Toggle Background Color
In the first age, in the first battle, when the Bloom first sprouted, one stood. Burned by the gardens of the dragons, her soul blistered by the fires of Hell and tainted beyond ascension, she chose the path of perpetual torment. In her ravenous hatred she found no peace; and with boiling blood she scoured the lands of Eden seeking vengeance against the Imperial Dragons who had wronged her. She wore the crown of the Hunters, and those that tasted the bite of her axe named her... the Mountain Slayer.
Um, Dia? Who are you talking to?
Update 29: Mountain Slayer
I told ya that ya wouldn’t get away with it. Now gimme!
This boulder is cleared away by killing the Dorsal Fin.
The Element Robe is a piece of all-class armor that reduces elemental damage by 5%. It’s a nice benefit, except said benefit is completely useless against Earthshaker, as it does not have any elemental attacks at all. So if you have armor with better defense ratings, use those instead.
Look at ya. Once a mighty boulder. Now just a pile of dirt. Pathetic.
Ark. You are taunting rocks.
Does it look like I give a damn? They got in my way, they paid the price.
And this boulder is destroyed by killing the Horn.
Whoa! Look at that! It’s so sharp and shiny! I bet Haru would love this! Lemme just keep this thing secure for now. Wouldn’t wanna damage the goods.
The Murasame is a very hefty upgrade for Haru! A 30 point boost to ATK over his Daihannya. And it’ll be one of his best weapons for a long time. Definitely worth going after if you have a Samurai.
We’ve done everything we can on Mt. Jomaron.
Now it’s time to finally to kill a mountain. Actually, wait a minute...
First things first, I’m putting Edward back into the hard support role. As fun as the Battle Healer build is, it’s just straight up suicidal for this boss fight! If I had Nila with me, I might have considered letting him stick to skull bashing things, but I don’t. So I need all the help I can get for this fight.
If you actually went around killing all the body parts, all the experience from the dragons and weak points should have raised your levels quite a bit to take this mountain on.
The screen shakes and the sound of rumbling plays.
Oh god we’re on its mouth oh god we’re on its mouth oh god we’re right on its mouth!
Ah! Erm. Over here! Climb up this way! Hurry!
I really like the touch of its eye opening right before the battle starts.
Video: Earthshaker
Yeesh! We were almost mountain chow right there!
Phew! Thankfully we weren’t. Nice going, Ark! Now let’s go kill this mountain!
Earthshaker
Level: 47
LIFE: 9000 / 8369 / 7739 / 7108 / 5759
ATK: 175
DEF: 100
INT: 60
SPD: 50
Attack Type: Blunt
Attributes: Boss, Disables Escape, Large, Dragon, Death Resistant
Exp: 16200
Gold: 355
Item Drops:
-Normal: Planetary Eye - 100% Drop Rate.
--Eye of Earthshaker.
-Rare: N/A
Damage Multipliers:
Slash: 100% Blunt: 100% Thrust: 100%
Fire: 125% Ice: 125% Lightning: 125%
Ailment Susceptibility:
Death: 0% Masked Pain: 100% Skill Seal: 5%
Fear: 10% Curse: 50% Bleed: 25%
Poison: 25% Sleep: 10% Confuse: 10%
Paralysis: 50% Blind: 25% Stun: 100%
Skills:
Mow Down: Randomly attacks the party with Slash damage 3 times, dealing 90% melee ATK-based damage per hit. Has a speed modifier of 80%.
Grand Crush: Deals 130% melee ATK-based Blunt damage to one party member. Has a speed modifier of 90%.
Tail Guard: When taking damage from physical attacks, all damage is nullified, and 200% melee ATK-based Blunt damage is dealt to the attacker. Has a speed modifier of 100%. Counterattacks cannot miss. Has defensive priority.
Soul Press: Halves the party’s current LIFE, ignoring any and all defensive skills. (Damage is rounded down.) Pierces Shieldcraft. Cannot miss. Has a speed modifier of 60%.
Distracted: Wastes Earthshaker’s turn. Only occurs if you asked Jake to let his forces distract Earthshaker.
Do not be fooled by how much of a pushover most of the body parts were. Earthshaker itself can give you complete and utter hell depending on your party composition. Its defensive stats are considerably higher than its body parts, making wearing it down much more of an ordeal, especially if you opted to not take down any, leaving it at a whopping 9000 Life. Earthshaker’s ATK stat is also a lot higher than those, so all of its attacks hit considerably harder.
Now if you have a Mage in the party, this fight shouldn’t too much of a big deal. Just throw out spells to blow it up, and you shouldn’t have to worry about much else. If you don’t have a Mage in the party, oh you are going to be in for a super rough time! There’s a reason why I said this party setup was far from ideal, and that’s namely because Nila wasn’t in it. Not having a Mage in the party also means that taking down the body parts practically becomes a requirement instead of a suggestion for reasons you’ll see later.
One other thing you can do to make the fight easier is to ask Jake for help in distracting it. If you do, Earthshaker has a very small chance each turn to get distracted and do nothing. Unfortunately this didn’t happen in the actual run I used to kill Earthshaker.
Also for some reason there’s a bizarre text glitch in the fan translation that causes... that reality breaking nonsense to spout out whenever Earthshaker gets distracted. There’s even a leftover Japanese character too at the beginning. What it’s supposed to say is “Earthshaker got distracted.”
Starting off, I’ll have Stella lower DEF as always for a free damage boost.
Edward doesn’t have anything better to do at the moment, so I’ll have him send out Venom for some safe reliable damage. If it sticks.
I’m going to have Ark open up with a Panic Shot. It only has a 3% chance of landing, but if it does, the payoff will be huge, and make this fight much easier for me.
And Dia will open up with Heated Words to buff Stella’s and Ark’s damage output.
We got this far, don’t back down now!
Bonk! Aw, what do you mean it didn’t work?
I don’t think an arrow is really capable of giving a mountain a concussion.
Nrgh... Oh. Right. I guess it still had another working foot.
Grand Crush is the least threatening thing Earthshaker can do at any given point, though it can hit pretty hard if your defenses aren’t good.
Skull basher! ...Edward are you really sure you don’t want to join in on this?
We’re up against the actual mountain itself at this point! Who knows what it can do?
Time for a little checkup-
...I should have know the needle would have broken instantly against the ground.
Must be a really thick skull.
Not even a mountain can stand a chance against this!
Time to go out swinging.
I packed a bunch of Freeze Scrolls for Edward and Dia to use in their off turns. Any form of reliable damage will be really good for this fight.
The bigger they are, the harder they fall!
Should be safe to use this now, hopefully.
This battle can go on for quite a while, so I want to stave off my Mana woes a bit.
Bullseye! Literally!
You realize in order for that to be literal, this dragon would have to be an actual-
Nobody asked!
Jawbreaker!
I guess every little bit helps against this thing.
Not terrible for some off-damage.
Be sure not to wear yourselves out entirely- why are you two down there!?
What did ya want us to do? Bash away at the top of its skull all day?
It’s risky, but we have to do what it takes to take down this Imperial!
But right on its mouth again!? Are you sure that’s a good idea!?
Don’t worry about us, we’re fast climbers- AAHH!
OH GODS! STELLA! ARK!
W-we’re okay! Its teeth just nicked us, not crushed us.
I swear if you actually got killed right there, that would have been one of the most idiotic ways to die! You two better know what you’re doing!
Stella is in pretty bad condition, so I’ll have Dia heal her up while the others launch EX boosted attacks again.
Oh no. Oh no! This is what I was afraid of!
Wha-? I’m pretty sure we took that- OH GODS! LOOK OUT, YOU TWO!
Huh? What do ya mean by- what the hell!?
Really!? Ya just did that?
Hey!
Yeah, Earthshaker has access to Tail Guard as well. And unlike its tail, Earthshaker uses this randomly. It’s the main reason why parties that lack a Mage are going to have a hellish time at this boss. Fortunately, Earthshaker doesn’t cast this too often. It’s just a small annoyance when it does. However, it also likes to use this when your party is fairly weak, killing off any party members that were at low Life. So one way to at least not die to this is to make sure your party is fairly healthy.
Mage spells are the only bit of damage that can pierce it. Physical attacks of any kind, melee or ranged, won’t go through it. Imbued regular attacks and the Samurai’s elemental skills won’t pierce it either, and will just end with a smack to their faces. For this reason, having a bunch of elemental scrolls on hand can be really handy for whittling it down.
Another tactic you can do is to have a Healer Poison Earthshaker to death by using Venom Boost. It’ll be a bit slow, but also a surefire way to take it down and you won’t have to worry about Tail Guards. With a max level Venom, 9 turns of using Venom Boost after inflicting Poison will be enough to kill Earthshaker. 11 turns of using Venom Boost if you didn’t bother to take down any of the body parts.
Alternatively, place a hard disable on Earthshaker and whale on it as hard as possible during that time, since you won’t have to worry about Tail Guards. As annoying as Tail Guard is as a mechanic, there are at least plenty of ways to get around it. And the game does provide a lot of help on that front too. Killing all the body parts basically lowers how often it can use it solely because it has less Life to do so with, and Jake’s distractions can end up preventing it from using Tail Guard as well.
Oh no.
Remember what I said about Dual Shot activating Tail Guard twice? Yeah...
Cheap shot!
This fight can be absolutely bloody if you play it wrong.
Wait, I thought we took out its tai-
HURK! I guess it healed up fast...
Oh and EX doesn’t bypass it since Tail Guard has actual priority. This also wastes your EX.
Stella, don’t w-
Never mind.
Ye gods, if that tail healed up that fast...
Then it won’t be long before the rest of its body does as well.
We better hurry before this thing decides to tumble around!
Okay, that was a horrific misplay on my part. What I should have done was take this battle a lot more slowly since I don’t have a Mage. Don’t be so eager to attack, as attacking with low Life party members is just asking to get them killed by Tail Guard. And make sure to keep the party members’ Life topped off so Earthshaker can’t easily finish them off. Follow those steps, and you’ll be golden. Just don’t take the fight too slowly, as that has consequences I’ll show off later.
As bad as this looks, I have quite a bit of experience turning terrible situations around.
First priority is getting Stella and Ark back in the fight.
Ark, are you gonna let yourself lose to a giant rock!?
That’s a mountain.
Which are technically giant rocks.
I... suppose you have a point there.
Screw the mission! It just. Got. Personal!
Urk! So that’s what being crushed by a mountain feels like... Not... Pleasant.
I see I was hoping for too much when I said I wished not to get crushed by a giant foot again...
Come on, Stella! You’ve made it through worse situations!
Failure, is just a different kind of success!
The wrong kind.
Okay, everyone’s back up and running. Good.
For some reason I chose to use Power Crash here instead of Purge. I don’t know why, might’ve been a mistake of some kind.
We’ve come too far just to get killed by a goddamn mountain!
Next order of business, heal up everyone immediately! Everyone is far from fighting shape. As for why I didn’t just slam Miracle Cure instantly, I didn’t want Stella or Ark instantly dying to Earthshaker again, and I knew Edward and Dia could tank a few hits from Earthshaker.
Also need to reapply Heated Words since Stella and Ark lost all their buffs.
I’m not too worried about Tail Guard this turn, as it doesn’t really come out that often, and even if it does, Miracle Cure will top off the party enough to prevent it from being a lethal attack.
You’re not dying here. Not today!
I’m feeling refreshed already! Thanks!
Heh heh! Back like nothing happened!
Whoa, that feels heavenly! Just what did you put in there?
Ha, so that’s where you’ve been keeping your best medicine. Well planned, Edward.
Miracle Cure is a fantastic panic button to turn a bad situation around. Though its healing isn’t the best, so that can’t be entirely relied upon. But everything else makes it a fantastic EX skill to make use of.
While Stella and Ark whittle away at Earthshaker, I’ll have Edward start spamming Cure All to keep the party in good condition.
Slowly but surely, we’re getting through this fight.
Come on, come on! Surely even a mountain can’t keep on fighting like this, right?
Nrrk! Don’t worry Edward. I think we’re almost there! It’s starting to look pretty tired-
ROCK SLIDE!
Ohhh, my aching soul... I didn’t think it was capable of attacking our minds directly as well.
How in the world did it cause a big rock slide like that, unless-
Oh no no no oh no! It’s starting to move around! We gotta kill Earthshaker now!
And here’s Earthshaker’s special attack. Soul Press is a devastating AOE attack that halves the party’s current Life. It can’t miss and nothing can block it, not even Ultima Parry. It bypasses Shieldcraft entirely as well. Your party is going to be in very bad condition after this attack. Heal up immediately after a Soul Press, or Earthshaker’s other attacks can easily finish you off.
Fortunately, Miracle Cure is a very handy undo button for such attacks.
I can keep this up for as long as I have to!
I didn’t mean that as a challenge!
Okay Stella. This is the moment you’ve been waiting for. You’ve got this.
SKY-HIGH METEOR STRIIIIIIIIIIKE!
What. The fuck. Did I just see?
She... she just decapitated that dragon like it was nothing.
She actually did it. She actually killed an entire mountain.
We killed the mountain.
Just in time! Oh, ewww! Its eye got stuck on my axe!
Lemme pry that off! Gah! Should make a handy trophy of some kind. Who knows, maybe somebody will wanna buy this offa us! Heh heh heh.
Overall, it’s not too bad of a fight as long as you go about it the right way. If you don’t, it can get very ugly. Just don’t be reckless and take things slow if you don’t have a Mage, and you’ll likely be fine.
Now, what if you decide to go straight to Earthshaker, ignoring all of its body parts so it still has all 9000 Life by the time you get to it, and you don’t even accept Jake’s help to distract the dragons. Just for the hell of it? If you have a Mage, the answer is a slightly longer fight. If you don’t have a Mage...
Video: Full Power Earthshaker
You get... whatever this mess was. Unlike Eclipse, Earthshaker doesn’t really go through any fundamental changes in the fight. All killing the body parts does is lower its maximum Life. However, the fight does last much longer, which does have consequences if the fight goes on for too long. As for what said consequences are...
It will start spamming Tail Guard.
Relentlessly.
Which could be stopped if Jake intervened, but I didn’t accept his help for the sake of this challenge run. So uh, yeah.
Fortunately it doesn’t use Tail Guard 100% of the time at this point, so you can still bust through Earthshaker’s defenses eventually.
The game offers a lot of help here to let you take down Earthshaker. Go and accept the help, it’s really not worth killing skipping the body parts unless you’re speedrunning this game.
Anyways, back to where we left off.
The screen shakes and fades to black. The music fades out as well.
Hey, look all the way over there! I think that’s the Basho District. What the?
The Basho District. It’s... It’s finally free.
Ha! So this Imperial Dragon was the cause of it after all. Who knew its Bloom could reach that far?
I mean, it is- was a mountain sized dragon.
Hey... Dia?
Hm?
Back then, when we couldn’t save the Basho District... thanks for not letting us give up on the town.
What are you-, oh. Are you talking about my spiel about a powerful dragon possibly keeping the Bloom alive there? I was just following a line of logic based on how things worked so far, that was all. And that theory turned out to be correct in the end, simple as that.
Even then, hearing that from you took our mind off of things. And you could have just kept quiet if you didn’t really care. So again, thanks for that.
...Telos.
Huh? What was that?
Telos. That’s... My true name. It’s... it’s Telos. And... you’re welcome, Stella.
Telos. I see. That’s quite the fierce name! Nice to meet you at last, Telos.
...It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Stella.
Whoaho, so you’re finally spilling some personal details huh, other me- I mean, Ms. Grumpy? Woo hoo! I can finally take my name back full time!
Yes yes, yippee and all that, Dia. Don’t get too caught up in celebrations. We have to be reporting to the Rushe King about our victory sooner or later.
Show me you have a warrior's spirit. We are fortunate to avoid using our secret weapon. There are still a lot of Dragons out there in our world. Get ready for a fight. I trust you will not take the gift granted us by our slain warriors lightly.
Okay wow, this just reads super awkwardly and is wrong in places. Let me retranslate that into something that flows a lot better and makes sense in the context of this cutscene. Now, what is actually being said here is:
You have done a great service subduing the Imperial Dragon. You have shown me a warrior’s spirit. We are fortunate to avoid using our secret weapon. There are still a lot of Dragons out there in our world. Your journey is still not over. Thank you for not letting the deaths of our warriors go to waste.
Continuing on.
Hell yeah! You guys are as strong as it gets. Amazing. When something's up, let me know. Whatever you need, I'll be there.
We owe you one.
And that’s the end of the Earthshaker mission. What a hell of a ride.
Thank you, Odyssey.
They’re perfect!
How long must we listen to this man prattle on about that woman?
Eh, who cares? Let him swoon I guess.
On behalf of the Rushe, let me thank you. It was a mighty feat.
Wow, that’s incredibly callous! And not at all what he said in the Japanese version. It’s just him thanking you on behalf of the Rushe for not letting the sacrifices of the Rushe warriors go to waste. Basically a semi-repeat of his last sentence in the cutscene.
On that note, we’ll end things off here for now.
The soldiers assisting you in the Earthshaker fight was supposed to have more to it. They were planned to assist in battle somehow instead of just displaying a textbox saying Earthshaker got distracted. Aizhen’s and Miross’s soldiers were also planned to help you out at some point in the story. But all of these sprites are unused.
Official artwork of Earthshaker and its body parts.
Sadly this concept artwork was the only thing I could find of a full body profile for this absolutely majestic dragon.