so you can have it. Later!"

That Red Snapper will function as a hook. You have to check your Important Items to learn this. I never had a Fishing Pole in my games as a kid because I didn't realise I could do that. (I was kind of stupid.)

If you talk to Divermon again, he lets you in on something neat.



"Come over to Duel Island sometime."
"My friends will play Card Battle with you."

Yay, Duel Island We can't get there just yet but at least we know we'll have friends waiting in the wings.

Here, we find more Betamon, and a new enemy:




Crabmon is another Water-element Digimon which poses about just as much a threat as Gizamon. We've yet to encounter Digimon that will give us much trouble, but don't expect that to last.
pre:
HP: ~165
Techniques: N/A
Physical attack: Water-element
EXP: 17
BIT: 30
Item: N/A

Now that we've got all the components for our Fishing Rod, let's head back to Tai Kong Wang!


"Wait a moment, I'll make you a fishing pole..."

For some reason his name changes to Tai Kong Wong for those two lines.

"I think I can make the best fishing pole ever..."
"Of course, it's only a matter of opinion!
"Use this fishing pole I made, and you'll catch big fishes!."
"Good luck catching the big fishs! OK, here you go, boy!"



"Huh?! Thanks, Pops!"
"Yeah! I got the Fishing Pole!"
"Ho ho ho ho ho Well, good luck."

This scene is rife with typos. In any case, we can now fish in bodies of water! You can reel in both Cardmon and regular Digimon, though it takes quick reflexes to get Cardmon.



The meter in the bottom left moves back and forth. Landing it on the blue area will let you catch a Cardmon; the green areas let you catch regular Digimon.

Unfortunately, my first go at fishing doesn't go so well. [spoilers]For the uninitiated: Divermon is an Ultimate Digimon, putting it somewhere around 15 levels higher than us. Yeah.[/spoilers]

On a parting note, all the Champion Digivolutions have hit level 5, which means they've learned their new techniques! So I figured I'd show them off. Double Power is surprisingly useless, and Grizzmon's MP isn't high enough to let us use its tech consistently, so it's kind of a win/lose situation.

In the next update, we'll finally get to look for Veemon!