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Update 14: Cruel Roamer
Mmmm. Roasted lobsters. Also, does anyone know why Scott, Asteria, and Fang were singing at breakfast?
Time to take on the first Sea Quest.
The party I'll be using.
And my Limit setups.
Examining the water, you see the shadows of countless monsters encircling your ship! They must be behind the abnormal events threatening the trade city! Now, draw your weapons and follow the Wildling that charged into the swarm!
Charging in headfirst? I like your style.
Don't get yourselves killed now.
Video: Cruel Roamer
Sea Lobster
Level: 12
HP: 172
STR: 12
TEC: 13
VIT: 17
AGI: 9
LUC: 13
Attack Type: Slash
Exp: 196
Item Drops:
-Drop 1: Red Shell - 20% Drop Rate. 1 needed for Venom Gun (Gun.)
--Red shell of a shrimp that, oddly, evolved above water.
-Drop 2: N/A
-Gold: N/A
Description: A red shrimp that lives in the sea near Batavia. Its meat is known as Batavia's main export.
Damage Resistances: Slash: 75% Strike: 75% Pierce: 75% Fire: 125% Ice: 125% Volt: 125%
Ailment Resistances: Sleep: 200% Confusion: 50% Plague: 50% Poison: 50% Blind: 50% Curse: 30% Paralysis: 50%
Bind Resistances: Head: 100% Arm: 100% Leg: 100%
Other Resistances: Death: 1% Petrification: 1% Stun: 50%
Skills:
Sea God's Anger: ???
These guys are just annoying to take down. They're not too tough, but if you don't have any elemental attacks, expect the fight to take a while.
Red Puffer
Level: 11
HP: 151
STR: 11
TEC: 14
VIT: 12
AGI: 13
LUC: 17
Attack Type: Strike
Exp: 186
Item Drops:
-Drop 1: Dark Red Horn - 20% Drop Rate. 1 needed for Venom Gun (Gun.)
--Cut from the head of a rare, unusually aggressive blowfish.
-Drop 2: N/A
-Gold: N/A
Description: A pufferfish commonly seen in the Batavian seas. The poison water it spews is dangerous.
Damage Resistances: Slash: 125% Strike: 125% Pierce: 125% Fire: 75% Ice: 75% Volt: 75%
Ailment Resistances: Sleep: 100% Confusion: 50% Plague: 50% Poison: 50% Blind: 50% Curse: 30% Paralysis: 50%
Bind Resistances: Head: 100% Arm: 100% Leg: 100%
Other Resistances: Death: 1% Petrification: 1% Stun: 50%
Skills:
Poison Gun: Uses the Head. Deals 60% TEC-based Ice damage to one party member, and has a 30% chance to inflict Poison. The Poison ticks for 10 damage. Has a hit rate of 99%. Has an action speed modifier of -5.
On the other hand, the Red Puffers should be prioritized. These guys are very dangerous since Poison Gun inflicts a lot of damage, and it can Poison you. Yes, the Poison ticks don't deal much damage, but it adds up.
Not doing much just yet. Faye will switch over to support duties on the next turn.
Trying to have Cassandra take all the heat off of the others. Then I realized that was a horrible idea.
Because at this point I remembered that the Red Puffer's attacks were Ice type, and she can't do anything about those. Ice attacks are denoted by that snowflake shape.
Burns, doesn't it?
I really don't suggest blowing too much TP on this fight. It's not too hard.
My muscles are atrophying...
Can't you keep that bull of yours under control!?
Hey, as long as that thing's not hitting us, that's fine with me.
Call Cow summons a Mad Cow to randomly attack all enemies on the initial cast and has a chance of inflicting Paralysis. What Paralysis does is cause anyone that's inflicted with it to have a 50% chance of not being able to act when it's their turn, and it completely disables any evasion for the duration of the ailment.
A bit painful, but I'll live.
Because Bergman is a dirty cheater like all the NPCs, he has access to a Stratum 4 accessory that vastly increases his STR stat, and by extension, his cow's STR as well. Causing both of them to hit pretty damn hard.
Paralysis going into effect here.
Turn them over, they're done on that side!
That's some thick skin.
Mmph. Pretty crunchy though. Thanks Asteria!
Beast Roar lowers the physical damage output of all enemies by a certain amount. Unfortunately, that only helps with the Sea Lobsters.
Primal Drums lowers all the enemies' physical defense by a certain amount. It's a very useful support skill since defensive debuffs are really uncommon in this game.
At any rate, that fight wasn't too hard.
Brace yourselves and confront the swarm of monsters’ new threat!
Keep your heads in the game, it's not over yet!
As long as that means more fish to eat, I'm all for it!
I wouldn't suggest eating the puffers though, blech!
Not all Sea Quests have you face off against one strong boss enemy. Some of them have you fight multiple waves of regular enemies. In Sea Quests that have multiple waves, any supplies the NPCs used up are replenished.
Stay behind me, Rose!
AWOOOO!
This fight can be a significant difficulty spike over the first battle, because the enemies have much more damage, and the fight can take longer to finish. To speed things up, I had Rose use Wolf Howl since Bergman's cow/bull can inflict Paralysis.
Well that's not good.
Don't worry, you'll be alright.
Not funny when it happens to you, huh!?
Well done!
The fight mostly played out the same, although I was kept on my toes for a while.
The Wildling shouts a war cry before running toward the fish. You must also muster your strength to join in the attack!
There's the big guy! Charge!
Cruel Roamer
Level: 14
HP: 1022
STR: 18
TEC: 18
VIT: 16
AGI: 12
LUC: 17
Attack Type: Strike
Exp: 3012
Item Drops:
-Normal: Atrocious Fang - 80% Drop Rate. 1 needed for Ga-dearg (Spear. Must be restocked.)
--Crushes anything it considers to be threatening or edible.
-Gold: N/A
Description: A fish that used to live in nearby seas before undergoing a mutation due to the Calamity.
Damage Resistances: Slash: 100% Strike: 100% Pierce: 100% Fire: 100% Ice: 100% Volt: 100%
Ailment Resistances: Sleep: 200% Confusion: 50% Plague: 50% Poison: 50% Blind: 50% Curse: 30% Paralysis: 50%
Bind Resistances: Head: 100% Arm: 50% Leg: 50%
Other Resistances: Death: LR-30% Petrification: LR-30% Stun: 10%
Skills:
Sea God's Anger: Co-op skill. Requires 1 Cruel Roamer and 1 Sea Lobster. Uses the Head. Deals 100% TEC-based Volt damage to the entire party. Has a hit rate of 80%. Has an action speed modifier of -5.
The Cruel Roamer is the real boss of this Sea Quest.
Just standard opening tactics.
Huh. Maybe I'm not cut out for the whole bashing in heads thing.
Perhaps you should focus on your healing capabilities. We have plenty of people in our guild capable of fighting on the front lines, but you're one of the few who can support us from the safety we provide.
Eeeehhhhh, I'll think about it. And you're not making that sound exciting.
"E-Exciting"? Faye, we need someone to help keep us from dying to all these monsters! That's still a very important job, you know!
And you know how else we can do that? By taking them out first, hee hee!
You know, she kind of has a point. A dead monster isn't one that's biting our faces off.
I- You- GAH! Just... Just please think about it.
And we're not even killing them fast enough to be able to pull that off constantly...
Over here, fish face!
Pfft, really?
Yeah, she kinda needs to work on those more.
And this is why Bergman is a useful NPC. His Mad Cow deals a ton of damage and Paralysis can be a useful ailment. Not to mention, the cow's hits being directed on only one target means multiple chances to inflict Paralysis.
CHARGING UUUUP!
I'm using Wolf Howl to capitalize on the Paralysis.
Pow pow pow!
Just look at all that damage.
It's already at half health.
The poor thing is nearly helpless as I whittle away at it.
Something the Cruel Roamer can do is either summon 2 Sea Lobsters or 2 Red Puffers.
Really? Just as we were about to kill it? 
If it summoned 2 Sea Lobsters, watch out. It'll try to use Sea God's Anger, which is a hard hitting Volt attack that can one shot most classes at this point.
Chances are that taking down one of the Sea Lobsters in one turn will be impossible for at this point, so your best bet to prevent Sea God's Anger is to inflict a disable of some sort on them.
Too easy!
Unfortunately, I have to kill the Sea Lobsters before this battle is considered finished. And Asteria is out of TP.
Those jerks just don't know when to give up, do they?
I wasted an extra 4 turns because of them.
Watching it sink, the Wildling and his partner roar to the heavens as proof of their strength! You look around cautiously, but Batavia’s sea seems calm and clear. There are no signs of monsters... You wave toward the well-wishers who are reveling in the glory of victory before setting sail again.
Thanks to you, the trade along the Batavia sea can flourish again, free of monsters. Eliminating hindrances to the ocean city’s restoration is an important duty for you. Keep it up! Also, this is a reward in honor of your praiseworthy deed. Take it as a sign of Batavia’s friendship.
We're awarded the Second Wind Limit for clearing a Batavia Sea Quest for the first time. It completely restores the user's HP at the end of the turn. Handy, but I prefer Indomitable since that can completely prevent death. Now let's go sell our loot. I went straight to doing Sea Quests after the last trip.
Poison forges are completely and utterly terrible. The damage purely depends upon which weapon gets a Poison forge. The formula for the Poison ticks is (Weapon Power / 2) + a random # from 1 to 10. Which basically means that weapon Poison falls off fast and isn't worth using at all. All getting more Poison forges does is increase the chances of the Poison landing, which scales the same way as the other ailment forges. Use actual Poison skills if you want to make use of that ailment.
Anyways, back to Sea Quests.
The party I'll be taking along for this one.
And my Limits.
Examining the water, you see the shadows of countless monsters encircling your ship! They must be behind the abnormal events threatening the trade city! Now, draw your weapons and fight for the peace of the port and the dreams of the couple!
Oh dear, looks like it's not dead. And it brought reinforcements.
Nothing a couple of holes through their heads can't fix, right?
I hope elephants can swim.
Video: Cruel Roamer
I'm going to warn you that I cut out a lot of the fight here, so if you really want to see how it all went down, watch the video. Because this Sea Quest was a huge slog for me.
My basic plan for this wave is to conserve as much TP as possible.
As I was out fishing out in the vast sea.~
To me, way hey, blow the man down.~
Showing you this to say that yes, Singularity procs for physical attacks.
Not that it really helps Asteria.
Fishing is fun!
Berserker's Vow increases the users attack power, at the cost of taking away some of their HP.
Our poor stomachs were feeling a bit queasy.~
Fear not, here's a Medica!~
And here's the main problem with this Sea Quest. Agatha will waste all her TP using Rush, except that's better saved for the 2nd fight instead of this one. And neither her or Giles were packing any Amritas, so she doesn't really help much. Rush is a multi-target attack, it attacks random enemies, but it will never hit the same enemy twice.
I saw these blowfish that were ripe for stabbing.~
Giles used Lullaby, except the Sea Lobsters weren't the main threat here.
Roast them, toast them, then flip them on the grill!~
I'll spare you several turns of agony. It was just everyone plinking away at the Sea Lobsters because I wanted Asteria to save her TP for the 2nd wave. And now Agatha is out of TP. Right before the wave where Break really would have come in handy.
But you get no chance to catch your breath, as a second wave of enemies surges forward to take their place!
Now that the enemies can dish out more damage, I want to mitigate it.
Defensive formation!
Guard Tactic increases the party's defense by 25% against all damage types, including Almighty, for 6 turns.
These lobsters and blowfish are big fat meanies...~
Avenger kicking in.
Fang please, waaake up and fight!~
Seriously, this Sea Quest sucks.
Your party and the couple say a few quick, encouraging words before you muster your strength and attack!
If we take down this fish, Batavia will be free!
Aww, you stopped singing. 
No time for that, we gotta focus!
This is why I was being so conservative with TP. As agonizing at it is to slog through the first two waves, if I don't save up enough, I can't win this fight.
Yeesh, that's a thick skull!
Yeah, Buccaneers aren't really too good in the early-game. Still, this is the only damage skill he's got so far, so I might as well squeeze out every last bit of damage I can.
Your turn to help! Let's go, Mr. Butterfly!
...You're sending out a what.
Don't look so sad, you did your best! And you can always try again!
Uhhhh, huh. Sure kid.
Just wait for it...
Ohhh. Please come through for us, little Venomfly...
You may have noticed that my damage output is low.
Way to go, Mr. Butterfly! See, I told you that you could do it!
What the hell did that butterfly just do to that fish!?
That, would actually be a Venomfly. And be thankful you're learning about how deadly they are this way than facing them yourself! They're a rather infamous and lethal pest in other Labyrinths!
Ummm, just how deadly are these things...?
This is because Poison is my main way of dealing damage in this fight.
O-One of the leading causes of death? Seriously!?
Oh yes. Several unfortunate explorers starting out in other Labyrinths all thought "it's just a butterfly, just how strong could it be?" Shortly afterwards, they would be vomiting their insides out in a nearby clinic. If they were lucky.
...Remind me to never piss off the kid or his pets.
Good thing the Poison landed before he summoned those.
I should note that unlike the first two games, Poison damage isn't taken all at once and causes a super loud noise to blare through the speakers.
Oh, so elephants can swim!
I was saving Call Elephant for the Cruel Roamer's minions, so they couldn't cast Sea God's Anger. I wasn't worried at all about the Confusion overriding the Poison, because it can't. There's a hierarchy system in place for ailments that allows certain ailments to override others, but also prevents ailments from being overridden by "lower tier" ailments.
Whenever you foil an enemy co-op attack from being cast, either by killing one of the enemies participating in it, or incapacitating them, that message pops up.
Aw, you did your best!
And I never have to do this Sea Quest again.
You look around cautiously, but Batavia’s sea seems calm and clear. There are no signs of monsters... The couple thanks you with beaming smiles, but their true battle is just beginning. You bid good luck to the couple before setting a course back to the ocean city’s port.
Trust and support are truly powerful weapons... Of course, the same might be said about you. By the way, that couple asked me to give you this. They said it might help you out on your adventures.
His last line changes to this if you already have Giles's Hoe:
Well done, everyone. Keep it up, in the name of the ocean city’s restoration.
Alice has now gained POWER and I'll probably put her on the front lines. For the rest of the 1st Stratum anyway. Now it's time for the 3rd Sea Quest.
My setup for these fights.
Examining the water, you see the shadows of countless monsters encircling your ship! If you defeat these monsters, the children will formally be free to do as they wish. You offer the children some encouraging words before charging vehemently toward the monsters!
Don't worry kids, if we work together, we can easily take down these fish!
Didn't we do this already?
It's a thing that happens.
DUNKAGE: Cruel Roamer
If you only want to watch one of the Sea Quest videos, watch this one. These fights get dunked on pretty hard.
Whoa, you're all are quick on the uptake, aren't you?
Remember what I said about the AI cheating? Normally the NPCs here use Fire attacks, but if they detect anyone in your party using a Ice or a Volt attack, they'll use those elemental attacks instead.
Hey, nice follow-up!
Here's a Chaser in action. Anytime anyone uses the element the Chaser wants to follow up on, the Chaser will deal damage to everything that got hit with it. Well, there is a catch to this. Chasers can't follow-up all attacks. After the first Chaser procs, the second Chaser only has a 82% chance to proc, since Ace's Chasers are at level 7. Each time a Chaser procs, the chance for another to activate gets reduced by 18% at level 7. So the 3rd only has a 64% chance to follow-up an attack, the 4th a 46% chance, and so on. Basically, they're really not a reliable form of damage. And you also have to build a team around these, which is another point against them. Still if you can make a Chaser party work, it can work well in some cases.
What you are witnessing: ALL THE DAMAGE! 
The NPCs have an excellent offense, so bringing in supports or more ammo for Ace's Chasers is what you want to do here.
Seriously, they have so much AOE.
Look at that turn count. A 2 turn kill! Compare that to the last two Sea Quests.
The children look exhausted, but you inspire them to go on as you turn to face the new threat!
You guys were amazing! You've totally got this! Just don't give up!
If you're thinking that this fight is gonna be more difficult...
CHAAAARGE!
Did they even need our help? 
I'm wondering about that too. 
You are dead wrong.
Suddenly, the children give a spirited cry and valiantly charge toward the fish!
First things first, healing up.
Unlike the first two waves, the children won't use their AOEs. Yet.
And here's another problem with Wildlings. If their beasts' attacks miss, they won't inflict the ailment at all. At any rate, nothing interesting happens until the 5th turn.
The Cruel Roamer won't always summon Sea Lobsters. Sometimes it'll summon Red Puffers instead. It can't use Sea God's Anger with Red Puffers, but those things are already dangerous on their own.
Finally! Just in time, I was about to switch over to Call Elephant.
Now the NPCs will start using their AOEs.
...What was even the point of us coming along?
My friends helped... I think.
There's nothing to say here. The dunks speak for themselves.
You look around cautiously, but Batavia’s sea seems calm and clear. There are no signs of monsters...
No mistaking it. That thing's dead for good. Come on Fang, help me haul this thing back. We're having fish fillet for breakfast!
At that moment, the children sink to the ground like jelly and laugh exhaustedly. The children are truly free to do as they wish now, but this is also the beginning of their hardships. The young adventurers have finished their first quest and you set a course back to port.
Sounds like you guys are role models now. You better think twice before you make any mistakes! Haha. Oh yeah, those kids left a gift for you here. It must be their way of saying thanks. Please take it.
If you already have the reward, his last line changes to this instead:
But all that aside, you’ve done a remarkable job this time. Keep up the hard work.
A pretty huge upgrade for Sidney! Not only is the attack increase massive, SPD forges increase action speed by +2 per forge. Anyways, two people just got level ups.
Refresh is now cheaper.
You should get out of here! It's really dangerous now!
Dismiss Beast gets rid of the summoned beast, but it restores the Wildling's TP by how much it cost to summon that animal. But Dismiss Beast itself costs TP, 8 at level 1, so you won't get all your TP back. Leveling this up just lowers the TP cost. It's up to you if you want to max this out or not, but I'll say this, the Wildling's TP pool gets pretty huge later on, and 8 TP is a pittance by late-game.
The Atrocious Fang unlocks this piece of equipment. Which we can't get yet until we kill a specific enemy on the 4th floor. I know that I didn't get the equipment reward from the first Sea Quest, so let's go do that.
The Wildling seems to have saved not only Batavia’s port, but his comrades’ pride as well. He must’ve been very happy. He was grinning from ear to ear when he told me to give this to you.
Last line changes to this if you have the spear.
Well done, everyone. Keep it up, for the restoration of the ocean city!
The spear increases how fast the Limit Gauge charges up for Fang, as each LIM forge on a weapon increases both the minimum and maximum Limit gained by +1, resulting in less time on average to build up a full Limit Gauge. But it deals less damage than his current spear, and I don't really care about Limits that much yet to sacrifice damage for it. Our Limit selection isn't particularly amazing to care about them too much yet.
Charge now provides a 260% increase in damage to the next physical attack that gets used. Basically it increases Rose's DPS (DPT?) by 30%. Since Charge only costs 6 TP, it's also fairly economical way of boosting damage as well.
Singularity now gives a 30% damage boost when striking a weakness. Now, one last order of business. Telling the Innkeeper what to write about.
The choice you pick here doesn't actually matter for the reward. All the quest cares about is if you asked enough people (at least 4 facilities) what to write about, since you put in more work that way.
Upon picking the 3rd option, you'll be asked if you should tell him to write about the townspeople's suggestions. You can say no to go to the next one. The thread voted that he should write about his goals, so let's tell him that.
How about your goals? I'm sure that there's something you're willing to accomplish.
My goals... I want to catch bigger fish, I want to be a better helper at the inn... Wow, I have a lot I can write about! I wonder if it’s weird to have so many goals, haha. Thank you for your time! I left the reward at the bar, so please get it there! Oh! And in thanks for what you’ve done for me, I’ll take 50% off your storage fees, ok? Please don’t tell the other guilds about this, though!
No matter which choice you pick, you'll always knock down the cost of storage to 50 en per item. His first few sentences changes depending on the other choices. Yeah, the choice you make here doesn't matter too much, but the quest line was intended to be longer, and the choice you made here was planned to affect the next quest slightly, but that got taken out for some reason. Anyways, if you tell him to write about flowers:
Flowers... I don’t know very much about them, but I think Elly would enjoy reading it. Okay! I don’t know if I can say a whole lot about them, but I’ll give it a try!
Fishermen:
Fishermen... I see, she might be able to relate to that since her father is a fisherman.
His work:
My job... Well, I do see a lot of people every day, so I have a lot to talk about. Hmm! I’ve got a few ideas about what to write now. I think I can do something!
His family:
My family... That would be easy for Elly to relate to, yeah! If my parents find out I wrote about them, I might get scolded, but life’s about risks!
His hobbies:
My hobbies... Well, I go fishing a lot. Should I talk about fish? Or my equipment? Oh, I’m sorry. I was just thinking aloud, but I do have a good idea what I can say now. Fishing’s a good choice! I can say a lot about it. I’ll give that a try.
Looks like that boy got the help he needed, yes? I saw how hard you tried for him! I do run this place, after all! I am always glaring at people to get their requests done! I wonder what kind of letter that rascal is going to write now that you helped him. With your advice-ings, though, there should be no worries! Explorers are always writing! I wish someone would write me a letter like that. Why don’t you do it? That would be nice. Well, here is your rewarding for this one. Take it!
If you didn't ask around enough, you would only get one Shock Oil. The exp reward is the same. Missy's first two sentences change if you told the boy to write about flowers or fishermen.
Well, hello, everyone! It is looking like you helped out that boy! I wonder what kind of letter that rascal is going to write now that you helped him.
And then she continues on as normal.
Next time: The 4th floor.