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Update 61: Ruin Caller

Nothing like taking down a dragon to boost your fame. Too bad I wasn't looking for that one.





Okay, let's get to the next set of Sea Quests.



Hm? Hey, sounds like this city is in a bit of trouble. We should probably check it out.

Not to mention we haven't gone out to sea recently.

Hmm. Could one of them really be there? Only one way to find out.

If they're as fierce as I've heard about, I doubt they've contained one of them that easily. But I suppose it's worth checking out.



Here's my team setup.



And my Limit setup.







The man, his face obscured by his cowl, points toward the mountain shrine without a word. As you step into the shrine, an unpleasantly warm and severely miasmic wind makes you stagger!

Does anyone have a bad feeling about this?

But the robed man ignores your reaction and proceeds on ahead by himself.

He doesn't seem to.

When you finally catch up to him in the depths of the shrine, you are confronted by a stunning being!

Whoa! That's a big monster!

Its body is so large, you must look up to see its terrible three heads. It is truly a guardian dragon! Now, steel yourselves and follow the robed man into battle as he begins chanting his spell!

Video: Ruin Caller





Bah. Not the one I'm looking for. Ah well. I'll still have fun taking ya down!



Meet the Ruin Caller. It's a pretty unique boss.



For one thing, there are 4 different targets to go after.


Frost Head
Level: 38
HP: 740
STR: 36
VIT: 34
AGI: 31
LUC: 33
TEC: 42
Attack Type: Slash
Exp: 0
Item Drops:
-Normal: Blizzard Bead - 30% Drop Rate. 1 needed for Book of the Dead (Book. Must be restocked.)
--Displays an intensely cold land within it.
-Gold: N/A
Description: One of the three-headed dragon’s heads. It wields a powerful ice breath.
Damage Resistances: Slash: 50% Strike: 50% Pierce: 50% Fire: 50% Ice: 1% Volt: 200%
Ailment Resistances: Sleep: 10% Confusion: 50% Plague: 10% Poison: 10% Blind: 10% Curse: 10% Paralysis: 10%
Bind Resistances: Head: 30% Arm: IMMUNE Leg: IMMUNE
Other Resistances: Death: LR - 25% Petrification: LR - 25% Stun: 10%

Skills:

Twin Ice Spear: Uses the Head. Deals 80% Ice damage to two random targets and has a 5% chance to inflict Sleep. Has an accuracy of 99. Has an action speed of +0. The same target cannot be attacked twice.
Ice Breath: Uses the Head. Deals 50% Ice damage to the entire party, and has a 3% chance to inflict Curse. Has an accuracy of 90. Has an action speed of +0.
Ice Pillar: Uses the Head. Deals 110% Ice damage to a single target. Has an accuracy of 99. Has an action speed of +0.
Ultimate Ruin: Limit Skill. Requires Frost Head, Flame Head, and Thunder Head. Does not use a body part. A TEC-based AOE Almighty attack that deals 600% damage. Has an accuracy of 150. Has an action speed of -30.


Flame Head
Level: 38
HP: 910
STR: 40
VIT: 39
AGI: 27
LUC: 32
TEC: 36
Attack Type: Slash
Exp: 0
Item Drops:
-Normal: Inferno Bead - 30% Drop Rate. 1 needed for Apollo's Bow (Crossbow. Must be restocked.)
--Displays the dead’s grudges as coruscating fire.
-Gold: N/A
Description: One of the three-headed dragon’s heads. It wields a powerful fire breath.
Damage Resistances: Slash: 50% Strike: 50% Pierce: 50% Fire: 1% Ice: 200% Volt: 50%
Ailment Resistances: Sleep: 50% Confusion: 10% Plague: 10% Poison: 10% Blind: 10% Curse: 10% Paralysis: 10%
Bind Resistances: Head: 30% Arm: IMMUNE Leg: IMMUNE
Other Resistances: Death: LR - 25% Petrification: LR - 25% Stun: 10%

Skills:

Twin Fire Spear: Uses the Head. Deals 80% Fire damage to two random targets and has a 20% chance to inflict Stun. Has an accuracy of 99. Has an action speed of -3. The same target cannot be attacked twice.
Fire Breath: Uses the Head. Deals 40% Fire damage to the entire party, and lowers their physical attack by 30% for 4 turns . Has an accuracy of 90. Has an action speed of -3.
Fire Pillar: Uses the Head. Deals 110% Fire damage to a single target. Has an accuracy of 99. Has an action speed of -3.
Ultimate Ruin: Limit Skill. Requires Frost Head, Flame Head, and Thunder Head. Does not use a body part. A TEC-based AOE Almighty attack that deals 600% damage. Has an accuracy of 150. Has an action speed of -30.


Thunder Head
Level: 38
HP: 860
STR: 39
VIT: 36
AGI: 33
LUC: 36
TEC: 39
Attack Type: Slash
Exp: 0
Item Drops:
-Normal: Tempest Bead - 30% Drop Rate. 1 needed for Shadow Piercer (Gun. Must be restocked.)
--Displays a dry, cracked earth plagued by lightning.
-Gold: N/A
Description: One of the three-headed dragon’s heads. It wields a powerful volt breath.
Damage Resistances: Slash: 50% Strike: 50% Pierce: 50% Fire: 200% Ice: 50% Volt: 1%
Ailment Resistances: Sleep: 10% Confusion: 10% Plague: 10% Poison: 10% Blind: 50% Curse: 10% Paralysis: 10%
Bind Resistances: Head: 30% Arm: IMMUNE Leg: IMMUNE
Other Resistances: Death: LR - 25% Petrification: LR - 25% Stun: 10%

Skills:

Twin Volt Spear: Uses the Head. Deals 80% Volt damage to two random targets and has a 5% chance to inflict Head bind. Has an accuracy of 99. Has an action speed of +0. The same target cannot be attacked twice.
Volt Breath: Uses the Head. Deals 50% Volt damage to the entire party, and has a 3% chance to inflict Arm bind. Has an accuracy of 90. Has an action speed of +0.
Volt Pillar: Uses the Head. Deals 110% Volt damage to a single target. Has an accuracy of 99. Has an action speed of +0.
Ultimate Ruin: Limit Skill. Requires Frost Head, Flame Head, and Thunder Head. Does not use a body part. A TEC-based AOE Almighty attack that deals 600% damage. Has an accuracy of 150. Has an action speed of -30.

The heads are the main damage dealers in this fight, dishing out lots of elemental damage, and has secondary effects that will hinder your party. Don't bother using Instant Death or Petrification to try to take them out, as the game considers these bosses, so only Call Tiger or Kaishaku will have any effect. They only take major damage form their elemental weaknesses, and physical attacks deal slightly less damge to them. However, in the grand scheme of things, the heads are just a minor obstacle. To win the fight, you have to take out this part of the boss.


Ruin Caller
Level: 48
HP: 5520
STR: 51
VIT: 50
AGI: 39
LUC: 38
TEC: 41
Attack Type: Strike
Exp: 36000
Item Drops:
-Normal: Raging Talon - 100% Drop Rate. 1 needed for Hrunting (Sword. Must be restocked.)
--Catches and kills all that approach or flee it.
-Gold: Raging Scale - Don't kill with physical. 100% Drop Rate. Prevents normal drops. 1 needed for Berserk Leather (Gladiator's ultimate Light Armor. Must be restocked.)
--Vicious dragon’s power source that emits an ominous aura.
Description: A three-headed dragon that once threatened Damavand. It is revered now, but some doubt it...
Damage Resistances: Slash: 100% Strike: 100% Pierce: 100% Fire: 1% Ice: 1% Volt: 1%
Ailment Resistances: Sleep: IMMUNE Confusion: IMMUNE Plague: IMMUNE Poison: IMMUNE Blind: IMMUNE Curse: IMMUNE Paralysis: IMMUNE
Bind Resistances: Head: IMMUNE Arm: IMMUNE Leg: 50%
Other Resistances: Death: LR - 25% Petrification: LR - 25% Stun: 10%

Skills:

Dragon Quake: Uses the Legs. Deals 40% Strike damage to the entire party, and has a 2% chance to inflict Leg bind. Has an accuracy of 99. Has an action speed of +5.
Regenerate: Does not use a body part. Revives any dead heads. Has an action speed of +50.

Killing Ruin Caller's body is the main objective, though the body itself isn't much of a threat. It's immune to all ailments except Leg binds and stun, and elemental attacks don't have much effect on it. If you kill any heads, it'll revive them on the next turn. That doesn't mean you should ignore the heads, as keeping all 3 of them alive for 3 turns in a row causes them to use Ultimate Ruin, which is an instant game over at this point. Also, killing off the heads wastes both the head's and Ruin Caller's turn, so it is in your best interest to take them out.



What I did with Cassandra here was unnecessary.



Honestly, I should have been more efficient and used Berserker Vow here instead of Charge.



The reason being is that I realized Susan had a full Limit Gauge, and could use Aegis Shield.



Sidney is our main damage dealer for the fight, so I want to boost his offensive capabilities as much as possible.



Call Elephant will be used to get a meatshield out, and to hopefully disable at least one of the heads.



You're safe, my subjects!



Well then, this is redundant.



Now crush them!





Tourita will attack the heads in this order, Frost, Flame, and Thunder. And then it repeats. He'll attack the heads with their weaknesses, so he'll take off a good chunk of their HP. For this fight, you need to work with this.





Oh no no no! We won't have any of that!





I just did that.





Ha ha! Almost got me there!



Mr. Elephant, go get them!







Ooh, very nice! That should stop Ultimate Ruin from coming out.





I'll protect you! ...Even if you don't need it.



Locked and loaded.



I'm pretty much gonna be spamming Antifire throughout the fight, since I don't want Sidney to lose his attack boosts.



Now there's a specific goal I want to accomplish in this fight. Namely, taking out all the heads at once. So I'm gonna be making use of the elemental barrages.



May as well lower Ruin Caller's defenses while I'm at it.



This should make all the heads easier to take out.







Spotted!







Dragon Quake is a really weak skill, and doesn't do much. However, it can finish off weakened characters or soften up your characters enough for the heads to finish off, so keep that in mind.





Unfortunately, something I forget to do is to have Fang recast Call Elephant in all the fights. Due to how the elephant's AI works, it will only target the Ruin Caller, and fail to inflict Confusion since the body is immune to all ailments.







Boogity boo!

That should make it easier for Sidney to dispatch the heads.







POW POW!





Wow. Didn't think I would blow off a head that easily.



Tourita should be able to dispatch the Thunder Head, so I'll have Cassandra use a Madora. Seriously, these are really good healing items at this point in the game.





The head grew back!

I can see that this thing is going to be annoying to take down.









Time for your medicine!





Heads that get revived don't get a turn. And Regenerate uses up Ruin Caller's turn, so it won't be able to use Dragon Quake, which means your party takes less damage overall from the boss. Crowd control is the name of the game here. Oh and any heads that regenerate count as new monsters, so they don't have any Accumulative Resistance to start off with.



The Flame Head is about to die here, so I'm not really worried about it.



Fire Barrage won't deal as much damage to the Flame Head, but it's about to die so that doesn't matter. It should really deal a lot of damage to the Thunder Head, and a decent amount to the Frost Head.













Missed me!

Okay, that was a really clutch dodge, as you'll see in a bit.



Burn, baby, burn!





Ooh, two at once! Wonder if I can make it three.



Really? It was that close to dying?



I'm just gonna have Cassandra attack it.



Sidney should have enough room to cast Berserker Vow.





Regenerate revives all heads, not just one.





Tourita's AI doesn't take into account recently revived heads.





This'll hurt you more than it does me.



Gonna have Susan use Eagle Eye on the heads to make them easier to take down.





Agh, is there any way to stop that!?





If you're wondering why I'm not just ignoring the heads and going after Ruin Caller's body, you'll see the reason in a bit.



Gonna use Ice Barrage since Tourita will attack the Frost Head again, and that should take out the Flame Head, and hopefully the Thunder Head as well.









Aw come on! You couldn't have covered me that time, Cassie!?

I'm sorry. I assumed that you would be fine.

Ugh, I should have used Antifire there. That was a big mistake.



Stay frosty!







Ha ha! Got em all that time! ...Hey, what's with the dragon? It's like, stumbling around or whatever.

I think taking out all of its heads at once was too much for it.

So now's our chance for a full assault! ATTACK, MY SUBJECTS!

This is why I wanted to take out all the heads at once. Doing that renders Ruin Caller completely helpless and unable to do anything for 4 turns.









So now I make preparations to launch a full scale assault.



Tourita will break out Meteor once you disable the Ruin Caller.



Ready to see some fireworks?



I'm gonna use Attack Order on the back row since that actually affects Meteor, as it is a physical skill. Physical attack buffs only care about the element of the skill, they don't care about what stat the skill makes use of.





That's a bit stronger.



Yer good, Tourita. But I'm better!



...How do you miss a barely moving target!?

You made a big hole in that wall!

I think someone needs to spend more time at the shooting gallery.

Shaddup, all of ya!

Okay, watching a Charged Front Mortar miss just hurts. But unfortunately it's pretty common due to Arbalists having terrible accuracy due to their stat spread.



Let's try that again.

Not this time!





You can call me Sidney, dragon slayer! Heh, I like the sound of that.

Um, it's not dead.

WHAT!?





The fights with Ruin Caller are pretty much some of my favorite fights in the game due to the amount of strategy the game wants you to employ with taking out all the heads at once. And you really have to work with the NPCs to take it down faster. Those aspects make the fights are really fun.

Oh and the heads have item drops, but they only drop their stuff 30% of the time, so you'll probably have to fight Ruin Caller multiple times to get all the drops.





How the hell did that thing survive my explosives!?

Well, our mission was to just weaken it, not kill it. Considering how it's still standing after all that, I see why.

The regenerating beast is probably impossible to destroy--But that was never the goal of this mission. When the man sees that the dragon has slowed, he uses the power of stars to seal it once again... ...The dreadful, three headed beast disappears into the depths of the mountain shrine before your eyes.

Whoa.

After watching it fade, the robed man leaves you to gape in awe without so much as a word. In any case, you have accomplished the request. You return to your ship and set sail.





Because of you, the dragon has been sealed and the city can supposedly use its power to make progress. But I don’t know... Something rubs me the wrong way about using power drained artificially from a dragon. I guess there’s no mistaking just how special that dragon is. It’s how that city has thrived thus far.

Oh. So that's why we can't just kill it. Their entire economy and stuff would go kaput if we did.

In any case, you’ve accomplished the request. This is your reward. It was sent from Damavand as a token of their gratitude. I’m sure it’ll come in handy.





This grants us the Sungrazer Limit, which I'll show off later. Oh and there are some skill points that need spending.



Provoke now has a maximum aggro value of 7.



Target practice, payin' off!

After watching Sidney miss too many vital attacks, I've decided to max out this skill instead. Proper Form increases Sidney's accuracy, which is actually a very vital skill for Arbalists to learn, because their stat spread means that they inherently have terrible accuracy. Unless you like seeing Charged Double Action Front Mortars miss both shots (It still hurts to remember all the times that happened. smile:, max this out. At level 1, it increases Sidney's hit rate by +10.



Oh, Toma needs our help again? I guess I'll come along for this one.



This is my team for the 2nd fight. In retrospect, I should have gone all in on offense and brought in Susan instead of Cassandra.



And here's my Limit setup.







The Damavand knight guides you to the mountain shrine where the dragon is sealed. According to the knight, once you deal with the dragon, the city will seize the opportunity to seal it.

The seal broke again!? Really?

Maybe something went wrong last time.

As you step into the shrine, an unpleasantly warm and severely miasmic wind makes you stagger! You bear it as best you can, but in the depths of the shrine, you are confronted by a stunning being! Its body is so large, you must look up to see its terrible three heads. It is truly a guardian dragon! Now, steel yourselves and follow the clients into a battle with the legendary creature!







Gonna have Cassandra buy us a (mostly) free turn.



And then attack, because why not?



This time I make sure to use Berserker Vow straight off the bat.



Elemental shield!



Toma's AI is bugged. He has a couple of active skills in his arsenal, but he won't ever use them. Instead he'll decide to just defend if he doesn't need to use an item.





Unfortunately, while Aegis Barrier can stop the heads' attacks, it can't do anything about Dragon Quake. Not that it's much of a threat anyway.





AAGH!







Bergman will send out his elephant to lock down the heads and have it serve as a meatshield of sorts. Honestly, the elephant could have covered Cassandra's job here, and I could have just had Susan pump up Sidney.





Summoned units won't get protected by defensive Limit skills if they were summoned after the skill was cast.



I really don't want Sidney's buff getting erased.





Just preparing to go on the offensive on the next turn.





Well that's annoying.



Bergman will also use Beast Roar to debuff the Ruin Caller's attacks. Too bad it has absolutely no effect on elemental attacks, which are the main threat in this fight.



A positive charge!



Hee hee hee! Wait till it gets a load of this!





Now I'm gonna try to kill all the heads right off the bat.



It looks like it's trying to launch a powerful attack at us.

Like I said before, leave all heads alive for 3 turns in a row, and they'll prepare to use Ultimate Ruin.





...But I doubt it can pull it off in its current state.

But since one of the heads is still confused, we don't have anything to worry about.





Cold cuts!





Lets heat things up!



Bergman will also cast Primal Drums, which is a far more useful debuff and one that could have made a bigger difference if he used it instead of Beast Roar.



Ugh.



I decide to use a Bravant to boost Sidney's attack power.





Fascinating. I wonder how it recovers from its injuries so fast.



This should perk you up!

Ah, thanks! That'll help a lot!





Shoulda brought a bigger crossbow...

Oh come on! I only had the one Bravant too!



The only thing I can really do this turn is to revive Sidney. Can't really do much with him dead.



Back at the shooting gallery!





Here comes the cold front!



I don't want Sidney dying again, so I'll have Cassandra Bodyguard him.



And Asteria will heal up the rows with Madoras. Seriously, they're really good healing items.







Stay behind me.





MMMMMPH!

This fight is just going swimmingly.



May as well buy myself another free turn.



The Frost Head is really low, so I'm using Ice Barrage.



And I forgot to pack Theriaca As. Fantastic.











What a dud!

It's really too bad I don't have someone with Bloody Lance, as they can easily take down the Ruin Caller.

A few turns later...



















I guess that's the cost of frost...

OH COME ON!







This is just insult to injury.



Eventually I decide to just go straight for the body.



Failure is just another kind of success. The wrong kind.





And then I realized I forgot to use Charge on the last turn. The game doesn't really let you know if a charge skill is active or not until EO2U which can cause some trip ups.







Storm warning!





Holy carp, we finally did it!



It's time to finish off this thing once and for all. Toma won't actually attack thanks to his bugged AI, but Bergman will at least poke at the body with his spear.







It's time for you to meteor maker!







That could have gone a lot better.

How anticlimactic.

...I'm not even mad. I'm just glad it's over.





I handled that fight really badly, and one of the biggest reasons was because I had a defensive team member when Susan could have ended the fight a lot sooner. There were times when Attack Order could have powered up Sidney enough to one shot the heads instead of leaving them on the brink of death, disabling Ruin Caller a lot sooner. I really have no excuse for how badly that fight went. On the plus side, I did manage to get all the drops from the heads, so I don't have to worry about farming for those.





The regenerating beast is probably impossible to destroy. At that moment, the client sneaks towards the collapsed dragon and collects some of its blood. It seems he’s met his objective. On the other hand, the wildling man continues his victorious howl. You all return to the ship to report back to the ocean city’s port, setting sail from Damavand.







Yet, he seems satisfied. I think getting the treasure mattered more to him than keeping it. This reward he left for you could only come from a man like him. It should definitely be useful.



For all of these Sea Quests, if you already got the reward, his last line changes to this instead.

...By the way, the ocean city is really starting to regain its glory days. Please keep at it.



Toma's Helm just provides a decent amount of defense at this point in the game.