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Update 86: Schrödinger’s Eggs
Sliding around is fun!
Speak for yourself.
Don't mind me, just farming for a few drops.
I unlocked most of the equipment you can get from the 5th Stratum. Though there were 2 items I was currently unable to unlock. Most of these are fairly standard upgrades.
The Balisong is the strongest Knife Akatsuki can get right now. It has a 12% chance to inflict Poison, which ticks for 58 damage.
Ehh, no offense Akatsuki, but that knife is kinda wimpy looking. You sure you can get by with just that?
I'll have to, I guess. It's not like I've been that helpful lately...
Hmm, there must be something we could do for him...
Compare this with Sidney's strongest (non-ultimate) Crossbow, which is 39 points stronger! Yeah, that's a pretty big difference.
The Hundred Eye Gun provides a +9 boost to accuracy.
The Godly Belt provides a 25% boost to a character's maximum TP pool. Could be nice if you don't have access to the Deep City Medal.
Behold the Holy Trinity of the post-game. The Slice Amulet reduces damage from Slash attacks by 50%. The Pierce Amulet does the same thing for Pierce attacks. And there's the Crush Amulet we unlocked a long time ago. Combined with the knowledge of what damage types a boss has, you can make them much easier by stacking up on the proper resistance accessories. You could effectively nullify problematic attacks this way. For those of you familiar with Immunize from EO1, you can consider these to be lesser versions of that. (You can also blame it on how armor isn't that great in EO3.)
In fact, these accessories were so good that they were single-handedly responsible for removing accessory stacking from the rest of the series! If you were wondering why you could only wear 1 accessory in EO4 onwards, this was why. As for why this didn't happen earlier, the accessories in EO1 and EO2 were nowhere near as powerful as some of EO3's accessories.
The Disease Mantle increases a party member's Plague resistance by 50%. Pass, Plague is a really uncommon ailment in this game.
The Sleep Seal increases a party member's Sleep resistance by 50%. Okay, this is the other problem stacking damage resistance accessories brings. Sleep is a deadly ailment, sure. But if you can't take any damage in the first place, why should you care about it? Or for that matter, most other ailments?
The Stun Ankh increases a party member's Paralysis resistance by 50%. Yeah, no. Paralysis isn't that crippling of an ailment to dedicate accessory slots to.
Medica IIIs restore 300 HP to one party member. They would be a good healing item, except for the fact that they come so late in the game, and have some very strict unlock requirements. Remember that the earliest you can unlock Medica IIs is when you reach floor 5. Medica IIIs? Floor 19. And why not use them for the post-game? Because the next version of the Medica can be unlocked from enemy drops on the 21st floor. Yeah, they really didn't pace these out too well.
Anyways, time to level up a few skills. Parry now has a 14% chance to block physical damage.
Tagen Battou now has a base damage of 60%, and a skill multiplier of 104%.
Fang's snake is stronger. I do want all of Fang's binding animals maxed out by the time I get to the last set of Sea Quests.
And Asteria is focused on increasing her physical attack power to make her meteors hit harder.
There's one more item I would like to unlock, so let's go for that.
Whoahoho, now that's a big ant!
Hey, I thought they said they killed that thing!
Maybe the ants found a new queen?
We never got the Wicked Queen's conditional drop, so let's go for that.
Video: RIP Wicked Queen
Now the Wicked Queen's conditional drop is to kill her while she's asleep. I only have 2 shots at this since she has a Sleep resistance of 50%. But that's not really an issue at this point.
Gonna buff Sidney up while I have everyone else clear out the ants that the Wicked Queen is going to summon.
A treat for you!
She may have ants...
But I have an elephant.
And a robot.
But most importantly, Alice.
Wolf Howl isn't a skill I make use of often, so enjoy seeing it in action while it lasts.
Here boy!
Now that the stage is set, I don't want Fang's elephant getting in the way of the kill.
Gonna have Sidney Charge up, while Alice and Akatsuki try to put the Wicked Queen to Sleep.
I promise that this will be painless. ...Maybe.
Ha! Fat chance of that!
BOOM, BABY!
Oh, revenge is so sweet.
And there's the conditional drop.
Ahhh, this never gets old!
I repeat this 2 more times.
Powering up Tagen Battou some more. Now it has a base damage of 63%, and a skill multiplier of 105%.
Hoo wee! Now that's a knife!
Wow, that's so sharp!
Uhhh, yes. But it is quite expensive... As much as I would like to have it, we would be running our funds dry.
The Danda-Chakra is the ultimate Knife. However, it's pretty expensive. So it's finally time...
To break out the Coupons.
The ultimate weapons are the most expensive items in the game, so save your Coupons for those.
Are you sure it's okay for me to buy this?
Oh, I'm sure Faye will understand! And I can always work to get more money for our guild, you know.
Um, er, yes. But you would have to do a lot of harvesting to make up for it. And, well...
Oh, it's fine, Akatsuki! It's my job to do things like that, you know?
Ah, but, I...
Quit arguing and just buy the damn knife already! Sheesh!
I fully forge the Danda-Chakra and give it 2 ATK forges. This pretty much runs my funds dry, but Akatsuki won't be dead weight in battles anymore. With all that done, let's move onto the 6th Stratum.
This was the party that was voted for. Bit of an unusual party makeup, so Alice and Akatsuki are gonna have to carry the team here.
Alright, let's do this for real this time.
Oh yeah, in all the other Etrian Odyssey games, the battles in the 6th Stratum had a new track to signify that you were in the post-game. Ready to hear EO3's 6th Stratum battle track?
Yeah, that's right. Those That Slay and Fall just plays again here. It generally isn't a well-liked song, and this is one of the reasons why. It's one of the weaker battle tracks in the series, and it doesn't help that it outstays its welcome considering that it plays for 4 Strata in a row. EO3 is the only game in the entire series to not have a 3rd random battle theme, and I'm not sure why. Maybe Yuzo Koshiro ran out of time or something? Regardless, let's take a look at what vicious enemies await us.
Cursed Shroom
Level: 56
HP: 2178
STR: 53
VIT: 51
AGI: 45
LUC: 43
TEC: 54
Attack Type: Strike
Exp: 4254
Item Drops:
-Drop 1: Cursed Hypha - 45% Drop Rate. 2 needed for Brilliance Book (Book.) 3 needed for Spica Pumps (Boots.)
--Its cursed nature makes it difficult to work with.
-Drop 2: N/A
-Gold: N/A
Description: This recently discovered fungoid generates cursing spores to blow onto approaching foes.
Damage Resistances: Slash: 300% Strike: 300% Pierce: 300% Fire: 300% Ice: 300% Volt: 300%
Ailment Resistances: Sleep: 100% Confusion: 100% Plague: 100% Poison: 100% Blind: 100% Curse: 10% Paralysis: 100%
Bind Resistances: Head: 100% Arm: 100% Leg: 100%
Other Resistances: Death: 100% Petrification: 100% Stun: 100%
Skills:
Cursed Spores: Uses the Head. Has a 50% chance to influct Curse on the entire party. Has an action speed of -5.
Cursed Shrooms are yet another enemy that revolves around backlash damage. They have a high amount of HP, and ridiculously high damage multipliers to ensure that they don't take an eternity to take down, but will pretty much cause anyone with the Curse status to die if they don't manage to kill the Cursed Shroom. Zodiacs are really good at dealing with them since they can one shot them after an Etheric Charged attack, and Singularity heavily benefits from the massive damage multiplier. (though you may want to soften them up first to ensure that the Zodiac can actually kill them in one hit.) Instantly killing them is also another good way to take them out. Or just ensuring that the Curse doesn't land on your party members in the first place.
Pandora Egg
Level: 55
HP: 688
STR: 47
VIT: 59
AGI: 40
LUC: 42
TEC: 53
Attack Type: Strike
Exp: 4331
Item Drops:
-Drop 1: Starry Shell - 40% Drop Rate. 1 needed for Kokopelli Vest (Farmer’s ultimate Light Armor. Must be restocked.) 3 needed for Bicchuuguwa (Farmer’s ultimate Club.) 5 needed for Liuyedao (Knife.) 20 needed for Hex Gem (Accessory.)
--Eggshell with a shine like the stars in the night sky.
-Drop 2: N/A
-Gold: N/A
Description: A hard-shelled monster egg. Many varieties of monsters hatch from it, so it could be anything.
Damage Resistances: Slash: 75% Strike: 150% Pierce: 75% Fire: 75% Ice: 75% Volt: 75%
Ailment Resistances: Sleep: 100% Confusion: 100% Plague: 150% Poison: 150% Blind: 100% Curse: 10% Paralysis: 100%
Bind Resistances: Head: 50% Arm: 50% Leg: 50%
Other Resistances: Death: 100% Petrification: 100% Stun: 100%
Skills:
Shell: Uses the Head. Increases the user's physical defense by 60% for 3 turns. Has an action speed of -5.
Hatch: Does not use a body part. Hatches into a Clionean/Longicorn/Insectortoise. Has an action speed of +0.
Throw: ???
Remember the Dragon Eggs from the 3rd Stratum? Pandora Eggs are another variant of that. Only this time, they can hatch right from the get-go on the first floor. They’re basically ticking time bombs, as the chance for them to hatch into something increases as the battle goes on. But if they’re in the battle for 5 turns, they will hatch. And what they turn into is only determined at the moment they hatch. So they’re basically Schrödinger’s Eggs. Elemental attacks are a good to get around Shell. You’re probably gonna want to focus on them first, since the enemies they hatch into early on in the 6th Stratum might be a bit much to deal with. But as you get further into the 6th Stratum, you can ignore them for a bigger threat if you have to, since you're likely able to deal with whatever they hatch into by then.
Snack time, Mr. Elephant!
Good boy!
Ech, you mind telling him to close his mouth when he chews!?
It’s just how he eats. You should be more accepting of it.
Fang’s elephant is a good way to neuter most of the encounters here. Unfortunately, this is pretty much as useful he can get in the post-game, with a few exceptions.
I think I’m getting better at pulling that off.
But special mention has to go to Alice. She can easily eliminate any threats in battle instantly, and her ability to assassinate enemies can outright bypass some of their more deadly gimmicks.
Granted, the random encounters in this Stratum are kind of a step down from the other post-game Strata in the series. They’re kind of just annoying to deal with than actually deadly most of the time. Don’t mistake that as me saying they’re harmless. If you get complacent and don’t pay attention to them, they can easily ruin your day. This is Etrian Odyssey after all.
Okay, let’s actually talk about this floor’s gimmick.
Whoa nelly!
WHEEHEEHEE!
Ooh! Better watch my step around those!
Remember those ice tiles back in EO2’s 3rd Stratum? They’re back in the form of slippery tiles. When you step on one, you’re automatically propelled forward until you hit a wall, or step on a normal tile. Annoyingly enough, when you have a field skill active, such as Safe Stroll, all the tiles you slip over do count against you when it comes to the duration. You can’t ever get into encounters on them, so don’t worry about that. I’ll mark these tiles in yellow.
I must say, that was an excellent use of our time.
Whose idea was it to not bother with the map the last few times we got through here?
So this floor basically revolves around navigating through a maze of slippery tiles. If that sounds annoying, trust me when I say that the 6th Stratum has much worse to offer. Compared to those, this is a fairly tame gimmick.
FIREWALL FAILURE! DIAGNOSIS: ATTACKING IS NOT ADVISED! Ooh, sorry about that. I usually have those notifications turned off, ha ha.
Uhhh, don’t tell Asteria that. I’d think she’d have a heart attack if ya did.
Mmm, better let us handle this. Akatsuki?
Right behind you.
YEEAAARRRT!
Excellent form, Miss Alice. Your technique has improved greatly.
Hee hee. Why thank you... Mr. Akatsuki. Hee hee.
Eheheh, y-you don’t have to be so f-formal with me, you k-know.
Oh, I know. I just felt like teasing you.
Get a room, you two.
Oh, and another point in Alice’s favor. She doesn’t really care about Curses. Even if she gets tagged with one, she deals so little damage that she'll barely take any backlash damage if she fails an assassination attempt.
Ascetic Deeds now restores 80 HP every time Smith uses a skill. That should offset Overheat a bit more.
Call Snake gets a bit more powerful. I’m just gonna say this right now, if you don’t have Call Mole maxed out at this point, prioritize doing so now. That will make something we’ll see soon enough much easier to deal with.
Meh.
Alright, to actually start progressing on this floor, you want to go up this hallway after going down from the beginning.
Then go all the way west.
...And then get interrupted by a battle.
That’s one of the enemies a Pandora Egg can hatch into. You’re actually supposed to encounter them on the 22nd floor. I’ll cover them in detail when we’re actually supposed to fight them.
Another enemy the Pandora Egg can hatch into. Also an enemy you’re supposed to encounter on the 22nd floor.
Oh! That was close.
What kinda freak laid those eggs anyway...?
Sidney’s low TEC stat bit him in the butt there. Also I’m not showing off most of the battles in this place, but Alice is pretty much dodging every attack that comes her way.
There’s the last enemy that can hatch from them. This one can be encountered on this floor, so I’ll talk about it now.
Clionean
Level: 57
HP: 601
STR: 52
VIT: 50
AGI: 50
LUC: 49
TEC: 50
Attack Type: Slash
Exp: 3933
Item Drops:
-Drop 1: Fairy’s Core - 35% Drop Rate. 3 needed for Dragoon (Gun.) 10 needed for Medica IV (Item.)
--Emits a gentle light even after being removed.
-Drop 2: N/A
-Gold: N/A
Description: This bizarre creature’s body is filled with pure water that, if it bursts, heals its allies’ wounds.
Damage Resistances: Slash: 100% Strike: 100% Pierce: 100% Fire: 100% Ice: 100% Volt: 100%
Ailment Resistances: Sleep: 150% Confusion: 100% Plague: 100% Poison: 100% Blind: 100% Curse: 100% Paralysis: 150%
Bind Resistances: Head: 50% Arm: 100% Leg: 100%
Other Resistances: Death: 100% Petrification: 100% Stun: 100%
Skills:
Change: Does not use a body part. Swaps the positions of two party members. Has an action speed of +60.
Phoenix: Does not use a body part. A passive skill that causes the Clionean to restore 400 HP to a random enemy upon death.
Throw: ???
Here’s an enemy that would have to be reworked if it was placed in a 3DS Etrian game. Clioneans are incredibly annoying to deal with since they can swap a party member in the back row with a party member in the front row. So your squishy party members will now be taking full damage from all the attacks the enemies can throw out, while your melee physical attackers are now dealing half damage to everything. Not only that...
That my friends, is why- wait what are you doing?
...Okay, then. Moving on!
They can also heal a random enemy if there are still some left in the battle. Meaning that you have to focus them down first, and let the rest of the enemies wail on you, or ignore them and save them for last. But doing that means that they’re free to swap around your party members, making it harder for your party to kill the enemies.
Oh, and the positions of your party members still stay the same after the battle, meaning that most of the time run into them, you’ll have to rearrange your party setup back to the way it was afterwards. And since Change has such a high speed modifier, they’re pretty much guaranteed to swap around your party members, even if you try to run away on the first turn.
Going up that hallway, and going down from the right a bit, you can run into this Mining spot right here.
E5 Mine Point:
Star Sapphire: 80% Gather Rate. 1 needed for Singauta (Shield.)
-Rare blue gem that shines like the stars when illuminated.
Perlite: 20% Gather Rate. 1 needed for Superior Gloves (Gloves.)
-Ebony rock revealing sharp protrusions when split open.
Zircon: Rare. 1 needed for Stun Seal (Accessory.) 3 needed for Judgement Plate (Light Armor.)
-Rare, dense, pale green ore that’s very difficult to use.
Common Gather Periods: 2 to 14.
Rare Gather Periods: 1 to 5.
Another new enemy, but not the last one we can encounter on this floor.
Dragonfly
Level: 57
HP: 784
STR: 61
VIT: 53
AGI: 51
LUC: 45
TEC: 46
Attack Type: Slash
Exp: 4404
Item Drops:
-Drop 1: Dragonfly Nest - 30% Drop Rate. 1 needed for Spica Pumps (Boots.) 3 needed for Doutanuki (Katana.) 8 needed for Zweihander (Sword.) 10 needed for Leg Seal (Accessory.)
--Composed of oak branches and other stray materials.
-Drop 2: N/A
-Gold: Dragonfly Wing - Kill with Volt Damage. 75% Drop Rate. 5 needed for Egeking (Rapier.)
--So thin that one can easily see right through it.
Description: A dragonfly that evolved inside the Labyrinth. Given distance, it can break the sound barrier.
Damage Resistances: Slash: 25% Strike: 25% Pierce: 25% Fire: 100% Ice: 300% Volt: 100%
Ailment Resistances: Sleep: 100% Confusion: 100% Plague: 100% Poison: 100% Blind: 150% Curse: 50% Paralysis: 150%
Bind Resistances: Head: 10% Arm: 50% Leg: 100%
Other Resistances: Death: 100% Petrification: 50% Stun: 100%
Skills:
Tear Apart: Uses the Arms. Deals 160% STR-based Slash damage to all party members. Has an accuracy of 80. Has an action speed of -6.
Dragonflies are enemies that have been in every EO game, and they’ve been promoted to a post-game enemy in this one. They don’t have much going for them, other than the fact that they will tear the ever-loving stuffing out of your party. Repeatedly. They’re pretty much the heavy hitting enemy on this floor, since a lot of the other enemies we’ve encountered tend to hinder your party in ways that don’t involve damaging them. They don’t care that much about physical attacks, so I hope you have elemental damage, or some other way to take them out.
Ow! Oof! I-I’m not going down yet!
Even though it’s Alice, Dragonflies hit pretty hard, all things considered-wait. Huh, I thought that would have killed her. I guess she’s tougher than I gave her credit for.
Huh? Hey, did any of you hear thaAAAAHHHHHHH!
How long has that thing been there!?
Sneaking up on us, how dishonorable!
That thing is a Vampire Tree, and it’s one of the FOEs you can encounter in this Stratum. As for what it can do...
You stay out of this!
...Never mind! I really wasn’t expecting that to happen. Because Alice only had a 3% to 4% chance of petrifying it. I’ll talk more about it when we fight it for real, since it didn’t get to do anything before being taken out by Alice.
I wish I could say that this is the first time I got taken out by a bug...
Yeah, Dragonflies can straight up one shot any squishy classes if they decide to cast Tear Apart.
BAM! POW! HAAAA!
Smith and Sidney can get around the Dragonfly’s high physical resistances due to the fact that they both have composite attacks.
And I also have both Alice and Akatsuki to instantly pick off party members, and Fang can just disable every enemy, locking them out of their gimmicks. All in all, this is a fairly good exploration party for the 6th Stratum. Unfortunately, I forgot to level up Alice there. Not that it mattered much because...
Oh, this is not gonna be pretty.
SMITHJAN.EXE HAS ENCOUNTERED AN ERROR. BEEP BOOP. SHUTTING DOWN.
I wonder if that lady has any flyswatters for sale...
If I’m going down, I’m taking- oh. I guess that wasn’t enough...
Oh my, this isn’t good. I wonder if I can...
U-um, I see another one of those tree things over there!
That FOE that spawned on the bottom screen was another Vampire Tree. Those FOEs will spawn in a designated place when you get into a battle, and try to join in on the fight as soon as they can.
Never mind. We’re getting out of here. Now.
I’m really lucky that Alice and Fang dodged the assault, at the very least. Alice’s stat spread does make her the most evasive party member on the team.
Huh, it’s gone.
Oh, phew. Fang, keep an eye on everyone else. I’m gonna see if I can find that thread in here...
Now in EO1 and 2, if you finished a battle with one of those kinds of FOEs nearby, you could actually run into them afterward if they were right next to you to get into a battle with them. You can’t do that in this game, since they despawn immediately when the battle is over. So you’ll have to let them join in on the battle if you want to fight them.
Alright, we’re not staying here any longer!
Time to take a look at what we unlocked. This Rapier is unlocked from the Vampire Tree’s rare drop. Certainly a big upgrade over the other Rapiers available to us now.
The Bicchuugwa is the Farmer’s “ultimate” weapon. I say ultimate in the sense that it’s the weapon they can equip that has the highest attack power. It’s certainly not priced like one, and you can actually buy multiples of it, unlike all other ultimate weapons. However, I want Alice to stick with her Knife since she can’t do that much damage in the first place, so I won’t bother buying this.
And several ultimate armors are now available to us. The Kokopelli Vest is the Farmer’s ultimate armor. I guess the LUC and Limit boosts helps them do something. It’s also more expensive than some of the other ultimate armor for some reason.
The Berserk Leather is the Gladiator’s ultimate armor. It provides a STR boost along with an HP boost, buffing up both of their good qualities quite a bit.
The Vampire Tree’s regular drop makes this item. It provides a 30% resistance to Pierce attacks, as well as a decent defense boost.
The Spica Pumps are actually the penultimate boots. Which isn’t saying much, admittedly.
Next time, we’ll explore more of the 6th Stratum.